News archive

On Saturday 17 January, 2026 Abisko Scientific Research Station (Swedish Polar Research Secretariat) and Tarfala Research Station (Stockholm University) arranged a science café in Kiruna for the public. The science café is a meeting and dialogue place for those curious about the work done at Abisko Scientific Research Station and Tarfala Research Station. The two stations presented the latest news and over a coffee, the participants had the possibility to discuss the latest research and meet the people working at the stations.

SITES is part of the Critical Zone Network of Networks (CZ-NON), an international project that brings Critical Zone (CZ) communities together to advance and guide international CZ research. In addition to SITES, CZ-NoN includes US CZ communities, OZCAR network in France and the TERENO network in Germany.

Big things are happening at Lönnstorp Research Station! Renovation of the locker rooms and toilets began four weeks ago and is expected to be completed shortly after New Year. The upgraded facilities will include modern locker rooms for both men and women, along with an accessible toilet to improve comfort and accessibility for all visitors and staff.

These upgrades also mean we can finally retire the temporary locker room wagon that has supported us in recent years.

From November 10–12, the SITES Secretariat, Station Managers, Thematic Program Leads, and representatives from all SITES stations gathered in Umeå for a three-day meeting dedicated to collaboration, knowledge sharing, and strategic planning.

The meeting opened with updates from the nine SITES research stations, highlighting ongoing projects, recent developments, and future plans across the stations.

Recent graduate Kexin Guo from Lund University's Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science has successfully demonstrated how SITES Spectral data can power innovative machine learning solutions for ecological monitoring.

In the beginning of the autumn, there has been a great interest among different working groups within the government and the Swedish research council VR to visit the Abisko station and it has been a great opportunity for the research station to talk about their ongoing research and the ongoing collaborations such as within the SITES network.

The unmanaged forested ICP Integrated Monitoring site Aneboda, which is associated with Asa Research Station, was severely affected by bark beetles after a relatively low impact of the storm Gudrun in 2005. The bark beetles killed almost all spruces larger than about 10 cm in diameter over the subsequent years.

Dr. Jorrit Mesman is one of the authors of the paper "Timing of spring events changes under modelled future climate scenarios in a mesotrophic lake". In this interview, the author shares insights with the SITES Community about the project and experience using SITES open data.

Many Swedish lakes have become greener and browner over the past century, largely due to human activities such as land use change and modern forestry. These changes are likely to have major consequences for lake ecosystems, yet many questions remain unanswered. To help close this knowledge gap, Magnus Huss (SLU, Uppsala) and Karin Nilsson (SLU, Umeå) are investigating how forest fertilizers and dissolved organic matter (DOM) leaking from soils affect plankton communities in Swedish lakes.

Recent news has highlighted the impact of strong winds this summer on drinking water in the Stockholm area; SVT Stockholm on 20 Aug: Så har blåsiga sommaren tvingat stockholmare att snåla med vatten (translation: This is how the windy summer has forced Stockholmers to be frugal with water) and