On February 25th-26th, SITES field and lab technicians gathered at Grimsö Wildlife Research Station for a workshop focused on the current status and development of the SITES Water thematic program. The workshop brought together technical staff from all stations participating in the SITES Water program to discuss key priorities and future directions for the program.
The Bolmen Research Station was established in 2017, and since then researchers from several universities have conducted studies at the site. In parallel, the station has welcomed thousands of students through the Tänk H2O! initiative. Until now, research activities have taken place in temporary facilities. However, through an agreement with the local operator Tiraholm Fish, permanent research facilities will now be constructed.
Are you interested in participating in a coordinated mesocosm experiment that investigates effects of terrestrial inputs of mineral particles on carbon and nutrient transformations, food web dynamics and metabolism across lakes?
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.