Preliminary thesis title: Establishment and management of mixed conifer forests
The purpose of the research is to gain a better understanding of establishing and managing a mixed conifer forest to meet the challenges of today and the future, reduce risks, maintain wood production and increase biodiversity. We need to diversify forest management to meet the problems we face today with global warming, insect outbreaks and ungulate browsing. One way to do that and to still maintain wood production could be reforestation with both spruce and pine in the same stands. Thus, creating mixed coniferous stands at intermediate fertile soils in order to better meet future uncertainties. However, spruce and pine has different growth patterns which we need to understand further when reforested at the same location. Within my PhD-research I will study i) the possibility to plant spruce under seed trees to get a mixed conifer stand, ii) different planting designs with spruce and pine, and iii) see how different pre-commercial thinning regimes will affect the tree species distribution. My research could then help forest owners reach a more sustainable management regime. The Project is financed by SLU and Södra Skogsägarna and the research is done in co-operation by SLU and Södra Skogsägarna.