Focus area

Maria is a plant ecologist working on fire ecology with emphasis on interactions between livestock and fire regimes, especially in semi-natural wooded pastures in Africa. She studies the relations between nature and traditional land-use in subalpine heathlands, forests and wooded savannas in Ethiopia. Maria currently has ongoing projects on effects of carbon storage efforts in African silvo-pastoral systems on vegetation, local livelihoods and wildfire risk.

Background

Maria holds a PhD in Ecology from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Department of Forest Ecology and Management.

Relevant publications

Johansson, M. U. & Granström, A. (2014). Fuel, fire and cattle in African highlands: traditional management maintains a mosaic heathland landscape. Journal of Applied Ecology 2014, 51, 1396–1405.

Johansson, M.U., Fetene, M., Malmer, A. & Granström, A. (2012). Tending for cattle: Traditional fire management in Ethiopian montane heathlands Ecology and Society 17(3).

Johansson, M., Rooke, T., Fetene, M. & Granström, A. (2009). Browser selectivity alters post-fire competition between Erica arborea and E. trimera in the sub-alpine heathlands of Ethiopia. Plant Ecology 207, 149-160.