Visiting address:
Svante Arrhenius väg 21 A
Frescati Backe
See map

Postal address:
Dept. Systems Ecology
SE-106 91 Stockholm
Sweden

Tel:+46 (0)8 16 20 00
Fax:+46 (0)8 15 84 17

A short history of our department
The Department of Systems Ecology had its origin in the Askö Laboratory, founded in 1961 by professor Lars Silén as the brackish water field station of the Department of Zoology. In 1970-1980, the Askö Laboratory hosted the Natural Science Research Council research program “Dynamics and Energy Flow in the Baltic Ecosystem”. This project was led by professor Bengt-Owe Jansson and inspired by the ecology practiced and taught by the brothers Eugene and Howard Odum and initiated marine ecosystem research in Sweden.

At the termination of the Baltic Ecosystem Project, the Research Council transferred fund to Stockholm University, to continue marine ecosystem research both at the Askö field station and in new facilities in Stockholm, under a full professor in Marine Ecology. This research group was made an independent Research Unit within Stockholm University, without undergraduate or graduate teaching assignments. The unit also pioneered the new science of Ecological Economics and a professorship in Natural Resource Management was transferred to the Laboratory in 1986.

In 1989 Stockholm University received funds for the creation of the Stockholm Marine Research Centre. The Askö Laboratory was then split. The Askö field station became the field station of the Centre, while the academic staff with its facilities in Stockholm was made a new Department of the University, the Department of Systems Ecology. The Department was soon strengthened by the addition of professorships in Marine Exotoxicology and Brackish Water Ecology, and since 1989 has greatly expanded its activities both in research and teaching, at graduate as well as undergraduate levels, now covering not only the Baltic Sea region but also global issues and tropical countries.