Long-term environmental change

An important part of the research is to separate changes caused by human activities from natural changes and variation. Data from our environmental monitoring programs, some of which have data from more than 50 years, serve as an important basis.

Examples of research projects

• ARCTIC-BIODIVER – filling gaps in Arctic freshwater biodiversity knowledge
• ARCWEB: Ecological change in Arctic/alpine lakes – Food web effects of ongoing climate-change induced oligotrophication
• Effects of large-scale, climate-mediated oligotrophication on the food webs of Arctic and alpine lakes
• Forest ditch cleaning and its effect on mobilization of an old soil carbon store
• Investigating greenhouse gas production in Swedish fiberbanks
• LEAF-PAD – Land Use Effects on Aquatic Fluxes of Greenhouse Gases from Ponds and Ditches 
• SURVED – Forest bioenergy harvest impact on soil nutrient and acidity status simulated with HD-MINTEQ
• Wetland restoration and its effect on brownification of surface waters

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Environmental monitoring for long-term changes and field research stations

• Trend lakes and Trend watercourses – monitoring programs for long-term change
• IM, Integrated Monitoring – a program aimed at detecting and monitoring changes and the cause and effect of changes, at both ecosystem level and for part of ecosystems
• LTER Sweden – a network for Swedish research and monitoring stations conducting long term ecological research and monitoring
• SITES - Swedish Infrastructure for Ecosystem Science

Several of SLU's environmental monitoring and assessment programmes are focused on long-term environmental changes. The department is especially involved in the programmes for Alpine/Arctic Landscapes, Acidification, A Non-Toxic Environment, Lakes and Watercourses, and Eutrophication.

SLU Knowledge bank

• Considerable uncertainty about the speed of weathering (in Swedish)
• Oligotrophication – an unknown problem (in Swedish)
• Reduced acidification opens up for less liming (in Swedish)
• Will the forest get enough nutrients if we harvest more biofuels? (in Swedish)
• Old data series provide new answers about brown water
• Wetlands – the reserach from a water perspective (in Swedish)

Brochure

• "The color of water" is a brochure published in 2003 and directed towards drinking water producers in the Nordic countries. The brochure only contains data until 2002 but gives a historic perspective since it includes measurements made as early as 1916. The brochure was also translated into Finnish ("Veden väri"), and Norwegian ("Vannfarge").