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Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre

Hem
Sverige
Alnarp
Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre

We develop new knowledge about sustainable forests and forestry through interdisciplinary research and education, with the base in Alnarp in southern Sweden.

The department's mission is to develop and deliver knowledge for practical use in close collaboration with the forest sector in southern Sweden. Research is both basic and applied and is conveyed primarily through the department's basic courses but also through further education, training and information efforts directed toward the forest sector. Our research groups focus on the research fields of:
- Forest pathology
- Silviculture
- Forest policy and planning
- Forest ecology

12/08/2026

🌳 Can we help Swedish forests move north before climate change outpaces them?

Trees have always adapted to shifting climates, but they migrate over centuries, and climate change is happening in decades. That mismatch is at the heart of ANAFOR, a new research project at Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre, testing whether "assisted migration" can help Swedish forests keep up.

PhD student Samuel Aspalter and colleagues are planting eight broadleaved tree species across 20 experimental plots, from Eslöv in the south to Vindeln in the north, spanning a huge climate gradient to see how far these species can be pushed before conditions become limiting.

"Our question is essentially: can we move broadleaved tree species from Central Europe and southern Sweden further north to help forests adapt to climate change?" Aspalter says.

The trial establishment was successful – all plots are setup and many seedlings leafed out within two weeks of planting. But the science raises further open questions: could some species become invasive? Could trees that look healthy today struggle later under drought or extreme cold?

📖 Read the full story: https://www.slu.se/en/news/2026/08/can-assisted-migration-help-swedish-forests/

📸 Tashina Alavi

07/08/2026

👉 Är du nyfiken på snabbväxande lövträd och deras möjligheter? Anmäl dig till årsmötet och följ med på två inspirerande dagar!

Den 25–26 augusti samlas Nationella kommissionen för snabbväxande lövträd i Hallsberg för två dagar fyllda med kunskap, erfarenhetsutbyte, studiebesök och diskussioner om hela värdekedjan – från planta till färdig träprodukt.

Under dagarna får du bland annat:

🌱 Besöka Sveaskogs plantskola i Vibytorp och lära dig mer om förädling och produktion av lövträd
🌳 Följa med på exkursion och diskutera skötsel, möjligheter och utmaningar i olika bestånd
🪵 Höra om marknaden och behovet av lövträdsvirke
🏗️ Ta del av de tekniska möjligheterna att bygga med lövträ
🤝 Träffa andra som arbetar med och är intresserade av framtidens lövskogsbruk

När? 25–26 augusti
Var? Hallsberg med omnejd

Kostnad? Deltagandet är kostnadsfritt. Deltagarna bekostar själva middag dag 1 och eventuell övernattning.

🔗 Anmälan görs via länken till årsmötet: https://www.slu.se/om-slu/organisation/institutioner/sydsvensk-skogsvetenskap/om-oss2/personal/arsmote-nationella-kommissionen-for-snabbvaxande-lovtrad/

27/07/2026

🔥 Right now, wildfires are tearing through France, Spain, Portugal and Greece. In Spain, entire towns near Madrid have been evacuated. In France, tens of thousands have fled their homes near Bordeaux.

It's a strong reminder of how quickly heat, drought and dry vegetation can turn into disaster.

So we asked: could this happen in Sweden too?

SLU postdoctoral researcher Daniela Robles studies extreme drought and return periods, and her answer is rather nuanced.

Climate change doesn't ignite fires directly, but it's steadily shifting the odds: droughts once considered "100-year events" could become 20-year events in a warmer climate.

Northern Sweden is warming fastest due to Arctic amplification, and even drought-tolerant tree species like Scots pine have their limits.

Meanwhile, most Swedish wildfires still start with a human spark, meaning prevention matters more than everr.

📖 Read more: https://www.slu.se/en/news/2026/07/warmer-drier-more-flammable-what-climate-change-means-for-swedens-forests/

Photo: Private/Pixabay

08/07/2026

På vilken fråga är hyggesfritt svaret? Varför vill vi använda hyggesfritt och i vilka situationer passar det bäst?

Det var några av frågorna i fokus under två intensiva dagar i Jämtland, där SLU - Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet tillsammans med Skogsstyrelsen samlade forskare, myndigheter och praktiker för diskussioner om hyggesfritt skogsbruk.

Under dagarna diskuterades bland annat:

🌲 Föryngring av olika trädslag i luckor, under skärm och i blädning på olika marker.
🌱 Påverkan av viltbete på föryngringen och biologisk mångfald.
🪲 Stormskador, granbarkborre och rotröta – och hur riskerna varierar beroende på beståndets historia, struktur och genomförda åtgärder.
🍄 Hur renskötseln och biologisk mångfald påverkas av olika skötselstrategier.
📈 Ekonomi, simuleringar och de osäkerheter som fortfarande finns i beräkningsmodeller.

Alla deltagare var överens om att debatten om hyggesfritt behöver bli mer nyanserad. "Hyggesfritt" är inte en enskild metod utan ett samlingsbegrepp för flera olika skötselsystem, som fungerar olika bra beroende på markförhållanden, trädslag, ägarens målsättningar, naturvärden och andra lokala förutsättningar.

”En hel del saker vet vi om hyggesfritt men en del kunskapsluckor kommer det ta tid att fylla. Hur tar vi lärdom av vad vi vet och agerar trots osäkerheten? Här hjälper det att diskutera vetenskapliga försök och dela erfarenheter mellan forskning, myndigheter och det praktiska skogsbruket - det ger en helt annan förståelse för vad som är möjligt och inte!” säger Emma Holmström som var med och arrangerade exkursionen.

Stort tack till alla arrangörer och deltagare för två mycket lärorika dagar. Vi tar med oss både nya insikter och nya forskningsfrågor!

📸 Anneli Adler/Therese Nyberg

07/07/2026

🌱 Decades of rainforest restoration are now becoming a global research platform.

For more than 25 years, the IKEA-launched Sow a Seed project has helped restore degraded rainforest together with SLU - Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet and the Malaysian Sabah Foundation.

Now, SLU and IKEA are launching the Living Rainforest Restoration Lab, a new global research initiative that will build on decades of restoration work and turn long-term experience into knowledge that can support rainforest recovery elsewhere. 🌳

Since 1998, more than five million trees from over 90 indigenous species have been planted across 18,500 hectares. Wildlife has returned too, including Borneo elephants, clouded leopards and orangutans. 🐘

The new lab will include 24 research projects, jointly led by SLU and Malaysian universities, focusing on biodiversity recovery, ecosystem functions and climate benefits.

👉 Read more: https://www.slu.se/en/news/2026/06/SLU-and-IKEA-launch-global-research-lab-on-rainforest-restoration/

📸 Susanna Bergström

30/06/2026

We’re Hiring: PhD Student in Forest Restoration and Ecosystem Services!

Do you want to explore how we can restore mixed broadleaved forests and strengthen the delivery of ecosystem services in a changing climate?

🌿 We’re recruiting a PhD student in forest restoration and ecosystem services at the Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre (SLU) in Alnarp.

Swedish forestry is facing important questions about the long-term resilience of even-aged, conifer-dominated production forests. At the same time, society is asking forests to provide much more than biomass: biodiversity, climate resilience, recreation, water regulation and many other ecosystem services.

This 4-year PhD project will investigate cost-effective pathways for regenerating and restoring new mixed broadleaved-dominated forests. The project will compare passive and active restoration approaches and evaluate how they affect ecosystem services, forest resilience and biodiversity.

🧩 What You’ll Do:

• Study pathways for restoring diverse broadleaved forests
• Compare passive and active restoration approaches
• Work with large datasets and field-based forest research
• Collaborate with a multidisciplinary team of international researchers
• Help shape the future direction of the project with your own research interests

🌟 What We’re Looking For:

• MSc degree in forest science, biology, ecology or a related field
• Strong interest in forest ecosystems and ecosystem services
• Interest in working with large datasets
• Driver’s licence, required for fieldwork
• Experience in forestry, ecology, field-based research, transdisciplinary studies or ecosystem service assessments is a plus
• Good written and spoken English
• Analytical skills, independence and problem-solving ability

📍 Based at SLU Alnarp
🕒 4-year full-time PhD employment
📅 Starting date: 1 December 2026, or according to agreement
📅 Application deadline: 14 September 2026

Apply now—or tag someone who should see this! 👉 https://www.slu.se/en/about-slu/work-at-slu/jobs-and-vacancies/doktorand-i-skogshushallning/

29/06/2026

What can four unusual tree species teach us about the forests of the future?

Last week during a guided tour at the nursery in Campus Alnarp, Julia Schmucker and Jens Peter Skovsgaard from Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre introduced colleagues to field experiments with four “strange” tree species.

The tour offered a closer look at ongoing research and raised interesting questions about species choice, adaptation and the future of forest management in a changing climate.

Thank you to everyone who joined the tour!

📸 Torbjörn Esping

16/06/2026

What happens to carbon after a forest fire?

Most of us think of carbon being released into the atmosphere when forests burn. But some of it takes a different path. A portion is transformed into pyrogenic carbon, a stable form of carbon that can remain stored in soils and lake sediments for hundreds or even thousands of years.

In a new PhD project at SLU, Wint Wah Phoo is investigating how pyrogenic carbon is transported from burned forests to nearby lakes and how much of it is ultimately stored in sediments. The research combines fieldwork at prescribed burn sites with sediment studies to better understand a potentially overlooked part of the global carbon cycle.

The findings could improve climate models and carbon accounting while providing new insights into the role of fires in long-term carbon storage.

Read more: https://www.slu.se/en/news/2026/06/could-lake-sediments-reveal-hidden-carbon-sink/

📸 Tashina Alavi/Wint Wah Phoo

09/06/2026

Welcome to the trees’ torture chamber.

In the latest episode of SLU's podcast Skogen och människan, our researchers Leonie Schönbeck and Per-Ola Hedwall from the Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre take us into the science of drought, heat, and the future of our forests.

Leonie Schönbeck, postdoctoral researcher and plant ecophysiologist, has set up an experiment in special climate chambers where tree seedlings are drought-stressed to their breaking point. Her research reveals what happens in the leaves, stems, and even genes of trees when temperatures rise and water runs out.

Per-Ola Hedwall, senior lecturer in forest vegetation ecology, discusses how drought is already affecting forests in southern Sweden.

Listen to the latest episode to learn more: https://open.spotify.com/episode/352lOxOrg9Z3eMnacXMI0c?si=emBhDUKOTOqthGhdXrtNHA&nd=1&dlsi=ef865eee92ca4426

📸 Torbjörn Esping

04/06/2026

🎓 Yesterday, we celebrated our Forest and Landscape bachelor's students with a garden party filled with laughter and delicious food! 🌯

Although an unexpected downpour cut the celebration short, it was wonderful to see so many students, staff, and guests come together. The strong turnout, nearly double that of last year's event, reflected the continued growth and success of the programme.

The Forest and Landscape programme takes a holistic view of forests and their role in society, bringing together diverse environmental perspectives and management strategies. 🌍🌲

Although still a relatively young programme, it continues to attract students from around the world and is growing steadily each year.

On behalf of the department, we warmly congratulate our students and wish them all the best for the summer!

👉 Learn more about the Forest and Landscape programme: https://www.slu.se/en/study/programmes-courses/bachelors-programmes/forest-and-landscape/

📸 Torbjörn Esping

Adress

Sundsvägen 3
Alnarp
23456

Öppettider

Måndag	08:00 - 17:00
Tisdag	08:00 - 17:00
Onsdag	08:00 - 17:00
Torsdag	08:00 - 17:00
Fredag	08:00 - 17:00

Webbplats

http://www.slu.se/en/departments/southern-swedish-forest-research-centre/

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