Southern Swedish Mixed Forest Group homepage

A large interdisciplinary team at our department researches issues the management, biodiversity and ecosystem services provisioned by mixed-species production forests. Mixture approaches to production forestry are of particular interest in southern Sweden because of the relatively high diversity of trees and other species, and the proximity of production forests to population centers. Mixtures may better sustain delivery of the ecosystem services that societies increasingly demand from production forests. We work with a number of mixed forest alternatives, including mixtures of native conifers and broadleaves, as well as mixtures which include non-native or hybrid tree species. A core question which we address is to what extent mixtures provide a feasible or better alternative to monocultures. We examine this issue from a variety of perspectives, including timber production, biodiversity, establishment, regeneration, aesthetics, and disease, and regularly place our research within the larger context of climate change adaptation, adaptive forest management, and enhanced forest resilience.