Spring is in the air, and many research activities are picking up at Erken. This spring, it’s not only researchers who think it’s fun to work at Erken, but the farm nearby has brought new cow neighbors who are extremely curious. The cows are still getting used to their new surroundings, so if you are visiting Erken, you may encounter them on the road, so please drive slowly and carefully.
How is your research connected to Bolmen?
Over the past two years, I have deployed sediment traps in Lake Bolmen to collect settling material rich in iron and organic carbon. This work is part of an ongoing research project investigating how iron drives particle aggregation and transports organic carbon from the water column to lake sediments.
What is the motivation of your research project?
To complement the already openly available collection of lake methane (CH4) flux and CH4 and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) spatial surface water concentrations during the ice-free period, a new data set focusing on surface and bottom water CH4 and DIC concentration year-round has been uploaded to the SITES Data Portal.
A comprehensive dataset containing information on Zooplankton collected throughout the lake water column at Erken has been compiled and is now available on the SITES Data Portal (Open access to Zooplankton from Erken dataset).
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.
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 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
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:
Hot off the press, the secretariat together with the team from Skogaryd Research Catchment just updated one of the core time series within the station´s SITES Water program. You can now access all water chemistry data through the end of 2022 coming from Skogaryd´s extensive monitoring in their sub-catchments (see overview map).
Open access to the chemistry data from the streams and the lake Erssjön can be found here: