Research

Annika Nordin in a winter forestPhoto: Malin Grönborg

Forests are key to CO2 sequestration and how forests are managed influence their potential benefits for mitigating climate change, alongside with their numerous other benefits for people. In my research group we study both forests and forest management visions and decisions by people with different stakes in the forests. Our background is in forest ecophysiology, but we have long experience in interdisciplinary science and successful collaborations with colleagues in social and human sciences.

Our current focus areas are (1) carbon and nitrogen interactions in trees, understory vegetation and soils and how they influence forest growth, (2) new methods for forest regeneration, and (3) local stakeholders’ adaption of forest management to the changing climate.

The left photo shows a close-up of the moss Hylocomium splendens; in the middle, seedlings on a clear-cut site are shown; on the right, a group of people meeting for a presentation in a forest is seen. A) The moss, Hylocomium splendens, has a key role in the forest influencing litter decomposition and soil carbon accumulation as well as the nitrogen supply as it associates to N2-fixing cyanobacteria. We use ecophysiological approaches to study how interactions between the forest’s carbon and nitrogen cycles determine tree growth, understorey species composition and soil carbon accumulation. (Photo: Sverker Johansson) B) Seedlings on a clear-cut are subjected to harsh environmental conditions and large fluctuations in water and nutrient supply. Innovative methods based on new ecophysiological findings on how various nitrogen sources contribute to the seedlings’ successful establishment and growth direct our research activities in forest regeneration. (Photo: Bodil Häggström) C) Forests adaptation to the changing climate depend also on people’s visions on how forests should be managed. In an interdisciplinary project we focus on how stakeholders locally in northern and southern Sweden envision their future forests. (Photo: Lars Klingström)