•  Economics of land use
  • Climate change adaptation in agricultural production
  • Ecosystem service provision, biodiversity conservation
  • Agri-environmental and climate policies
     
• Methodological focus
  • (Climate-)ecological-economic modelling

  • Economic valuation methods (Discrete Choice Analysis)

Short summary of the PhD topic (only in German): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoXkECEm2yo

Peer reviewed publications

• Charlotte Gerling, Martin Drechsler, Payal Shah, and Frank Wätzold (2026). The Economics of Policies to Conserve Biodiversity in a Changing Climate. Review of Environmental Economics and Policy. (Link)
• Charlotte Gerling, Payal Shah (2026). Policies to Conserve Biodiversity: Challenges and Opportunities. Review of Environmental Economics and Policy. (Link)
• Cord, Anna F., Kevin Darras, Ryo Ogawa, Luc Barbaro, Charlotte Gerling, Maria Kernecker, Nonka Markova-Nenova, Gabriela Rodriguez-Barrera, Felix Zichner, and Frank Wätzold. (2025). Leveraging Passive Acoustic Monitoring for Result-Based Agri-Environmental Schemes: Opportunities, Challenges and next Steps. Biological Conservation 305:111042. ( Link)
• C. Gerling, M. Drechsler, K. Kadir, B. Kahlau, K. Keuler,  J. Leins, A. Sturm, F. Wätzold (2025): ClimeHop: An interactive app for teaching cost-effective biodiversity conservation under climate change. The Journal of Economic Education, 1-2.
• C. Gerling, M. Drechsler, K. Keuler, J. Leins, B. Schulz, A. Sturm, F. Wätzold (2025): Effektivität und Kosteneffizienz von Artenschutzmaßnahmen unter Klimawandel - das Beispiel der Sumpfschrecke (Stethophyma grossum) in Schleswig-Holstein. Natur und Landschaft, 100(1): 2-8. (Link)
• Hagemann, N., Gerling, C., Hölting, L., Kernecker, M., Markova-Nenova, N.N., Wätzold, F., Wendler, J., Cord, A.F. 2025. Improving result-based schemes for nature conservation in agricultural landscapes—challenges and best practices from selected European countries. Regional Environmental Change, 25(12). (Link)
• C. Gerling, O. Schöttker, J. Hearne (2024): The ‘Climate Adaptation Problem’ in Biodiversity Conservation: The Value of Spatial Flexibility in Land Purchase. Environmental and Resource Economics (Link)
• Gerling, C., Drechsler, M.,  Leins, J., Sturm, A., Wätzold, F. 2025. Cost-effective policy instruments for biodiversity conservation under climate change – The need for flexibility. Ecological Economics, 227:108414. ( Link)
• C. Gerling, O. Schöttker, J. Hearne (2023): The multi-period reserve design problem under climate change. Sustainability Analytics and Modeling 2023(3), 100025. (Link)
• Charlotte Gerling, Martin Drechsler, Klaus Keuler, Astrid Sturm, Frank Wätzold: Time to consider the timing of conservation measures: designing cost-effective agri-environment schemes under climate change. Agricultural and Resource Economics Review. (Link)
• C. Gerling, M. Drechsler, K. Keuler, J.A. Leins, K. Radtke, B. Schulz, A. Sturm and F. Wätzold (2022). Climate-ecological-economic modelling for the cost-effective spatio-temporal allocation of conservation measures in cultural landscapes facing climate change. QOpen. (Link)
• Martin Drechsler, Charlotte Gerling, Klaus Keuler, Johannes Leins, Astrid Sturm und Frank Wätzold (2021): A quantitative approach for the design of robust and cost-effective conservation policies under uncertain climate change: The case of grasshopper conservation in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany in Journal of Environmental Management 296, 113201. (Link)
• Charlotte Gerling, Frank Wätzold (2020): An economic evaluation framework for land‐use‐based conservation policy instruments in a changing climate, Conservation Biology (Link)
• C. Gerling et al. (2019) "Modeling the co-evolution of natural, economic and governance subsystems in integrated agri-ecological systems: Perspectives and challenges", Ecological Complexity 40 (A),100792 (Link)
• Charlotte Gerling, Astrid Sturm and Frank Wätzold: Ecological-economic modelling to compare the impact of organic and conventional farming on endangered grassland bird and butterfly species,  Agricultural Systems Volume 173, July 2019, pages 424-434 (Link)

Dissertation / PhD thesis

• Economics of climate adaptation for biodiversity conservation - Ökonomie der Klimaanpassung zum Schutz der biologischen Vielfalt  (Link)

Scientific Policy Advice

• Podcast: Zia Audible Woman in Science, Episode #31: Dr. Charlotte Gerling "How economics can contribute to the protection of nature", (Link)
• C. Gerling. 2024.  Biodiversität und Klimawandel. Mehr Flexibilität und Effizienz beim Artenschutz. (Biodiversity and climate change. More flexibility and efficiency in species conservation.) Impulse Spezial.( Link)
• Gerling, C. 2023. Artenschutz unter Klimawandel. („Species conservation under climate change“) nah dran sein - Mitteilungen aus der Alfred Toepfer Akademie für Naturschutz, 2023(1) (Link)
• 1. Policy Brief of the Ecoclimb project: Artenschutz in Agrarlandschaften unter Klimawandel –Empfehlungen zur Ausgestaltung von Politikinstrumenten (Species Conservation in agricultural landscapes under climate change - reccomendations for the design of policy instruments) (Link)

Proceedings

• Gerling, C. & Wätzold, F. 2019. Beständigkeit oder Flexibilität? Konzeptionelle Bewertung von naturschutzpolitischen Instrumenten zum Artenschutz bei Klimawandel. In: H. Korn, H. Dünnfelder, & R. Schliep (Hrsg.): Biodiversität und Klima – Vernetzung der Akteure in Deutschland XV. BfN-Skripten 536. (Link)
• Gerling, Charlotte (2018). Auswirkungen von biologischer Landwirtschaft auf Grünlandbiodiversität im Rahmen eines Agrarumweltprogramms. In: H. Korn, H. Dünnfelder & R.  Schliep. (Hrsg.): "Treffpunkt Biologische Vielfalt XVI - Interdisziplinärer Forschungsaustausch im Rahmen des Übereinkommens über die biologische Vielfalt", BfN-Skripten 487, Bundesamt für Naturschutz:  Bonn- Bad Godesberg, S. 15-20. ISBN 978-3-89624-224-2 (Link).

Current Working Papers

• Mai Nusir, Amani Abdullah Alassaf, Charlotte Gerling, Fank Wätzold: Deteriorating Ecosystems: Traditional Knowledge-Based Rangeland Governance in the Jordanian Southern Badia. (Link)
• Charlotte Gerling, Nick Hanley, Anna Bartczak: Sharing the benefits and costs of conservation: public preferences for transboundary lynx conservation. (Link)
• Tobias Nowakowski, Charlotte Gerling, Tsvetelina Krachunova, Frank Wätzold (2025) "Quantifying farmers’ preferences for on- and off-field climate change adaptation: Insights from a discrete choice experiment in Lower Lusatia, Germany" (Link)
• Anthony Higney, Charlotte Gerling, Claire Buchan, Simon Butler, Liam Crowther, Melissa Marselle, Eleanor Ratcliffe, Konrad Uebel, Nick Hanley (2025) "Willingness to pay for birdsong" (Link)
• Nonka Markova-Nenova, Ryo Ogawa, Astrid Sturm, Charlotte Gerling, Anna Cord, Frank Wätzold. 2025. Cost-effectiveness of Agri-environment Payments to Incentivise a Spatially Even Allocation of Habitats -Evenness Payments, Evenness Bonus or Homogeneous Payments? (Link)
• Gerling, C., Wätzold, F. 2024. Citizens Support Expansion of Ground-Mounted Photovoltaics for Climate Mitigation, But Local Benefits for Biodiversity and People Matter. (Link)
• Charlotte Gerling, Anna Bartczak, and Nick Hanley: Accounting for Risk in Species Conservation Programmes. Available at SSRN: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4760451
• Gerling, C., Cord, A.F., Drechsler, M., Hölting, L., Markova-Nenova, N., Ogawa, R., Sturm, A., Wätzold, F.: “From Models to Decisions: A Software Tool for Evaluating Action-and Result-Based Conservation Payments”. (Link)
• Charlotte Gerling, Astrid Strum, and Frank Wätzold (2020): "The impact of climate change on the profit-maximising timing of grassland use and conservation costs". MPRA Paper No. 102945 (Link)

Poster

• Poster of the project Ecoclimb at the "Abschlusskonferenz des BMBF Förderschwerpunkts Ökonomie des Klimawandels - 10 Jahre Wirtschaftsforschung zum Klimaschutz" (Link)

Transatlantic workshop on future prospects of ecological-economic modeling for biodiversity conservation

From 16 to 19 September 2024, an interdisciplinary workshop on ecological-economic modelling took place at Lübbenau Castle, bringing together 20 scientists from 8 countries. The workshop focused on the importance of ecological-economic modelling for the design of policy instruments, the management of new challenges such as climate change and the use of new technologies, in particular artificial intelligence. Three renowned keynote speakers provided inspiring impulses in these areas with their presentations. The contributions were complemented by presentations from the participants, with plenty of scope for in-depth discussions. This not only enabled the establishment of new contacts, but also the initiation of concrete collaborations. In addition, the workshop laid the foundation for two scientific articles, which were prepared during the event and are now being further elaborated. The workshop was funded by the Joachim Herz Foundation and the DFG and organised by Dr Charlotte Gerling and Prof. Dr Paul Armsworth (University of Tennessee).

Presentations

• Seminar Presentation: "The promise and pitfalls of adaptive conservation for farmers and biodiversity: a climate-ecological-economic modelling approach" by Charlotte Gerling in the seminar at UFZ, 16.4.26
• Presentation in a living lab: "Design of ground-mounted photovoltaics: opinions from society" at the living lab "Energy*landscape*Lusatia" in Drebkau, Germany (26.3.26)
• Conference presentation: "Ecological-economic Modelling Advances Needed in Times of Directional Change" in the session (organised by Charlotte Gerling) "Ecological-economic modelling in times of directional change" at the 26. Bioecon Conference in Cambridge, UK (2.9.2025)
• Conference presentation: “Pay for Effort or Pay for Effect? Introducing an Ecological-economic Model-based Software Tool to Assess the Cost-effectiveness of Action-based and Result-based Conservation Payments” at the European Association of Agricultural Economists (EAAE) Congress, Bonn (28.8.25)
• Conference presentation: "The promise and pitfalls of using conservation contracts to protect species in a changing climate" auf dem International Congress on Conservation Biology, Brisbane, Australien (17.6.25)
• Presentation: "Accounting for risk preferences in Stated Preferences studies - the case of an uncertain species conservation programme” in the ECO-N lecture series, Leipzig University (28.5.25)
• Presentation: "Cost-effective biodiversity conservation under climate change" at "QARESS Symposium 2024" (Quantitative resilience-based management and sustainability for social-ecological systems) in Montpellier, France (3.12.24)
• Presentation: "Modelling policies for biodiversity conservation under climate change" at the seminar of Miguel Araújo's lab (26.11.24)
• Presentation: “Cost-effective policy instruments for biodiversity conservation under climate change – the need for flexibility” at the “Transatlantic workshop on future prospects of ecological-economic modeling for biodiversity conservation”, 17.9.24
• Conference presentation: “Accounting for risk in species conservation programmes” at the XXV Annual BIOECON Conference in Cambridge (UK), 6.09.2024
• Poster presentation on the topic „Economics of climate adaptation for biodiversity conservation" at the status conference of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation on "Biodiversity and climate change - exploring synergies" in Berlin on the 7th of December, 2023.
• Conference Presentation "Pay for effort or pay for effect? Cost-effectiveness of action-based and result-based conservation payments with several conservation options" at the XXIV Annual BIOECON Conference in Santiago de Compostela (Spain), 31.08.2023
• Presentation “Climate-ecological-economic modelling for the cost-effective spatio-temporal allocation of conservation measures in cultural landscapes facing climate change” at the research seminar “Policy, Markets and Trade in the Bioeconomy” of Universität Hohenheim.
• Conference Presentation "Flexibility of policy instruments for cost-effective biodiversity conservation under climate change:
  land purchase versus conservation contracts" at the "Environmental Protection and Sustainability Forum" in Graz (Austria), 28.09.202
• Conference Presentation "Optimal time series in the reserve design problem under climate change" at the AURÖ Nachwuchsworkshop “Umwelt- und Ressourcenökonomie" in Graz (Austria), 27.09.2022
• Conference Presentation "Keep it or Leave it - the Role of Reversible Conservation Investments in Optimal Reserve Design under Climate Change " at the VfS Jahrestagung 2022 (Basel, Switzerland) at 14.09.2022
• Conference Presentation at the ECCB 2022 in Prag: Irreversible and partly reversible investments in the optimal reserve design problem: the role of flexibility under climate change
• Conference Presentation at the ECCB 2022 in Prag (with Atrid Sturm):Assessing cost-effectiveness of agri-environment schemes under climate change: the case of meadow bird conservation in Northern Germany
• Conference Presentation at the 27^th Annual Conference of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE2022) in Rimini (Italy): "Flexibility of policy instruments for cost-effective biodiversity conservation under climate change: land purchase versus conservation contracts"
• Conference Presentation at the 2022 Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association (NAREA) Post-Conference Workshop: Ecosystem Services Foundations for Resilient Communities: Agriculture, Land Use, Coasts, and Energy for Human Well-Being in Mystic (Connecticut, USA): "Time to consider the timing of conservation measures: designing cost-effective agri-environment schemes under climate change"
• Conference Presentation "Modelling the cost-effective spatio-temporal allocation of conservation measures in agricultural landscapes facing climate change" at 27.9.21 at the VfS Annual Conference 2021 (online)
• Conference Presentation "Cost-effectiveness and robustness of conservation measures in agricultural landscapes facing climate change" at the Online Summer Workshop in Environment, Energy, and Transportation Economics (OSWEET) at 24.09.2021 (Link)
• Conference Presentation "Modelling the cost-effective spatio-temporal allocation of conservation measures in agricultural landscapes facing climate change", presented at the 22. Bioecon Conference (Jackson, Wyoming, USA, online), 19.09.2021
  • Organised session on "Integrating Ecological and Socio-economic Knowledge for Biodiversity Conservation Under Climate Change"
• Conference Presentation "Modelling the cost-effective spatio-temporal allocation of conservation measures in agricultural landscapes facing climate change", presented at the 26th Annual Conference of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE 2021). June 23-25, 2021.
• Presentation of "Design of policy instruments under climate change" at the project-workshop "Ecological-economic perspectives on policy instruments for the conservation of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes with climate change" together with the Alfred Töpfer Akademie für Naturschutz within the project Ecoclimb on 15. and 16.6.2021
• Presentation: "A coupled climate-ecological-economic model to assess the impact of climate change on cost-effective conservation: the case of the large marsh grasshopper" at the international workshop "Economics of Biodiversity Conservation under Climate Change", 17. and 18.3.2020, Lübbenau/Cottbus/online
• Presentation: "Permanence or Flexibility? A Conceptual Analysis of Policy Instruments  for Biodiversity Protection under Climate Change", on the 19.09.2018 at  the "BfN-Conference Biodiversity and Climate - networking of the actors  in Germany XV" organised by the Federal Agency of Nature Conservation on  the island Vilm.
• Conference Presentation by Charlotte Gerling: "The Impact of Organic Farming on Biodiversity in the Context of an Agri-environment Scheme" at the "World Conference of Natural Resource Modeling 2018" on the 11.6.18 in Guangzhou, China
  • Winner of the prize for the "best student presentation".
• Presentation: "Auswirkungen von biologischer Landwirtschaft auf Grünlandbiodiversität im Rahmen eines Agrarumweltprogramms" at the Interdisciplinary Science Meeting on the UN CBD framework (Interdisziplinären Wissenschaftstagung zur Biodiversitätsforschung im Rahmen des UN-Übereinkommens über die biologische Vielfalt (CBD)) at Vilm, Germany, 23.08.17

PhD

• Academic Research and Methods

Master

• Cost-Benefit Analysis in Environmental Evaluation

Bachelor

• Ökonomie der Landnutzung und Wasserbewirtschaftung (Economics of Land Use and Water Resources Management)
• Business Administration
• Economics
• Environmental Economics

2026 
Emerging Scholar Plenary Award

2022    
Runner-up Teaching Award 2021 for the lecture ”Economics“

2021   
Suggested for theTeaching Award 2020 for the lecture “Cost-Benefit Analysis for Environmental Evaluation“

2018  
 ”Best Student Presentation“ at the “World Conference of Natural Resource Modeling" in Guangzhou, China

2012   
Listed on the “Dean‘s List of Academic Excellence“ (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand)

2011   
Listed on the “Dean‘s List of Academic Excellence“ (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand)