Towards a holistic understanding of forest growth and biodiversity
“Climate change is already affecting the growth and health of the Swedish forest. We need a better holistic understanding of all the different factors that will affect forest growth and biodiversity in a future climate and how we can adapt silviculture and tree breeding to mitigate these effects.”
Ove Nilsson, Professor of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology, is Programme Director for the research programme Wallenberg Initiatives in Forest Research (WIFORCE). WIFORCE is a strategic initiative in natural science-based forest research at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), in collaboration with Umeå university, funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW).
Could you provide a brief overview of the research programme WIFORCE – what are the main objectives and expected outcomes?
“It is a basic science research program that aims to deepen our understanding of the processes behind forest growth, survival, and biodiversity. The knowledge can contribute to sustainable forestry, new management practices, and climate-adapted trees”, says Ove Nilsson.
WIFORCE builds on two strong research programs – one focused on future silviculture and one in forest biology and biotechnology – and is now expanding with several new components. A key investment is the research school, where more than 50 PhD students are being trained, 16 of whom in collaboration with industry and other stakeholders.
The program also includes the establishment of five new research groups with cutting-edge expertise to address future challenges. In addition, new arenas for collaboration and innovation are being developed. This includes three new field-based research arenas where researchers and stakeholders will work together to address important questions regarding forest growth, silviculture and biodiversity with different competencies and from different perspectives.
It also includes a new forest data support centre, where very large datasets from different sources like remote sensing data, soil and water maps, climate data, data from forest inventories and forest machines will be stored and analysed with supercomputing capacity.
“Through collaborations with the large KAW-supported on artificial intelligence research, WASP, new AI-based models will be developed that can incorporate all these different types of data. These models will provide the basis for the next generation of a forestry decision support system and that can model effects of different silviculture practises on forest growth, resilience, carbon storage and biodiversity”, says Ove Nilsson.
How does the research programme relate to the One Health concept?
“Forests play a crucial role in maintaining healthy ecosystems by supporting biodiversity, regulating climate and storing carbon. Understanding how forests respond to environmental change is therefore closely linked to the One Health perspective, where the health of ecosystems ultimately also affects our health and well-being.”
“Climate change is already affecting the growth and health of the Swedish forest. We need a better holistic understanding of all the different factors that will affect forest growth and biodiversity in a future climate, and how we can adapt silviculture and tree breeding to mitigate these effects.”
What are some key challenges and opportunities in this research field?
“The main challenge is the speed at which climate change is affecting forest growth through drought stress, storm damage and the spread of new diseases and insect attacks. A lot of factors are contributing to this, and we need to better understand the role of temperature, water and soil conditions for the growth of different trees, the relationship to different silviculture practises and how this is affecting biodiversity”, says Ove Nilsson.
“We also need to understand how we can breed for a new generation of better adapted more resilient trees. There is a tremendous potential in bringing together researchers and stakeholders with different competencies and experiences to collaborate and address these questions from different perspectives and to better utilize the enormous amount of relevant forest-related data that already exist. We will also be able to train the next generation of researchers that will be better suited to look at the forests and forestry from different perspectives and use this knowledge in future forest research and management.”
Are there any upcoming activities in the programme that you would like to highlight?
“On April 23, researchers and stakeholders will meet in Stockholm for a workshop to discuss the field-based research arena projects. What field-based resources are available, and how can we collaborate to best create synergies in analysing the same experiments from different perspectives?”
WIFORCE Overall Goals
- To conduct excellent basic research to better understand the processes that govern forest growth, survival, and biodiversity.
- To explore how this knowledge can be applied to sustainable forestry, new management practices, and the development of tree varieties better adapted to a changing climate.
- To deepen understanding of the consequences of different forest management methods, such as their effects on biodiversity, water, and carbon storage.
- To educate the next generation of researchers for future roles in industry, government agencies, and other parts of society.
Links
Wallenberg Initiatives in Forest Research
Workshop, 23 April 2026: Field-based research arenas within WIFORCE