Workshop: Field-based research arenas within WIFORCE

The landscape-based Krycklan research infrastructure will bring together researchers from numerous scientific disciplines and stakeholders representing various interest groups. The aim is to increase synergy and interaction between ecosystem research, forest management and technological development. 

Research topics include, for example, forest landscape processes and growth dynamics, soil function and health, water dynamics and protection, biodiversity and forest management, greenhouse gas uptake and emissions, as well as map development and new AI technologies. Several of these areas will lead to excellent research individually,  but the impact could be further enhanced through increased integration and interdisciplinary approaches.

Example of areas of support the arena will offer:

• Studies on climate impact on tree growth, carbon balance and water availability linked to atmospheric conditions, management history and soil conditions.
• Interaction of forest growth, drought, and global warming on tree ecophysiology, root development, and carbon sequestration using both empirical and experimental approaches. 
• Optimizing peatland management to balance climate benefits, biodiversity, and water regulation in relation to forestry and rewetting.
• Improve the understanding of biodiversity functionality in managed and unmanaged forest landscape using traditional and new technological tools.
• Developing new landscape maps for better protection of soils, water, biodiversity and optimize trafficability.

The arena will include experiments on biodiversity responses to new silvicultural practices to support the development of future forest management.

The aim is to establish an experimental infrastructure and generate descriptive data that facilitate new collaborations and increase opportunities to secure funding for projects addressing more specific research questions. The goal is to include treatments that stakeholders perceive as potential future practices, but for which we currently lack basic knowledge of whether they can meet future demands. An additional goal is to promote well-replicated, large-scale experiments that spans more than one region, and addressing a multitude of research topics at the same sites. 

Example of an infrastructure and support by the arena:

Shelterwood logging as an alternative to clear-cut rotation forestry. Well-replicated experimental treatments (n=10) with sites in different regions (e.g. Norrland, Svealand and Götaland). Stand-scale treatments that are representative for the operational harvest units of the region (ranging from ca 2 ha in the south to ca 5-10 ha in the north). 

The Arena supports the collection of baseline data enabling before–after–control–impact (BACI) studies. Data collection may include measurements of tree productivity, standing timber volume, canopy openness, vegetation composition, high-resolution laser scanning (air- and ground-based), soil sampling, insect sampling, and microclimate data (temperature and soil moisture).

Data collection will be repeated over time, and individual projects addressing more specific questions may use these data to support their own research, develop new research questions, and facilitate new collaborations around shared themes.

Stakeholders may be involved through execution of harvest operations, provision of expertise on operational silvicultural practices, assistance with parts of the data collection, and contribution of machine and stand-level database information

The arena will bring together researchers and stakeholders in field-based research projects aimed at understanding the genetic basis for tree growth, wood quality, adaptation and resilience, and how this knowledge can be used for breeding a new generation of better adapted trees with improved quality.

An example of how one can think around a possible field-based arena project involving wide array of researchers and stakeholder (there are many other alternative scenarios):

From stump to sawmill:

• Using mature Skogforsk progeny trials, ready for harvest, one could investigate how to: 
  • Connect the individual tree genetics to growth and resilience (tree ring analysis) taking environmental factors like soils, water and climate into account.
  • Develop techniques to match a certain log to a certain tree stump with an exact location and then trace the log all the way to the sawmill where wood quality data can be extracted. Utilizing harvester data to the full extent.
  • The same could be done in commercial plantations with seedlings derived from a known seed orchard to also develop methods to include information about other traits such as diseases, stand composition, genetic diversity etc.
• Methods would have to be developed to integrate all these different sources of data into models to describe tree growth and adaptation and into genomic selection models for breeding a new generation of climate adapted, resilient trees with superior properties.
• The Arena project could combine expertise in genetics, breeding, forest technology, ecophysiology, soil and water, pathogens, silviculture, remote sensing, maps and wood properties, including many of the WIFORCE PhD students.
• Participation of stakeholders such as forest companies, Skogforsk, machine builders, sawmills etc.