Svartberget

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.

As part of her PhD project at the Department of Forest Biomaterials and Technology at SLU, Linnea Larsson is leading innovative field trials to explore how wood ash, derived from forest residues, can be used more efficiently and sustainably in Swedish forestry. While wood ash is already returned to forests in southern Sweden to some extent, it holds potential for maintaining soil productivity after whole-tree harvesting and may enhance tree growth on certain sites.

At the Svartberget Research Station scientists are planning to launch one of the largest field experiments to evaluate the effect of climate change on the tree growth, carbon sequestration and biodiversity in the boreal forest. The experiment, which will include different types of water limitation (drought) and heating, will feature an unprecedented scale, instrumentation, and level of replication. Designed to run for more than a decade, the project will be funded by the Kempe Foundation and the KAW Wallenberg Initiatives of Forest Research (WIFORCE).

Are you interested in conducting mesocosm experiments on lakes? SITES AquaNet provides a standardized infrastructure for running mesocosm studies across various lakes. This system features floating platforms with mesocosm enclosures, automatic sensors linked to a data-logging system, and handheld sensors for precise measurements. In this video you can find more information about SITES AquaNet!

A heavy rainstorm, exceeding 91 millimeters of precipitation over just a few days, caused flooding of the SITES Water infrastructure at Röbäcksdalen near Umeå. After four days of rain, the storm surge from Degernäsbäcken and Röbäcken carved new routes across normally dry land.

The flooding damage at Röbäcksdalen was limited to two specific locations, site 1 and site 6: at site 1, the flooding caused temporary data loss from sensors; at site 6, one ring of a concrete water pipe tipped over, requiring work to retrieve it from the bottom of Röbäcken.

Busy September at Svartberget Research Station!

From 19th to 26th September, 30 PhD students from 7 countries arrive to Vindeln for the Watershed Ecology and Biogeochemistry course 2024. Over six intense days, students participated in presentations, poster discussions, and field visits, enhancing their understanding of key topics such as:

In 2025, a government evaluation is planned to assess the current hunting periods for various small mammal species (SEPA). To support this effort with updated data and insights on the reproductive periods of these species, a research program titled “Reproductive timing in relation to hunting season in small mammals” was launched this year. The program includes several sub-projects (post docs), each using different methods and focusing on different species. 

SITES provides users access to long-term monitoring of forests, through the Unit for Field-based Forest Research at SLU, connected to both SITES Asa and Svartberget Research Stations, which has several decades of data.

SITES enables researchers to enhance field-based ecosystem research by supporting a network of field stations across Sweden. SITES offers expert technical competence at the stations for helping plan and implement research projects and provides open access to local monitoring and remote sensing data as well as contextual information about the surrounding ecosystems. Taken together, SITES provides a rich context for setting up field sampling and experiments at one or multiple stations across Sweden.

As part of the IUFRO World Congress in Stockholm this week, Erken Laboratory hosted an excursion, where around 150 IUFRO participants visited the station to learn about environmental monitoring and field-based research infrastructure.