Svartberget

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. 

The spring flood at Svartberget Research Station has started and with it, water sampling in the Krycklan catchment is taking place 2 times a week. The snow is rapidly melting, with the lysimeters (see picture) measuring over 100 kg of flow over a 3-day period. 

At the same time, the field station is preparing for the summer forest field trial season with seasonal staff already starting in May and in total 12 extra persons working at the station by the beginning of June.