UPSC Monday Seminarseries 2022

9:00 Thomas Dobrenel

Title: Update on Norway spruce transformation

Supervisor: Ulrika Egertsdotter


Place: Lilla hörsalen KB.E3.01
Time: 9:00-9:30

Contact: Maria Israelsson Nordström, Anne Honsel

UPSC Monday Seminarseries 2022

9:00 Bo Zhang

Title: Phytochrome B and Phytochrome-Interacting Factor 4 control trees low-temperature growth

Supervisor: Ove Nilsson


Place: Lilla hörsalen KB.E3.01
Time: 9:00-9:30

Contact: Maria Israelsson Nordström, Anne Honsel

UPSC Seminar

Andrew D. Friend
Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

Title: Tree growth, the global carbon cycle, and climate

Host: Totte Niittylä


More information: https://www.geog.cam.ac.uk/people/friend/


Abstract of his talk:
The global natural land surface has been a substantial net sink of anthropogenic CO2 over recent decades (e.g. equivalent to 29% of fossil fuel plus land-use emissions over 2012-2021), reducing the rate of climate change. It is believed that forested ecosystems are a major contributor to this sink. However, we have a poor understanding of the causes of this imbalance, and hence have low confidence in our ability to predict future atmospheric CO2. The carbon balance of the land surface is typically viewed as being controlled by photosynthesis and heterotrophic respiration. However, plant growth (and hence carbon storage) is under direct control by biological factors and the environment independently of photosynthesis, suggesting current paradigms are at best incomplete. It is notable that global vegetation models disagree strongly on the relative attribution of the net land sink to different processes (especially to CO2 fertilization), and it is possible that this problem is at least partly due to their over-emphasis on photosynthesis parameterisations. Our research aims to improve understanding of controls on plant growth and how to incorporate this understanding into global models, shifting them away from the photosynthesis paradigm. We have developed a detailed model of xylogenesis that has provided insights into how wood formation is controlled, and are exploring formulations for coupling growth and photosynthesis at the whole-plant level in a new conceptual framework. Our model development is being supported by experimental and observational investigations into the physiological controls on wood formation at tissue and whole-plant levels in the hybrid poplar clone T89. Initial results from our new approach to modelling global vegetation carbon fluxes will be presented and remaining gaps in our understanding outlined.

UPSC Technical Seminar

ChatGPT and Bing: AI companions and applications for the scientific landscape

Michael Stewart

All are welcome!

Contact: Özer Erguvan and Laura García Garmañach (UPSC)

UPSC Monday Seminarseries 2022

9:30 Amir Mahboubi

Title: Investigating translational regulation in plants

Supervisor: Johannes Hanson


Place: Lilla hörsalen KB.E3.01
Time: 9:30-10:00

Contact: Maria Israelsson Nordström, Anne Honsel

PhD thesis defence

Isabella Hallberg-Sramek
Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology, SLU

Title: Tailoring forest management to local socio-ecological contexts - Addressing climate change and local stakeholders’ expectations of forests

Faculty opponent: Professor Georg Winkel, Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands

Supervisor: Annika Nordin

Assistant supervisors:
Camilla Sandström, Department of Political Science, Umeå University
Erland Mårald, Department of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies, Umeå University
Eva-Maria Nordström, Department of Forest Resource Management, SLU Umeå

Location: The public defence will take place in P-O Bäckströms sal at SLU in Umeå and will be also broadcasted via Zoom.

The thesis will be available via the following link from May 3: https://doi.org/10.54612/a.6os9e6ei21

A brief description of the thesis:
Forests are expected to provide multiple ecosystem services and contribute to climate change mitigation, while also being adapted to the impacts of climate change. This thesis highlights the various competing expectations placed on forests in Sweden and how they can be addressed by tailoring forest management to local socio-ecological contexts in collaboration with local forest stakeholders, thereby reducing the gap between forest science and practice.

Keywords: sustainable forest management, climate-smart forestry, ecosystem services, media analysis, machine learning, co-production processes, local knowledge, forest policy, forest stakeholders, scenario modelling.

Organisers: Karin Ljung & Stefan Jansson

UPSC Monday Seminarseries 2022

9:00 Wei Wang

Title: OPENER and interactors: into the unknown of essential plant cell biology

Supervisor: Totte Niittylä


Place: Lilla hörsalen KB.E3.01
Time: 9:00-10:00

Contact: Maria Israelsson Nordström, Anne Honsel