Staff - 3rd phase of Research

Dr. Birgit Müller

Main fields of research:

Ecological-economic modelling: Sustainable range management in semi-arid areas • ecological and economic forms of risk management in highly variable environments (e.g. rain-index-insurances).

Since July 2008 researcher at the Collaborative Research Centre "Difference and Integration" • Since 2006 researcher at the Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ Leipzig Department Ecological Modelling • 10/2002-01/2006 PhD at Department Ecological Modelling of UFZ and University of Osnabrück, subject: "Sustainable grazing management in semi-arid regions. An ecological-economic modelling approach" • 2000 Diploma Thesis in Economical Mathematics, subject: "Multi-criteria approaches for an optimization problem in the socio-cultural sector" • 1996-1997 Studies at the University Rennes I (France) in Mathematics • 1993-2000 Studies of Economical Mathematics at the University of Leipzig.

Selected Publications:

Baumgärtner, S., Becker, C., Frank, K., Müller, B. & M.F Quaas (2008). Relating the philosophy and practice of ecological economics. The role of concepts, models and case studies in inter- and transdisciplinary sustainability research. UFZ Diskussionspapier 2/2008. pdf

Müller, B., Frank, K. & Wissel, C. (2007). Relevance of rest periods in non-equilibrium rangeland systems - a modelling analysis. Agricultural Systems 92: 295-317. doi

Müller, B., Linstädter, A., Frank, K., Bollig, M. & C. Wissel (2007). Learning from local ecological knowledge: modeling the pastoral-nomadic range management of the Himba, Namibia. Ecological Applications 17(7): 1857-1875. doi

Quaas, M., Baumgärtner, S., Becker, C., Frank, K. & Müller, B. (2007). Uncertainty and sustainability in the management of rangelands. Ecological Economics (62): 251-266. doi

Müller, B. (2006) Sustainable grazing management in semi-arid rangelands. An ecological-economic modelling approach. PhD Dissertation 02/2006, UFZ Centre for Environmental Research Leipzig-Halle, ISSN 1860-0387. Summary/ PDF (4.8MB)