PhD student position in beech silviculture

Description

The beech forests in Sweden of today covers only about a fifth of the area from when it was at it´s largest. During the 20^th century, vast amount of forest was cut and planted with conifers. With adaptation to climate change and with an increasing demand of broadleaved wood products there is a need for new research on beech silviculture. Long rotations and high establishment costs are known challenges in forest management of broadleaves. Beech can commonly be regenerated with seed trees and continuous cover forest methods but for new establishments plantations can be expensive and high risk projects.

For this position we will address the following research questions: i) What long term results can we find of low versus high intensity regeneration methods?, ii) How does early competition and competition release from other tree species affect economy and stand development?, iii) how to re-establish beech forests in a northern distribution range?

The PhD project focuses on the regeneration and early management of beech, both with natural regeneration and with planted seedlings. We will use old and new experiments in monocultures and mixtures, in several stages of stand development from regeneration to first thinning. In addition, the economical and provisional services of a full stand rotation will be explored and evaluated for the management alternatives. The PhD student will acquire a research education with competence in silviculture, growth and yield and Heureka- analysis.

The PhD student will be included in the silviculture research team, which studies the regeneration and management of noble broadleaves in the temperate and south-boreal forests. In our team we model forest growth and stand development using survey and experimental data. Modelling approaches are both empirical and mechanistic.

Our research group lift a heavy part of the teaching on both bachelor and master level but we also do substantial dissemination of our research to forest stakeholders, governmental institutions, NGO´s and society. On average as a PhD student you will teach 1-3 weeks per year and participate in extension activities such as excursions and seminars 1-2 times per year.