Interview with Ulf Grandin

What are your expectations for your assignment at SITES?
 To run the internationalisation of Swedish field research stations through LTER (Long Term Ecosystem Research). I am the coordinator of LTER Sweden, which is almost a parallel to SITES. All SITES stations are now members of LTER Sweden, and the plan is to increase the European cooperation though LTER.
 
Tell us about your background?
I have a doctors degree in plant ecology from Uppsala University and came to SLU to run the Swedish vegetation part of the international environmental monitoring program, ”ICP Integrated Monitoring (ICP-IM)”. I still work with this but am now also chair of the international ICP-IM program. My main research focus is on large-scale and long-term dynamics and change in vegetation on land (European scale) through Horizon2020 projects coordinated by LTER. I also work with teaching and teaching administration.
 
What is your relation to terrester/limnic field research?
Through the work related to the vegetation part of the national environmental monitoring program mentioned above. The program aims to understand processes of forest ecosystems and we measure almost everything possible to measure, so even if I focus on vegetation, I work close to geologists, hydrologists, soil scientists and chemists in our forest monitoring.
 
When did you know you wanted to be a scientist?
Towards the end of my undergraduate I started to be interested in a continuation of my academic studies, and during my master’s thesis I decided to pursue an academic carrier, staring with PhD studies.
 
Why are research infrastructures of importance today?
 Without a well-functioning infrastructure with a harmonised measuring programme and routines for data storage, we will never be able to follow the effects of the large-scale environmental changes that is going on or learn more about ecosystem effects from environmental and climate changes.
 
What will be your strongest contribution to SITES?
The connection to LTER and to link the Swedish field research stations to the European network for ecosystem science.
 
Where is SITES in five years?
In five years SITES is still an important part of the national field research and has a natural and important role in the large-scale European ecosystem science.
 
Links:
ICP Integrated Monitoring (ICP-IM)
 
LTER Sweden
 
LTER Europe