Anders Glimskär | Medarbetarwebben

Presentation

I am unit leader for the unit of biotope monitoring, and I work mainly with environmental monitoring and assessment, with focus on variable content, sampling design and evaluation of landscape quality and structure. The main purpose is to describe the status and changes of natural habitats and the effects of human activities and other environmental factors on vegetation and natural values. The majority of the projects concern monitoring and development of methods for grasslands, wetlands and farmland biotopes, in cooperation with among others county administrative boards, Swedish environmental protection agency and Swedish board of agriculture

I work as part of a group together with: Matthew Hiron (researcher), Giulia Zacchello, Guillermo Aguilera Núñez, Helle Skånes, Nina Roth (environmental assessment specialists), Merit Kindström, Assar Lundin, Anders Björkén (environmental assessment analysts) and Martin Holm (research assistant)

Research

My main research interest is ecology of plants and vegetation in the agricultural landscape, especially the influence of grazing management and other environmental factors on species diversity and performance of plant species in the landscape. I am also interested in methods for measuring effects of environmental condition, landscape structure and human activities on natural values.

Environmental analysis

I am project leader for a number of projects in environmental assessment, which are assignments from other govermental boards, for development, performing and evaluation of national and regional monitoring programmes. This links to SLU's environmental assessment programme Agricultural landscape, within the NJ faculty, where I am also assistant coordinator. The aim it to provide data and information for evaluation of EU directives, management guidelines and agricultural policy.

Selected publications

Aguilera Núñez, G., Glimskär, A., Zacchello, G., Francksen, R., Whittingham, M. & Hiron, M. 2024. Agriculturally improved and semi-natural permanent grasslands provide complementary ecosystem services in Swedish boreal landscapes. Agronomy 14(3):14030567. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14030567

Berg, Å., Cronvall, E., Eriksson, Å., Glimskär, A., Hiron, M., Knape, J., Pärt, T., Wissman, J., Żmihorski, M. & Öckinger, E. 2019. Assessing agri-environmental schemes for semi-natural pastures during a 5-year period: Can we see positive effects for vascular plants and pollinators? Biodiversity and Conservation 28:3989-4005. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-019-01861-1

Castaño, C., Glimskär, A., Hallin, S., Maaroufi, N.I., Skånes, H. & Clemmensen, K.E. 2025. Fungal and arbuscular mycorrhizal communities unique to old grasslands in a northern agricultural landscape. Applied Soil Ecology 213:106233. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsoil.2025.106233

Glimskär, A., Hultgren, J., Hiron, M. Westin, R., Bokkers, E.A.M. & Keeling, L. 2023. Sustainable grazing by cattle and sheep for semi-natural grasslands in Sweden. Agronomy 13:2469. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13102469

Glimskär, A. & Skånes, H. 2015. Land type categories as a complement to land use and land cover attributes in landscape mapping and monitoring. In: Ahlqvist, O., Janowicz, K., Varanka, D. & Fritz, S. (eds.) Land use and land cover semantics – principles, best practices and prospects, p. 171-190. CLC Press / Taylor & Francis, Boca Raton. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781351228596

Hultgren, J., Hiron, M., Glimskär, A., Bokkers, E.A.M. & Keeling, L. 2022. Environmental quality and compliance with animal welfare legislation at Swedish cattle and sheep farms. Sustainability 14:1095. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14031095

Josefsson, J., Hiron, M., Arlt, D., Auffret, A.G., Berg, Å., Chevalier, M., Glimskär, A., Hartman, G., Kačergytė, I., Klein, J., Knape, J., Laugen A.T., Low, M., Paquet, M., Pasanen-Mortensen, M., Rosin, Z., Rubene, D., Żmihorski, M., Pärt, T., 2020. Improving scientific rigour in conservation evaluations and a plea deal for transparency on potential biases. Conservation Letters 13(5):e12726. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12726

Milberg, P., Bergman, K.-O., Glimskär, A., Nilsson, S. & Tälle, M. 2020. Site factors are more important than management for indicator species in semi-natural grasslands in southern Sweden. Plant Ecology 221:577-594. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-020-01035-y

Normander, B., Levin, G., Auvinen, A.-P., Bratli, H., Stabbetorp, O., Hedblom, M., Glimskär, A., Gudmundsson, G.A. 2012. Indicator framework for measuring quantity and quality of biodiversity – Exemplified in the Nordic countries. Ecological Indicators 13:104-116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2011.05.017