His research examines how African pastoralists have adapted to changing ecological, political and institutional conditions that affect their lives and livelihoods. His long-term fieldwork has resulted in strong collaborations with local researchers and allowed him to develop innovative, large-scale, interdisciplinary research projects that examine pastoral systems within the analytical framework of coupled human and natural systems using a regional approach that situates the Far North region within the historical context of the greater Chad Basin. Currently Moritz's research focuses on several interrelated areas: management of common-pool resources; ecology of infectious diseases; and regime shifts in coupled human and natural systems.