Jonas Åkerman

affiliated with the university, Associate professor emeritus, Associate ProfessorFormer name: Jonas Åkerman

Research areas and keywords

Keywords

  • geomophorolgy, arctic, permafrost, climate

Research

 Active at the Department of Physical Geography in Lund since 1967. My research focuses on arctic and alpine environments especially periglacial processes and permafrost. My main field research, is done in Svalbard, Norway, focusing upon the geomorphology and periglacial processes in relation to climate and its variations. The fieldwork was initiated in 1972 and is still ongoing and the monitoring of the periglacial processes and their climatic relations within this project is one of the longest uninterrupted series of its kind. A similar monitoring programme, which started in 1978, is going on in the Abisko area in northern Sweden.  

Parallel with my focus on arctic and alpine environments I have been active in applied Physical Geography in development projects within the agricultural and rural development sector. Through long term assignments in India, and Africa within projects concerning environmental management and development issues, agriculture, agroforestry, soil erosion and conservation and general rural development I have a wide and long international experience. These assignments as technical adviser within ministries of Agriculture (India, Lesotho, Zambia) and Environment (Kenya, Zambia) and project manager within UN, Sida/SAREC & SADC financed projects give me a wide background on practical applied development issues from the field and from the management side of sustainable development issues. My specific interests include the role of smallholder and subsistence farmers as main actors in a sustainable rural development process, environmentally sound and sustainable land use, environmental impact assessment, training and extension issues etc. My teaching includes almost all aspects of Physical Geography and at all levels; geomorphology esp. periglacial geomorphology, environmental change, soil science and climatology, hydrology, & photogrammetry.

I am the Swedish Council member of the International Permafrost Association, IPA, and Board member of the Svenska Sällskapet för Antropologi och Geografi. Board member of the Svenska Nationalkommitten för Geografi within the Royal Swedsih Acadamy of Sciences.

Recent research outputs

Sarah Strand, Hanne H Christiansen, Margareta Johansson, H. Jonas Akerman & Ole Humlum, 2020 Oct 14, In: Permafrost and Periglacial Processes. 32, 1, p. 47-58

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle

Didac Pascual, Jonas Åkerman, Marina Becher, Terry V. Callaghan, Torben R. Christensen, Ellen Dorrepaal, Urban Emanuelsson, Reiner Giesler, Dan Hammarlund, Edward Hanna, Annika Hofgaard, Hongxiao Jin, Cecilia Johansson, Christer Jonasson, Jonatan Klaminder, Jan Karlsson, Erik Lundin, Anders Michelsen, David Olefeldt, Andreas Persson & 8 others, Gareth K. Phoenix, Zofia Rączkowska, Riikka Rinnan, Lena Ström, Jing Tang, Ruth K. Varner, Philip Wookey & Margareta Johansson, 2020 Sep 13, In: Ambio. 18 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle

Kjersti Gisnås, Bernd Etzelmüller, Cristian Lussana, Jan Hjort, A. Britta K. Sannel, Ketil Isaksen, Peter Kuhry, Hanne Christiansen, Andrew Frampton & Jonas Åkerman, 2017 Apr, In: Permafrost and Periglacial Processes. 28, 2, p. 359-378

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle

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