Read about the new professors at SLU.
Brief introduction of the professors installed in Umeå 2008
Göran Ericsson: Sustainable use of fish and wildlife
Göran Ericsson’s research focuses on natural resources and on how humans use them. He takes an eco-system approach and adds the human dimension to his studies on hunting, fishing, forestry and outdoor recreation. GPS-technology has enabled him to expand his research in the study of human impact on wildlife.
Peichen Gong: To improve the management of our forests
Peichen Gong's research focuses on developing tools for evaluating and selecting among different management alternatives, and on improving our understanding of the interactions between forest owners’ management behaviour and the timber market. Another research area is timber supply under uncertainty in future timber price or demand.
Anders Malmer: Close threats in distant forests
Anders Malmer´s research concerns tropical forests and landscapes, especially questions related to soil management, water conservation and forest fires. A better understanding of soils and ecology in tropical regions is vital with regard to the rising demands on productivity and to the effects of possible climate changes.
Marie-Charlotte Nilsson Hegethorn: Developing new methods for forest regeneration
Marie-Charlotte Nilsson Hegethorn’s research aims at better understanding the ecological processes underlying forest regeneration in boreal forests as these are essential for the development of more sustainable regeneration methods and new management practices. Her work has focused on the effects of understory vegetation, mycorrhizae and fire on early seedling establishment in the boreal forest.
Mats Nilsson: Interactions between mire ecosystems and climate
Mats Nilsson’s research is focused on biogeochemical processes in mires, i.e. cycling of energy and different elements in the mire ecosystem. To reveal the contemporary carbon balance of mires the mire-atmosphere exchange of carbon is continuously monitored at a boreal mire. The efflux of methane and export of organic carbon through water runoff constitute a significant contribution to the annual carbon budget.
Urban Nilsson: Wise predecessors and colleagues: a necessity for research on forest production
Urban Nilsson´s research is about forest production, i.e. optimal management for high production and good economic return. Due to the long time period between regeneration and final harvest, field experiments (e.g. thinning experiments) involve several generations of researchers. In Urban´s research, which also contains aspects of nature conservation, forests for recreational purposes and climate change, cooperation with researchers from other disciplines is necessary.
Tomas Nordfjell: Forest work in relation to economy
Tomas Nordfjell is interested in the efficiency of forest work. High salary levels are an important driving force for mechanisation and high productivity. Robots in forestry can reduce costs, even at low productivity. A huge need of technical developments within the area of harvesting forest bioenergy is expected during the next decade.
Torgny Näsholm: Discovered an unknown nitrogen source for plants
Torgny Näsholm´s research concerns nitrogen sources for plants and he has shown that plants can use organic nitrogen in the form of amino acids in the soil. The mechanisms involved are studied in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana.
Kjell Sjöberg: Old species in new environments and new species in old environments
Kjell Sjöberg combines basic wildlife ecology with applied research. He has worked for many years with the ecology of ducks and capercaillies, and the possibility to retain the latter species in areas with intensive forestry. Another field of research is the ecology of introduced species.
Brief introduction of the professors installed in Uppsala 2008
Harry Blokhuis: Watching and wondering
Harry Blokhuis´ research deals with the behaviour, housing and welfare of farm animals. He has mainly worked with poultry, but also with animals such as pigs, cows, dogs, horses and minks. His method is to watch and wonder: exiting hypotheses are the results of accurate observation and registration of behaviour together with imaginative questions about function, causation and development.
Kristina Dahlborn: Regulation of water balance and temperature in animals
Kristina Dahlborn studies fluid and temperature balances. Her main interests concern domesticated animals living in regions with a hot and dry climate, such as camels and certain goat breeds. Her studies include physiological as well as behavioural adaptations.
Anne-Marie Dalin: A reproductive range
Anne-Marie Dalin´s main themes in scientific career have been reproductive physiology and disorders in the female pig. She also conducts research on horse reproduction. Her clinical research on pigs has inspired her basic research on the immune system in the uterus and in the oviduct.
Björn Ekesten: From an animal point of view
Björn Ekesten is a veterinary ophthalmologist. His research focuses on the electrophysiology of vision from the retina to visual areas in the brain of various animal species.
Willem Goedkoop: Coping with stress – multiple responses in aquatic organisms
Willem Goedkoop´s research concerns the ecology and ecotoxicology of aquatic organisms. Areas of specific interest include trophic interactions in aquatic food webs, the bioavailability, mobility, and ecological effects of sediment-associated contaminants and the use of invertebrates as indicators of environmental quality.
Johan Höglund: Controlling pasture-borne parasites
Johan Höglund´s main research interest is on parasitic nematodes of grazing livestock. He works with sustainable control and transmission biology of parasitic nematodes in ruminants. One example is the lungworm, Dictyocaulus viviparus, which is a fairly common pasture-borne parasite of cattle. He has demonstrated that wildlife ruminants do not act as reservoars for this parasite, instead the overwintering survival is in older cattle that act as silent carriers of the infection.
Ulf Magnusson: On the meaning of life and disturbances in animal reproduction
Ulf Magnusson´s research deals primarily with reproduction in pigs and how it can be adversely affected by micro-organisms and chemicals in the environment. Infectious mastitis and the bacterial disease leptospirosis are areas where he has made significant scientific and practical contributions. His research is conducted in Sweden, some of the former Soviet republics and South East Asia.
Tomas Pärt: Ecological traps and failed conservation actions
Tomas Pärt investigates why farmland bird populations fluctuate, especially why so many species decline in numbers. His studies show that changes in agricultural policies, land use and landscape structure may strongly affect farmland bird communities. He also studies the interactions between evolutionary change and population dynamics, especially the causes and consequences of “ecological traps”, which is when individuals prefer poor quality habitats.
Åse Sternesjö: Milk and health from the cow´s perspective
Åse Sternesjö´s research concerns the quality of milk and milk products, especially value reductions caused by mastitis and the use of antibiotics. Her development of analytical methods and control systems has lead to a close cooperation with the dairy industry, national authorities and biotech companies.
Lennart Söderquist: To sow a seed
Lennart Söderquist´s research deals with reproduction in ruminants, with special emphasis on artificial insemination, sperm characteristics and semen preservation. The results from his field studies are utilised today by farmers and veterinarians, including insemination of sheep and semen collection from beef bulls under field conditions.
Göran Thor: Lichens and mankind
Göran Thor studies lichen ecology and taxonomy. A lichen includes one fungus species and at least one algae or cyanobacterium species. Lichens are sensitive and are therefore excellent indicator systems for studying how human activities, such as removal of logging residues from the forest, air pollution or climate change affect our earth.
Booklets from the SLU-installations: