Umeå Plant Science Centre
Find more detailed information about our research, activities and facilities on the website of Umeå Plant Science Centre (UPSC).
News & Events
News
-
Understanding carbon storage in forests means looking at the whole ecosystem
Boreal forests store about one third of the world's forest carbon. But how they should be managed to store more carbon and help mitigate climate change is debated. In his PhD thesis, Marcus Larsson shows that focusing only on trees is not enough, carbon in the soil should also be taken into account. -
Trees do not just count cold – they use warm spells to track winter’s progress
To survive winter, trees must time spring growth with great precision. New research from Umeå Plant Science Centre shows that trees also use warm interruptions in early winter as signals, helping buds avoid opening too early. -
Nitrate affects wood development, not just growth
Different nitrogen fertilisers increase tree growth, but nitrate also specifically affects wood formation and wood properties. Anna Renström has shown this in her PhD thesis, offering new fundamental insights that can support more sustainable nitrogen use in forests. -
Trees repurpose flowering gene toolkit to control winter growth stop
Deciduous trees and annual plants rely on the same ancestral genes, but evolution has assigned them different tasks. Now researchers from Sweden and China show that aspen trees use flowering-related genes to stop growth as winter approaches - yet in the opposite way compared to annual plants. -
New tools to study how plant cells stick together
How can a tree grow several meters tall? The answer lies in the ability of plant cells to attach to each other. This process has long been difficult to study, but PhD student Léa Bogdziewiez has developed methods that make it possible to study the process on a whole new level.