Start: 2019

The aim of this project is to develop methodologies for a landscape approach for forested areas, demonstrate how synergies and trade-offs between ecosystem services can be analyzed using this approach and highlight the advantages compared to business as usual approaches. This will be done by addressing the following research question: What is the effect of alternative management strategies, characterized by different levels of forestry intensity, harvesting of biofuels from forests and protection of forests being distributed across the landscape, on trade-offs and synergies between carbon sequestration, biomass production (wood and biofuels), biodiversity and soil and water quality?

Though the collaboration between INES, CEC and SLU, a novel landscape approach for forests will be developed, that will benefit from the expertise on landscape approaches and ecosystem services in agricultural land at CEC.

A landscape approach to analyse trade-offs and synergies between ecosystem services provided by forests – portal.research.lu.se

Contact

PhD student

Tristan Bakx - portal.research.lu.se

Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science
tristan [dot] bakx [at] nateko [dot] lu [dot] se (tristan[dot]bakx[at]nateko[dot]lu[dot]se)

Supervisor

Cecilia Akselsson - portal.research.lu.se

Start: 2019

The overriding aim of this project is to analyse the economic and environmental trade-offs of policy interventions to promote the use of agricultural land for producing biomass to reduce the use of fossil-based fuels. Specifically the aims of the PhD project are to:

I. Develop models that predict the impacts of intensifying agricultural production on biodiversity, eutrophication and carbon sequestration.
II. Evaluate the trade-offs that exist between increasing biomass production and other societal goals, specifically; conservation of biodiversity, and mitigation of GHG emissions and eutrophication.
III. Develop models that can optimize policy instruments for balancing economic and environmental trade-offs for both farmers and society.

The PhD will investigate several important environmental issues from a societal perspective but at the same time model decisions by farmers on their use of agricultural land, and generate findings relevant for sustainable development and formulating policy.

Analysing the environmental implications of increasing biomass production in Swedish agricultural land – portal.research.lu.se

Contact

PhD student

Raül López i Losada – portal.research.lu.se

Centre for Environmental and Climate Science
raul [dot] lopez_i_losada [at] cec [dot] lu [dot] se (raul[dot]lopez_i_losada[at]cec[dot]lu[dot]se)
+46 46 222 41 99

Supervisor

Katarina Hedlund - portal.research.lu.se

Start: 2020

Many insect species are undergoing rapid population decline in recent decades due to anthropogenic changes to natural landscapes and climate. Pollinator declines in particular may have especially far-reaching effects due to the services they provide to plant communities. Understanding how habitat fragmentation differentially impacts these species is vital for performing proper conservation action in such complex communities. Landscape level studies on these impacts have previously overlooked the evolutionary implications of these land use changes on populations and how they may affect their ability to adapt to changing environments. To address this, I will compare highly fragmented and largely continuous semi-natural grasslands, examining how genetic diversity and adaptive potential varies in these environments for pollinators.

I will measure changes in genetic diversity and prevalence of deleterious mutations in insect pollinators sampled before and after the onset of large-scale human disturbances within Sweden in habitats of varying fragmentation. To do this I will sample whole genomic data from modern field and historical museum specimens, comparing the diversity present in the past with what I sample in contemporary populations, and how this differs with changes in habitat continuity.

Additionally, as adaptive potential is constrained by the phenotypic variation present in the population, I will examine the evolvability of several morphological features, and how this differs between populations. For all these analyses, I will focus initially on a common generalist - the Common Blue Butterfly, Polyommatus icarus - and expand into other species, potentially a more specialist butterfly species or solitary bees.

Assessing the impacts of habitat fragmentation on the genetic diversity and adaptive potential of insect pollinators – portal.research.lu.se

Contact

PhD student

Zachary Nolen - portal.research.lu.se

Department of Biology
zachary [dot] nolen [at] biol [dot] lu [dot] se (zachary[dot]nolen[at]biol[dot]lu[dot]se)

Supervisor

Anna Runemark - portal.research.lu.se

Start: 2021

The overall aim of the project is to develop, test and apply methodology for detection and quantification of spatially explicit drought effects on Nordic agricultural and forest ecosystems and their productivity. Furthermore, it aims to develop readiness for the next drought by developing policy and management capability based on remote sensing integrated with meteorological and other environmental data.

Contact

PhD student

Mitro Müller - portal.research.lu.se

Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science
mitro [dot] muller [at] nateko [dot] lu [dot] se (mitro[dot]muller[at]nateko[dot]lu[dot]se)

Supervisor

Jonas Ardö - portal.research.lu.se

Start: 2017

My doctoral project regards forest conflicts in Sweden and how these have been acknowledged and managed by the state. I study how different interests, such as private and public interests are expressed within the state and how these constitute forest conflicts. Theoretically, I use ideas about politicization, ownership and the environmental state. 

Contact

PhD student

Maja Tejre - portal.research.lu.se

Department of Political Science

Supervisor

Magdalena Bexell - portal.research.lu.se

Start: 2019

This project will improve our understanding of the soil C feedback from microorganisms due to climate change induced warming. Microorganisms play a crucial role in the global C cycle. The balance between the microbial release of C to the atmosphere due to respiration and microbial use of C for growth – and subsequent potential sequestration in soil – will determine if terrestrial systems become sources or sinks for atmospheric CO2. The primary physiological factor that determines how microorganisms partition their C-use into catabolic energy generation or for anabolic growth is the carbon-use efficiency (CUE). Climatic warming will affect the activity and adaptation of microorganisms, however the microbial feedback to these changes remain unknown. This microbial C-feedback to the atmosphere is probably one of the most critical, yet least known, parts of climate-C cycle modelling; emphasizing the urgency for this research. The main objective of this project is to determine the effects of soil warming on microbial CUE in different biomes and across seasons.

The PhD student project will address all three central BECC aims: (1) we will assess climate change impacts on ecosystem services (how warming will affect, and feedback to, biogeochemistry), (2) we will support regional, national and global climate-change policymakers through the scientific evaluation of policy options (integration of findings into LPJ-GUESS and EC-Earth Earth System Model (ESM), generating advice in the form of scenarios relevant to the IPCC and local and national government stakeholders via CMIP6), and (3) we will we will create and nurture a critical and lasting link between the strong research environments of empirical ecosystem ecology and biogeochemistry (dept Biology) and ecosystem modelling (INES) through joint supervision. Moreover, since LPJ-GUESS is currently coupled to the EC-Earth ESM, model developments made here can be tested in global ESM experiments beyond the core CMIP6 experiments being committed to by colleagues in SRA MERGE.

Contact

PhD student

Daniel Tájmel – portal.research.lu.se

Department of Biology
daniel [dot] tajmel [at] biol [dot] lu [dot] se (daniel[dot]tajmel[at]biol[dot]lu[dot]se)

Supervisor

Johannes Rousk - portal.research.lu.se

Start: 2019

Ecosystem models calculating wetland emissions incorporate process knowledge
(bottom-up modeling) and allow estimation of methane (CH4) fluxes at various scales ranging from local to regional and global. The main aim of this project is to apply model-data fusion (formally called ‘data assimilation’) techniques to improve quantification and understanding of the natural CH4 cycling in boreal wetlands.

The specific aims are to:
1. Develop a CH4 Data Assimilation System around the LPJ-GUESS dynamic global vegetation model based on a Markov Chain Monte Carlo approach.
2. Generate improved model process parameter estimates, with quantified posterior uncertainties by assimilating observed CH4 fluxes from wetlands.
3. Quantify how assimilation of observations increases confidence in the analysis of the CH4 emissions from wetlands.
4. Provide new scientific insights and process understanding, e.g. what controls the sensitivity of CH4 emissions from wetlands to external forcing.
5. Provide a CH4 budget for the boreal region for the dominant natural emission source (i.e. wetlands).
6. Provide input to the Global Carbon Project’s CH4 budget as well as deliver elaborated products (i.e. maps of CH4 fluxes from wetlands) to e.g. the Carbon
Portal of the Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS) derived from CH4 flux observations at, among others, ICOS sites.

Through the model-data fusion approach it is particularly relevant to the research area on data assimilation and multimodel integration by combining measurements with ecosystem models. The research will improve our understanding of wetlands processes and CH4 cycling as included in models and will improve upscaling processes from local to regional/global scales. It will thus refine the predictions of future CH4 wetland emission to inform policy making especially with regard to the Paris Agreement of the UNFCC and subsequent NDCs.

Contact

PhD student

Jalisha Theanutti - portal.research.lu.se

Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science
jalisha [dot] theanutti [at] nateko [dot] lu [dot] se (jalisha[dot]theanutti[at]nateko[dot]lu[dot]se)

Supervisor

Marko Scholze - portal.research.lu.se

Start: 2019

My research interest concerns the effects of wildfire on Swedish boreal forests in a changing climate. This covers development of understanding regarding carbon & nutrient cycling and community & habitat structure at various stages of succession using observational data over a large climate gradient.

Currently we have 50 burnt plus 50 adjacent control sites from the 2018 fires established throughout the approximately 57-67 degree latitudinal range of Sweden (0-8 C MAP, 550-775 mm MAP). Here we have acquired in situ measurements of soil layer depths/densities, C&N stocks, PLFA contents, basal area and assessments of understory biodiversity. Data has also been collected from soil and air ambience loggers, resin capsules, and teabags. We welcome contact from researchers of all levels to contribute ideas to this now well established network, including those who may wish to tag along to perform complementary measurements as we visit our sites. Particularly, we are interested in enhancing/comparing our observational data with/to remote sensing, global measurements, and experiment. Additionally, assessing soil change at the chemical level (e.g. measures of pyrolysis, char production) due to fire and linking it to observed trends is of great interest.

Contact

PhD student

Johan Eckdahl - portal.research.lu.se

Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science
johan [dot] eckdahl [at] nateko [dot] lu [dot] se (johan[dot]eckdahl[at]nateko[dot]lu[dot]se)

Supervisor

Dan Metcalfe - portal.research.lu.se

Start: 2019

My PhD project aims to contribute to the field of environmental decision making under uncertainty. This interdisciplinary work will bring together environmental psychology, economics, ecological modeling, public management, risk analysis and statistics to inform public policy and provide clarity of action in human-environment conflicts.

Contact

PhD student

Dmytro Perepolkin – portal.research.lu.se

Centre for Environmental and Climate Science
dmytro [dot] perepolkin [at] cec [dot] lu [dot] se (dmytro[dot]perepolkin[at]cec[dot]lu[dot]se)
+46 46 222 08 89

Supervisor

Ullrika Sahlin - portal.research.lu.se

Start: 2024

About the project

To alleviate adverse effects of agriculture on climate and biodiversity, there is a need to design pathways towards sustainable agricultural systems. The integration of leys in cropping systems, particularly in intensively farmed arable landscapes, is an opportunity to redesign cropping systems to comply with climate mitigation, biodiversity conservation and agricultural sustainability objectives. However, there are large uncertainties related to which management strategies best provide environmental benefits while maintaining production, as well as how to incentivize such measures. We aim to i) find alternative ley management providing climate and biodiversity benefits across spatiotemporal scales, while maintaining agricultural productivity, ii) exploring policy instruments that incentivize farmers to implement alternative ley management cost-effectively. In a two-step approach, we will: i) design a field study to explore how biodiversity, carbon storage and agricultural productivity vary in leys along a gradient of management intensity, including ley duration in the crop rotation and other environmentally friendly practices, ii) use these results along with remote sensing to inform about the current uptake of alternative ley management and model its regional climate and biodiversity impacts, and explore policy instruments that would ensure cost-effective uptake to achieve environmental goals.

Involved researchers

Main applicant: Henrik Smith (Department of Biology, Lund University)

Co-applicants: 

Romain Carrié (Centre for Environmental and Climate Science, Lund University)

Mark Brady (AgriFood Economics Centre SLU)

2022

Involved researchers

Main applicant: Torbern Tagesson, (INES, LU) 
Co-applicants: Åsa Kasimir (Earth Sciences, UGOT); Patrik Vestin (INES, LU)
Collaborator: Louise C. Andresen, Earth Sciences, UGOT

About the project

A climate mitigation and adaptation strategy applicable for Sweden is rewetting of drained peatlands, which can both aid in mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and create a landscape with higher biodiversity being more resilient to drought/flooding and forest fires.

The main aim with this project is to improve our understanding of the impact this climate adaptation and mitigation strategy has on the activity of soil microbial communities, and in turn their influence on the land atmosphere exchange of greenhouse gasses (GHG). A large-scale experiment at the Skogaryd Research Catchment provides a unique opportunity to study the impact of rewetting this peatland on the (1) the functional activity and diversity in the soil microbial community; and (2) to relate this to other environmental parameters such as GHG fluxes. Analyzing soil samples during this initial phase will be very important for catching the immediate impact of the rewetting on the soil microbial community, which can be connected with existing measurements on GHG emissions expected to give a pulse immediately after rewetting and then gradually change.

Knowledge on soil function and microbial activity is of need for ecosystem modeling, feeding into policy decisions on rewetting for climate mitigation and adaptation. 

2022

Can functional traits improve forecasting of environmental stressors on biodiversity, ecosystem functions, and ecosystem services in Sweden’s forests under climate change?

Involved researchers

Main applicant: Richard Walters (CEC, Lund University) 
Co-applicant: Lars Gamfeldt (Department of Marine Science, University of Gothenburg) 
Co-applicant: Henrik Smith (Department of Biology & CEC, Lund University) 

Global biodiversity declines are increasingly well documented and predicted to worsen under projected climate change. Since species rich communities tend to be more resilient to environmental change, each loss is expected to exacerbate the risk further. This has important implications for wider society since biodiversity is known to underpin a wide range of ecosystem functions and services. Forecasting the effects of environmental stressors on biodiversity, ecosystem function and ecosystem services, however, is notoriously difficult due to a general poor understanding of the causal relationships.

To understand better why certain species respond to a given driver and what the consequences of a given loss could mean for ecosystem function it is necessary to conduct trait-based and functional diversity approaches to infer underlying mechanisms. In this project, we will make use long-term time-series data of species abundance for various forest taxa, corresponding trait databases and alternative functional diversity metrics to fully evaluate the potential benefits and limitations of such approaches over traditional taxonomic analyses.

We will share our findings with relevant stakeholders in the Forestry Service and Environmental Protection Agency in respect to synergies between climate and habitat change and the reliability of simple biodiversity indices to evaluate management success.

2022

Involved researchers

Main applicant: Maj-Lena Linderson INES, LU 
Co-applicant 1: Albert C Brangarím Biology, LU 
Co-applicant 2: Tobias Rütting, Department of Earth Sciences, UGOT
Collaborators: Johannes Rousk, (Biology, LU), Meelis Mölder, (INES, LU) and Natascha Kljun (CEC, LU)

About the project

Input and output fluxes of carbon (C) in terrestrial ecosystems are governed by the response of soil microorganisms and vegetation to weather events and climate. Recent evidence indicates that the short-term C fluxes triggered by the alternation of drought and rainfall events can dominate the land-atmosphere C exchange. However, these C fluxes are still poorly understood, scarcely quantified and widely overlooked in the literature.

This project will resolve this omission through an integrative empirical analysis. We will combine ecosystem-level data (eddy-covariance fluxes and vegetation) and soil-level data (chamber fluxes and soil/microbial characteristics) to break ground between scales and disciplines and provide a comprehensive framework to:

1. characterize the disproportional CO2 pulses induced by rain across wide climate gradients
2. quantify the contribution of these short-term pulses to the annual ecosystem C budget
3. elucidate the role of soil microorganisms and vegetation in shaping them, and
4. assess the capacity of adaptation of C fluxes to shifts in weather patterns.

This project represents a significant advance towards resolving how C fluxes adapt to changes in the frequency and intensity of drought-rainfall events, bringing us closer to understanding and predicting the influence of climate change on terrestrial ecosystems and their C stocks.

2022

Involved researchers

Main applicant: Milda Pucetaite, Dept. of Biology, Lund University 
Co-applicants: Louise C. Andresen Dept. of Earth Science UGOT, Edith C. Hammer Dept. of Biology, LU 
Collaborators: Wenxin Zhang (Dept. of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, LU); Bo Elberling, (Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen), Mats Björkman, (Department of Earth Science, UGOT)

About the project

Arctic ecosystems have been experiencing faster and more intense warming compared to anywhere else in the world, strongly affecting their structure and function. For instance, it has been shown that increasing temperatures may accelerate microbial decomposition in soil and biological soil crusts (BSCs) and enhance depletion of carbon stocks. The microbial communities are further disturbed by changes in frequency and intensity of freeze-thaw cycles (FTCs), but it is largely unknown how this will affect the related carbon fluxes to the atmosphere.

The aim of this study is to determine the effects of exacerbated intensity and frequency of FTCs on the carbon cycling in arctic BSCs with particular focus on microbial fitness, recovery and related physiological traits at the organism scale. We will combine microscale measurements using soil chips, optical microscopy observations and Raman microspectroscopy with bulk analyses of microbial respiration to identify parameters connecting single-cell level processes with macroscale responses, such as pulses of CO2 after thawing. These parameters related to microbial functional traits can be implemented in the future modifications of the CoupModel and improve its prediction capacity for ecosystem scale effects of climate change, which is essential for finding strategies for climate mitigation and adaptation.

2022

Involved researchers

Main applicant: Edith Hammer, Biology LU
Co- applicants: Romain Carrié, CEC LU, Christine Bacon BioEnv, GU 
Collaborators: Louise C. Andresen (Earth Sciences, GU), Henrik Smith (CEC, LU), Johan Ekroos, (University of Helsinki)

About the project

Imbalanced weather regimes endanger important soil ecosystem functions. The aim of this study is to investigate how different farm management types impact soils’ resilience to climatic disturbances, especially drought.

Drought resilience is mediated via the soil’s organic matter concentrations, and soil organic matter formation and stabilization is strongly controlled by the soil’s microbial community. We investigate soil processes as microbial growth, mineralization rate, enzymatic activities and the soils’ biodiversity. A collection of farms within Skåne, at different time stages of transition from conventional to organic, will be analyzed for changes in soil organic matter and their microbial communities with molecular and soil chip techniques. Additionally, in collaboration, soil organic matter stabilization at nanoscale via interaction to mineral surfaces with synchrotron techniques.

The results obtained in this study will be combined with earlier obtained above-ground parameters including yield and biodiversity at the same set of farms. A deeper understanding of SOM formation under different farm management strategies can lead to improved soil management for drought adaptation. 

2022

Involved researchers

Main applicant: Björn Klatt, Biology, LU

Co-applicants: William Sidemo Holm (CEC) & Heather Reese, BioEnv; (UGOT) 

Collaborator: Hushållningssällskapet

About the project

Recent increases in the frequency and magnitude of heatwaves (periods of exceptionally hot weather) as a result of ongoing climate change, are causing severe stress to insect communities. Yet, conservation efforts to mitigate the impact of heatwaves on biodiversity and related ecosystem services are still sparse.

In this project, we will evaluate the potential of modifying microclimates with trees and shrubs as an ecosystem-based climate adaptation measure to increase the resilience of bee communities and crop pollination to heatwaves. We will use a combined approach consisting of (1) a mesocosm study to evaluate how pollination by bees is affected by microclimates under semi-controlled conditions, (2) a policy study, where we assess the feasibility and economic costs of creating microclimates with trees and shrubs as a climate adaptation measure on farmland, and (3) a field study to test how microclimates created by trees and shrubs can affect bee communities and their services in agricultural landscapes.

As a result, the proposed project will contribute to the development of climate adaptation measures that enable more climate-change resilient agriculture, society and nature, as well as policies that facilitate their implementation.

Start: 2020

Grain legumes have the potential to provide climate-smart protein for human consumption and livestock fodder, while simultaneously enhancing pollinator habitat and soil productivity, thereby promoting sustainable agricultural land use and benefits to multiple ecosystem services. However, current grain legume acreages in Europe and Sweden are small. We aim to evaluate the desirability of increasing legume production on current arable land in Sweden to meet climate, food security and environmental goals, and to identify policy pathways that can accomplish this, using a mixed method approach that combines ecology, ecological-economic modelling and trans-disciplinary policy analysis.

We will: i) quantify multiple environmental benefits of increasing grain legume production using mechanistic and statistical models (agri-ecological production functions) based on empirical data and data from the literature; ii) evaluate impacts on farmers’ welfare (and thus willingness to grow legumes) using agent-based modelling; iii) evaluate the impacts on societal welfare of policy scenarios affecting grain legume acreages in dialogue with stakeholders, using our integrated modelling and complementary benefit-cost analysis, under different assumptions of future use of grain legume crops. We will synthesize the results, and use them to inform the future development of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy to benefit sustainable agricultural production and consumption.

Exploring synergies between wild pollinators and climate-smart protein production – portal.research.lu.se

Contact

Postdoc

Liam Kendall - portal.research.lu.se

Centre for Environmental and Climate Science
liam [dot] kendall [at] cec [dot] lu [dot] se (liam[dot]kendall[at]cec[dot]lu[dot]se)

Collaborating researchers

Henrik Smith (Department of Biology) - portal.research.lu.se

Mark Brady (AgriFood Economics Centre, SLU) - portal.research.lu.se

Kimberly Nicholas (Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies) - portal.research.lu.se

Start: 2020

Large scale drought hit Sweden in 2018 and the extremely hot summer days of 2019 sets new heat records across Europe. Global warming is not only increasing mean temperatures, but also extremes, driving evaporation and increasing water vapour pressure deficit, resulting in more frequent and extreme drought. Currently the growth rate of northern forests is increasing but there is evidence that drought induced mortality is also on the rise in boreal and temperate forests. Increased biomass is linked to higher water demand which may lead to so-called structural overshoot, exacerbating the vulnerability of forests to drought. The proposed project will leverage and build on ongoing projects and developments at Gothenburg and Lund Universities, as well as encourage state of the art research and strengthen Lund-Gothenburg cooperation. Identification and analysis of extreme weather events will be combined with newly developed hydrology processes in the ecosystem model LPJ-GUESS to analyze past, current and future impact of drought on Swedish and Eurasian ecosystems. The postdoc will focus on using and refining a model version that includes deep water storage and ground water and evaluate the impact of extreme weather events in the past and in the future.

Contact

Postdoc

Zhengyao Lu - portal.research.lu.se

Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science 
zhengyao [dot] lu [at] nateko [dot] lu [dot] se (zhengyao[dot]lu[at]nateko[dot]lu[dot]se)

Collaborating researchers

Anders Ahlström (Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science) - portal.research.lu.se

Deliang Chen (Department of Earth Sciences, University of Gothenburg) - gu.se 

2024

About the project

With land-use change resulting in people being removed from nature in their everyday lives, there is a need to identify and quantify the potential subsequent loss of connection to nature. Nature experience and connection is well-documented to underpin general conservation interest. It is therefore vital to understand its temporal trends, to ensure future prioritization of biodiversity and ecosystem services among the public, and in policy and societal decisions. 

We aim to employ a novel and interdisciplinary approach to investigate the role of nature in literature, through the past hundred years. Popular literature can be used as a thermometer of public knowledge of and attitude towards nature, something which is particularly challenging to measure over large time spans. We intend to combine a broad quantitative analysis on the prevalence of nature in popular literature using artificial intelligence, and qualitative approaches aiming to identify themes and the context in which nature is mentioned. This will provide both an overarching analysis of general trends and detailed results, which can tease apart contextual patterns and potential drivers of change. By putting the results into an ecological context, we aim to answer the question if connection between people and nature indeed is eroding.

Involved researchers

Main applicant: Anna Persson (Centre for Environmental and Climate Science, Lund University)

Co-applicants: Johan Kjellberg Jensen (Centre for Environmental and Climate Science, Lund University)

2024

About the project

This project aims to reduce uncertainty on what drives forest ecosystem stability and carbon uptake and has fundamental importance for Sweden’s ability to meet the EU target for natural carbon sinks. It will make use of a unique data set for primary forests in Sweden to investigate fundamental questions about ecosystem functioning, in particular how environmental changes affect ecosystems and its interplay with ecosystem properties. Through forestry, a regionally dominant land use, humans change forest structure and biodiversity, but also potentially local climate and site conditions through drainage and soil preparation. Recent research from the applicants have found that primary forests are more stable during drought, store ~3 times more carbon than managed forests do and have greened by 30% since 1984. However, it is unclear what governs potential biomass increases, drought stability and C storage in these forests. By studying primary forests we can effectively investigate how environmental change alone affects forests growth and stability, and by comparing the responses of primary forests to those of managed forests we can infer the effect of management. T

his project will focus on ecosystem stability and investigate what factors may contribute to the observed higher stability in primary forests. The findings are directly relevant for predictions of climate change and extreme event impacts. They are also fundamental for the design of sustainable forestry and for understanding the potential roles of ecosystem conservation and restoration.

Involved researchers

Main applicant: Anders Ahlström (Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, Lund University)

Co-applicants: Henrik Smith (Department of Biology, Lund University)

2024

About the project

The ecosystem functions of mycorrhizal fungi (MF) associated with carbon cost, nitrogen-fixation and -uptake are still lacking in most state-of-the-art Earth system models (ESMs). This may lead to large uncertainties in the model’s capability to simulate responses of Arctic and alpine vegetation to rapid climate change, ecosystem carbon and nitrogen cycles and biogeophysical feedback to future Earth system. To incorporate processes of plant-MF-soil interactions into global biogeochemical models, detailed information about spatial patterns of MF distribution and the MF-colonized root biomass is needed. 

This project aims to map the distributions of arbuscular, ecto- and ericoid MF and aboveand belowground biomass of Arctic vegetation in the Latnjajaure catchment. The map will be produced using the sentinel-2 derived vegetation map and vegetation indices (10 m), 50-m downscaled climate datasets, a plant-mycorrhizal-traits database (FungalRoot v2.0), and a machine learning approach. The results from this seeding project will be used to prepare a proposal (2024) that aims to improve our understanding of drivers for nitrogen acquisition strategies of symbioses in the circumpolar taiga-tundra ecotone; to incorporate MF into a dynamic vegetation model and simulate tundra shrubification and soil carbon turnover; and to quantify MF-mediated vegetation feedback to the regional and global climate systems.

Involved researchers

Main applicant: Wenxin Zhang (Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, Lund University)

Co-applicants: 

Robert G. Björk (Department of Earth Sciences, Gothenburg University)

Hakim Abdi (Centre for Environmental and Climate Science, Lund University)

2024

About the project

Insect numbers and diversity are in rapid decline, also within protected areas, endangering the ecosystem functions that insects provide and conflicting with societal commitment to protect biodiversity. Functional connectivity (the degree to which landscapes facilitate the movement of organisms, and the resulting fitness effect on populations) is crucial for population persistence, enabling three major evolutionary processes; 1) re-colonization following stochastic extinctions; 2) maintained genetic variation enabling populations to escape inbreeding; 3) supporting genetic variation for adaption to new conditions. However, for the majority of insect pollinator species, the scale at which populations exchange genetic material is not known. 

The aim of this project is to identify which groups of pollinators experience isolation due to habitat fragmentation in different landscape types in Sweden. Specifically, we will evaluate if green infrastructure supports functional connectivity in an insect pollinator species to inform conservation policy. This will allow us to tackle BECC’s Grand Challenge to develop effective and biologically meaningful conservation strategies. The outcome of this study will provide a methodological approach and empirical insights into the power of green infrastructure elements to remedy habitat loss and fragmentation driven declines of pollinator populations.

Involved researchers

Main applicant: Anna Runemark (Department of Biology, Lund University)

Co-applicants:

Maj Rundlöf (Department of Biology, Lund University)

Isolde van Riemsdijk (Department of Biology, Lund University)

2024

About the project

A climate mitigation and adaptation strategy applicable for Sweden is rewetting of drained peatlands, which can both aid in mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and create a landscape with higher biodiversity being more resilient to drought/flooding and forest fires. The main aim with this project is to improve our understanding of the impact this climate adaptation and mitigation strategy has on the activity of soil microbial communities, and in turn their influence on the land atmosphere exchange of GHG. A large-scale experiment at the Skogaryd Research Catchment provides a unique opportunity to study the impact of rewetting this peatland on (1) the activity and functional diversity in the soil microbial community; and (2) to relate this to other environmental parameters such as GHG fluxes. Analyzing soil samples will be very important for catching the impact this rewetting event has on the soil microbial community, which can be connected with existing measurements on GHG emissions. Knowledge on soil function and microbial activity is of need for ecosystem modeling, feeding into policy decisions on rewetting peatlands as climate mitigation and adaptation strategy.

Involved researchers

Main-applicant: Torbern Tagesson (Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, Lund University)

Co-applicants: 

Louise C. Andresen (Department of Earth Sciences, Gothenburg University), 

Patrik Vestin (Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, Lund University)

Collaborator: 

Rhiannon Mondav (Centre for Environmental and Climate Science, Lund University)

Multi-level forest policy implementation in Privately Owned Landscapes: Locating hotspots for synergies and trade-offs between ecosystem services

About

The ongoing climate and environmental crises increase conflicts between biodiversity and ecosystem services in forest management. Landscape scale management can alleviate such conflicts by setting aside production forest for non-timber ecosystem services and biodiversity. However, the distribution of hotspots of synergies and trade-offs at the local scale will differentially affect forest owners. In a pilot study aimed at developing a new methodological workflow, we will quantify the trade-offs and synergies and study their spatial patterns in the landscape in line with new and upcoming (inter)national environmental policies. We will use an area-based modelling approach in the Heureka decision support system to identify where in the landscape the potential for ecosystem services and biodiversity is highest and at what cost that comes. The project will create a new link and opportunity to collaborate between researchers from political science, ecology, and physical geography from within the BECC environment as well as with external collaborators, both scientists and stakeholders. The results from and methods developed in this pilot study will provide future opportunities to translate international policy goals to the landscape level and to study patterns of ecosystem service trade-offs as well as other factors, such as resilience.

Involved researchers

Main applicant: Cecilia Akselsson (Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, Lund University)

Co-applicants:

Nils Droste (Department of Political Science, Lund University)

Ola Olsson (Department of Biology, Lund University)
 

2024

About the project

A BECC/MERGE project.

This multidisciplinary study sets out to explore the history of human land use in Europe. Our innovative approach integrates advanced continental-scale data from two sources: pollen-based past land cover studies and ancient DNA (aDNA) for human habitation dynamics [1]. Utilizing cutting-edge mathematical methods, our goal is to generate detailed reconstructions of past land use across the continent. These high-quality, spatiotemporal reconstructions can directly contribute to studies on climate change and carbon allocation. They can support model calibration and validation and can provide a valuable historical and natural context for future biodiversity restoration and conservation efforts. 

Our project aligns with several key research areas (RAs) within MERGE: RA1, which focuses on modelling; RA2, addressing past studies; and RA4, dedicated to statistics. It also corresponds with the three grand challenges identified within BECC: Climate change, Biodiversity, and Ecosystem Services. Both SRAs prioritize exploring past environments, and our project aims to fill knowledge gaps identified in these areas, particularly regarding the evaluation of land use and management scenarios, scenario building, and agriculture.

The project expands on the successful collaboration regarding pollen data between three of the applicants (BP, AP, JL) by adding the paleogenomics and human migration analyses (EE). This combines a history of successful collaboration with the introduction of a new cutting-edge skill to the BECC and MERGE community. The team plans to use this pilot project as a foundation to gather the necessary knowledge for larger project applications. The intention is to extend this approach to other continents such as Asia, where pollen-based reconstructions are currently in progress and where more than 2,000 ancient DNA samples are already available. In this proof-of-concept project we will 1) combine pollen and aDNA data to develop an anthropo- and biogeographical model that traces human migration and land use during the Holocene. 2) apply the resulting model to the key cultivated and synanthropic species in Europe, producing space and time continuous estimates and identifying the human groups responsible for the changes in human subsistence and plant species distribution during the entire Holocene.

Involved researchers

Main applicant: Behnaz Pirzamanbein (Department of Statistics, Lund University)

Co-applicants:

Eran Elhaik (Department of Biology, Lund University)

Anneli Poska (Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, Lund University)

Johan Lindström (Department of Mathematical statistics, Lund University)

2024

About the project

A BECC/MERGE project

The Eurasian boreal forest is the most important ecosystem carbon sink in the northern high latitudes. With climate change, the carbon sink is severely threatened by the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires. Eurasian boreal forest fires are not well represented by global vegetation models due to large uncertainties on the availability and consumption of fuels and fire‐induced tree mortality in this region, and our forecasting capabilities are hence limited. For this short project, we will focus on Swedish forests with similar fire regime and tree species as the wider Eurasian boreal region. By collating data from literature, existing projects, and prescribed burn experiments, we will provide a set of parameters for the LPJ‐GUESS fire model SIMFIRE‐ BLAZE to represent Swedish forest fires more accurately. Our findings will be summarised in a research paper assessing the upgraded model and the impacts of wildfire on the Swedish forest carbon budget. Future projects will be able to extend this work to the Eurasian boreal forest and/or build on our new network of stakeholders to assess how wildfires in Sweden affect ecosystem services and biodiversity.

Involved researchers

Main applicants:

Natascha Kljun (Centre for Environmental and Climate Science, Lund University)

Lars Nieradzik (Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, Lund University)

Co-applicants: Julia Kelly (Centre for Environmental and Climate Science, Lund University)

Collaborators:

Stefan Doerr (School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics, Swansea University)

Igor Drobyshev (Department of Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre, SLU Alnarp),

Rafikul Islam (Centre for Environmental and Climate Science, Lund University), Cristina

Santin Nuno (Biodiversity Research Institute, Spanish National Research Council)

Investigating the Role of Satellite-Derived Fire Energetics in Improving Modeling of Emissions from the Smoldering Combustion Phase of Boreal Wildfire

2024

About the project

This project aims to fill important gaps in circumpolar boreal wildfire carbon emission estimates by calibrating current fire emission models against recent field-based emissions estimates from a soon to be concluded BECC-funded PhD project (Patterns and mechanisms in post-fire recovery of major forest ecosystem services and functions). This aim will build upon data and insights gathered from the PhD work, but extend the scientific scope significantly beyond the original project. The additional workload cannot reasonably be pursued within the main body of the PhD thesis. Specifically, we seek relatively limited additional funds to provide the following major advances: 

• Test the accuracy of major global fire products such as from the Global Fire Emissions Database (GFED4.1s), and the dynamic global vegetation model LPJ-GUESS with its fire module SIMFIRE-BLAZE, in representing emissions from 50 separate field sampled wildfires across the extent of Swedish boreal forests in 2018. 
• Utilize satellite observations based on MODIS fire radiative power (FRP) and Sentinel-2 differenced normalized burn ratio (dNBR), which are commonly used to determine vegetation combustion levels, to explain the extent of above-ground burning on providing heat to activate the smoldering combustion phase of boreal soils, which itself can provide for the majority of wildfire C emissions in ground-fire dominated fire regimes. 
• Assess the ability of newly produced, 10 meter resolution forest C maps in Sweden [3] to further constrain C emissions from smoldering soils when combined with Sentinel-2 observation of burn area and vegetation combustion level via dNBR can be established to protect their vulnerable C stores.

Involved researchers

Main applicants: Louise C Andresen (Department of Earth Sciences, Gothenburg University)

Co-applicants:

Lars Nieradzik (Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, Lund University)

Johan Eckdahl (Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, Lund University)

Collaborator: Dan Metcalfe (Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University)

Start: 2024

About

The Arctic is at risk. High latitude regions receive relatively small amount of precipitation with the majority falling in winter, leaving vegetation dependent on melt water as a major moisture source. With earlier snow melt an imminent water deficit is emerging during late growing season, a so far overlooked driver of vegetation, soil dynamics and nutrient storage. This unaccounted climate feedback is threatening to irrevocably escalate carbon release from Arctic ecosystems. In this project, we will investigate lack of soil moisture as a main future driver of vegetation, soil and carbon dynamics. Arctic vegetation changes are slow, and annual variation in snow cover largely exceed manipulations. Thus, this project utilizes long-term monitoring data from several circumpolar networks, with additional gap-filling measurements, including both un-treated control plots as well as snow manipulations (snow fence and snow removal), to understand snowmelt x vegetation interactions and its consequences for carbon sink/source strength. The outcome of this project will be the first assessment of the influence of snowmelt, and late growing season soil dry-up, as a driver for Arctic vegetation and carbon storage.

Involved researchers

Main applicant: Mats Björkman (Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg)

Co-applicants: Anne Bjorkman (Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg)

Paul Miller (Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, Lund University)

Start: 2024

About the project

To alleviate adverse effects of agriculture on climate and biodiversity, there is a need to design pathways towards sustainable agricultural systems. The integration of leys in cropping systems, particularly in intensively farmed arable landscapes, is an opportunity to redesign cropping systems to comply with climate mitigation, biodiversity conservation and agricultural sustainability objectives. However, there are large uncertainties related to which management strategies best provide environmental benefits while maintaining production, as well as how to incentivize such measures. We aim to i) find alternative ley management providing climate and biodiversity benefits across spatiotemporal scales, while maintaining agricultural productivity, ii) exploring policy instruments that incentivize farmers to implement alternative ley management cost-effectively. In a two-step approach, we will: i) design a field study to explore how biodiversity, carbon storage and agricultural productivity vary in leys along a gradient of management intensity, including ley duration in the crop rotation and other environmentally friendly practices, ii) use these results along with remote sensing to inform about the current uptake of alternative ley management and model its regional climate and biodiversity impacts, and explore policy instruments that would ensure cost-effective uptake to achieve environmental goals.

Involved researchers

Main applicant: Henrik Smith (Department of Biology, Lund University)

Co-applicants: 

Romain Carrié (Centre for Environmental and Climate Science, Lund University)

Mark Brady (AgriFood Economics Centre SLU)

2022

Involved researchers

Main applicant: Yann Clough (Centre for Environmental and Climate Science, Lund University) 
Co-Applicants: Maj Rundlöf (Department of Biology, Lund University) and Nikos Alexandridis (Centre for Environmental and Climate Science, Lund University) 
Other collaborators: Maria von Post (Department of Biology, Lund University), Ola Olsson (Department of Biology, Lund University), Henrik Smith (Centre for Environmental and Climate Science, Lund University) , Ciara Dwyer (Centre for Environmental and Climate Science, Lund University) 

About the project

Conservation of species in fragmented habitats requires securing adequate local habitat size and quality, and favorable conditions at the landscape scale. These factors also help buffering negative effects of climate change (rising temperatures and extreme weather conditions) on local species populations. A major obstacle in transforming this knowledge into successful conservation is the insufficient consideration of the dynamic system of multiple interacting public and private actors which directly and indirectly change the conditions for target species persistence or extinction.Target species and actors’ land-use decisions both respond to climate change and other external drivers and pressures, which risks leading to misidentification of critical actors and leverage points, and thus ineffective conservation outcomes.

Here, we propose to apply a participatory socio-ecological systems (SES) modelling approach to assess the complex linkages between climate, land-use and conservation outcomes, replicated across landscapes. We make use of past and ongoing conservation action for rare wild bees in southern Sweden as a timely case-study, and identify critical actors and leverage points for improved conservation. Through an archetype approach, we will synthesize intermediate generalities from these landscape-scale SES, with the ambition to gain transferable insights that can inform similar endeavors internationally and help reversing biodiversity declines. 

2022

Involved researchers

Main applicant: Dr. Nils Droste Department of Political Science, Lund University 
Co-applicant: Prof. Natascha Kljun Centre for Environmental and Climate Research (CEC), 
Co-applicant: Dr. Louise C. Andresen Department of Earth Sciences, University of Gothenburg 
Collaborator: Dr. Brian Danley Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University Campus Gotland
Collaborator: Cristina Santin Nuno, Biodiversity Research Institute, Spanish National Research Council 
Collaborator: Prof. Stefan Doerr School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics, Swansea University 

About the project

Climate warming is predicted to further increase the frequency of extreme fire seasons. Empirical knowledge of societal perceptions of post-fire forest management and the impact of these management strategies on soiland plant regeneration and carbon budgets, is however scarce. Hence, post-fire management strategies still require scientific evaluation to support Swedish climate targets, the EU Forest Strategy 2030, and the Paris Agreement.

This project examines the aftermath of Sweden’s 2018 extreme wildfire, by linking monitoring and evaluation of forest ecosystem recovery with an analysis of societal perceptions. Using an interdisciplinary, mixed method design, we will build on an ongoing natural experiment of different post-fire management techniques and will conduct a stratified societal value survey that differentiates perceptions according to ownership and prior knowledge.

We aim to identify management strategies that are both societally acceptable and effective in terms of ecological recovery and carbon emissions versus sequestration. Furthermore, we aim to advance the understanding of the role knowledge and information can play for implementing such strategies. Based on these findings, the project shall deliver evidence-based advice for forest fire governance.

2022

Involved researchers

Main applicant: Dr. Mikael Pontarp, Department of Biology, Lund University 
Co-applicants: Dr. Christine Bacon, Department of Biological & Environmental Scenes, University of Gothenburg and 
Dr. Mark Brady, AgriFood Economics Centre, SLU 
Collaborators: Dr. Anna Persson, Centre for Environmental and Climate Research; Dr. Magne Friberg, Department of Biology, Lund University; Dr. Øystein Opedal, Department of Biology, Lund University 

About the project

Land-use-induced threats to insects in agro-ecosystems with subsequent negative consequences for pollination services are established. Mitigation, however, remains elusive due to limited understanding of the ecological and evolutionary processes that underpin insect responses to land-use. The long-term perspective is particularly called for as evidence for land-use-driven rapid insect evolution is accumulating, but its effect on pollination and implications for policy and management are unknown.

Through assembling a team of researchers with a wide variety of expertise (for example theoretical and empirical knowledge) we will model eco-evolutionary responses of insect-mediated pollination services, policy, and management, focusing on how plant-pollinator communities respond to changes in agricultural land-use. We will identify the causal and mechanistic link between landscape heterogeneity and the function and stability of insect-mediated services and connect modelling with concepts in agricultural and environmental economics to determine policy implications. Inter-disciplinary connections are difficult to study empirically, putting the proposed research at the interface between theoretical and applied agro-ecology. We will develop novel insight on ecosystem vulnerability valuable to management and policy strategies that aim at maintaining important pollination services. 

2022

Involved researchers

Main applicant: Christine D. Bacon (Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg)
Co-applicant: Erik Svensson (Department of Biology, Lund University)
Collaborator: Anne Bjorkman (Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg)

About the project

Biodiversity decline and climate change are two major challenges facing society. The Arctic is a nexus of these challenges, as loss of the Arctic tundra is a global tipping point, where the Earth’s hydrological system can collapse due to its loss.

The Arctic is witnessing the highest increases in temperature on Earth, raising alarm about the loss of species that are important for biodiversity and society, such as the Sami that directly depend on their surrounding environments. Taken together, informed conservation practices are more urgent than ever in the Arctic. Here, our objective is to combine genome-wide methods and a common garden experiment to identify climate adaptation in Oxyria digyna along a latitudinal gradient.

This project aims to understand the genetic basis of adaptation in Arctic species and the role of the latitudinal variation in climate (e.g. temperature, photoperiod) in determining species response to climate change. Oxyria digyna is a diploid plant common to the Arctic tundra, for which we have developed a reference genome, allowing for fine-scale study of climate adaptation in the species. Our results can be used by stakeholders to identify which populations are conservation priorities for the preservation of the Arctic tundra and its ecosystem services. 

2022

Involved researchers

Main applicant: Ola Olsson, Biodiversity, Department of Biology, Lund University 
Co-applicant: Henrik G. Smith, Centre for Environment and Climate Research, Lund University 
Collaborator: Alexandros Sopasakis, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Lund University

About the project

Current siloed policies for agriculture and forestry may fail to preserve organisms dependent on mosaic landscapes, but the extent of cross-habitat resource use is underexplored. We will study movement of insects and flow of pollen they carry across landscapes with both forest and farmland.

Pollinators such as bumblebees forage on pollen and nectar from flowering forbs, shrubs, and trees, and are important pollinators of both crops and wild plants. Whereas they predominantly utilize open landscapes, flowering trees in forests also provide important resources for them. Most longhorn beetles, many of which are red listed, develop in dead wood in trees as larvae, but adults depend on pollen for foraging, much of which they find outside the forest. Thus, these two insect groups link forest and farmland, in opposite directions, through their pollen foraging.

We will assess the landscape use of bumblebees from their pollen loads, by parametrizing a new model for central-place foraging. Importantly, that model uniquely includes movement resistance of habitats, which means that corridor and barrier effects of different habitat types can be assessed. Pollen will be identified and quantified using our novel and game-changing deep-learning based framework, which allows analysing sample sizes orders of magnitude larger than before. 

2022

Involved researchers

Main applicant: Maj Rundlöf (Department of Biology, Lund University)
Co-applicants: Jessica Knapp (Department of Biology, Lund University) and Louise C. Andresen (Department of Earth Sciences, University of Gothenburg)
Collaborator: Claes Ek (Department of Economics, University of Gothenburg)

About the project

Biodiversity conservation must be ecologically effective and socially sustainable to mitigate environmental change, now and in the future. We will address this through a lens of bee conservation in agricultural systems, where multiple drivers such as habitat loss, climate change and pesticide risk threaten bees and pollination services.

Our project will extend our ecological model to generate predictions of bees' reproductive output and pollination services in response to habitat loss and climate change. We will test these drivers in isolation and combination to improve the assessment of the combined effects of these multiple drivers on biodiversity. We will then use our ecological model to explore strategies to handle these combined effects – pollinator conservation practices, to fight the twin challenges of habitat loss and climate change in agricultural systems. Finally, we combine this information with people's intent to implement these conservation practices to identify synergies (e.g. increased bee populations and crop pollination services) or trade-offs (e.g. increased bee populations at a cost to the farmer) that may facilitate or impede future bee conservation efforts. Thus, we aim to demonstrate how a paradigm shift to an interdisciplinary approach can provide policy-ready solutions to environmental change and ultimately increase engagement in biodiversity conservation.

2022

Involved researchers

Main applicant: Emma Kritzberg (Unit of Aquatic Ecology, Biology Department, Lund University)
Co-applicants: Håkan Wallander (Unit of Molecular Ecology, Microbial Ecology and Evolutionary Genetics, Biology Department, Lund University)
Other involved researchers: Dimitrios Floudas (Biology Department, Lund University) and 
Per Persson (Centre for Environmental and Climate Science (CEC))
Collaborators: The Swedish Forest Agency, The drinking water company Sydvatten, The Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management

About the project

While soils represent the largest dynamic organic carbon (OC) pool on Earth, freshwaters are increasingly recognized as important constituents of landscape C budgets. Boreal freshwaters receive, transform, re-mineralize and store large amounts of terrestrially derived OC. Terrestrial export of OC and iron (Fe) to northern freshwaters has increased strongly in the last decades, observed as a browning of the water, with consequences for the biogeochemical fate of the OC. Recent work from our group has highlighted the important role of coniferous afforestation as an underlying driver of increasing export. This is due to the buildup of organic soil layers under coniferous forest, which sustain high OC and Fe export, but it may also be linked to the parallel practice of ditching peat soils to promote forestry.

The aim of the project is to test the effect of mycorrhizal fungi - which become more active in peatland soils after ditching - on mobilization of OC and Fe. This will be achieved by performing mesocosm experiments, where mobilization of OC and Fe into soil solution will be compared in mesocosms a) with spruce and birch seedlings inoculated with the ectomycorrhizal fungi Paxillus involutus, b) with un-inoculated seedlings, and c) without seedlings.

2022

Involved researchers

Main applicant: Johannes Rousk (Department of Biology, Lund University)
Co-applicants Lettice C. Hicks (Department of Biology, Lund University), David Wårlind (Dept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science)
Collaborators: Albert Brangarí (Dept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science)
Practitioner collaboration: Övedsklosters godsförvaltning 
International collaborations: The DIRT Network 

About the project

We will assess how the twin challenges of land-use and climate changes will affect microbial functioning, soil fertility and carbon (C) sequestration, by determining the microbial (i) resistance and (ii) resilience to drought. We will assess the microbial use of C, nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) from soil organic matter (SOM), and contribution to soil C sequestration. To accomplish this, we will assess field experiments in the land-use mosaic at Övedsklosters ägor.

Insights will be incorporated into models for a state-of-the-art mechanistic representation of C-N-P cycling. Our target is to translate land-use management into functional consequences in terms of the resilience of supporting, regulating and ultimately provisioning ecosystem services to climate change-induced drought. We will quantify how land-use conversion will impact ecosystem-level C, N and P-fluxes, and their resilience to drought. By combining land-use comparisons with the rigour of experimental assessments resolving microbial ecology responses to drought, and synthesizing these insights via conceptual models and an ecosystem model, we will reduce a central source of uncertainty regarding the biophysical drivers of the soil carbon cycle. We will also specifically address how experimental changes of vegetation and soil management in different land-uses will generate legacies for the microbial responses to drought.

Quantifying short- and long-term responses of root growth and plant nitrogen uptake to snow addition and summer warming in Arctic dry and wet tundra ecosystems 

2021

Involved researchers

Main applicant: Wenxin Zhang, Dept. of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, Lund University
Co-applicant: Tobias Rütting, Earth Sciences, University of Gothenburg

About the project

Root dynamics have emerged as a critical process in the Arctic tundra ecosystems, as roots constitute a major part of the total plant biomass and mediate ecosystem functions of reallocating soil resources (i.e. water, carbon, and nutrient) and influencing species competition and adaptation to climatic and environmental change. However, due to a general paucity of data, the root dynamics of Arctic ecosystems in responses to warming are less studied. How these responses drive regional and global terrestrial carbon and nitrogen cycle are still poorly understood.

Based on a long-term (2013-present) monitoring of root functional traits in the manipulative experiments for the Arctic dry and wet ecosystems in West Greenland, this project aims to quantify short- and long-term responses of root growth to snow-addition and summer warming, and how these responses affect the plant nutrient uptakes and the above- and below-ground biomass. This project will i) conduct 15N tracer experiments to inform tundra plant N patterns and ii) investigate different treatments effects on root functional traits and biomass.

The expected results can be used to improve the terrestrial ecosystem model in simulating Arctic vegetation dynamics, ecosystem carbon and nitrogen fluxes and the resulting ecosystem feedback to the climate system.

2021

Involved researchers

Main applicant: Dr. Lettice Hicks Department of Biology, Lund University, 
Co-applicant: Dr. Wenxin Zhang Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, Lund University 
Co-applicant: Prof. Johannes Rousk Department of Biology, Lund University

About the project

Soil microorganisms are responsible for the long-term sustainability of terrestrial ecosystems, due to their role in breaking down organic matter (OM), which regulates the soil-atmosphere carbon (C) balance and the release of plant-limiting nutrients to fuel productivity.

A core assumption of the Earth Systems Models (ESMs) used to predict responses to climate change is that C and nutrient mineralization rates are “coupled”. However, this assumption has recently been shown to be invalid, with C and nutrient mineralization becoming “decoupled” if microorganisms “mine” nutrient-rich OM to avoid resource limitation. Microbial “nutrient mining” may therefore be harnessed to increase the C sequestration capacity of soils, whilst maintaining the release of nutrients to fuel plant productivity. However, we currently lack understanding of the determinants and drivers of microbial nutrient mining, which hinders opportunities for effective land-management. In this project, we will:

1. Identify how changes in the supply of resources at the ecosystem scale affect microbial nutrient mining
2. Evaluate the impact of land-management practices on microbial nutrient mining
3. Validate the findings from 1-2 across a fertility gradient
4. Synthesize and integrate insights from 1-3 into a global ecosystem model to assess the implications of microbial nutrient mining for global fluxes of C, N and P.
    

2021

Involved researchers

Main applicant: Anders Ahlström, Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, LU
Co-applicants: Hans W Linderholm, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Gothenburg  and
Karl Ljung, Department of Geology, Lund University 

About the project

This project will quantify carbon (C) storage and vegetation biomass change in primary forest and contrast that with C storage and uptake in managed forests. This is important because, despite the loud public debate, it is currently not known if natural forests are storing or sequestering more or less C than managed forests do. This lack of knowledge hinders future predictions and precludes informed policy decisions on forest management and potential C uptake credits for conservation.

The study is based on a novel map that describe the location and naturalness of 450 primary forests across Sweden. By revisiting older forest inventory plots found in these forests the proposed project will be the first study of changes in primary boreal forest C storage, as well as contribute to the most complete study based on inventory data of management impacts on boreal forest C storage globally.

Specific Questions:

• Is the tree growth and C storage of primary forests increasing over time? Why?
• What explains variations between forests (e.g. age, biodiversity, nutrient status, water storage, mortality)?
• What is the effect of forest management on C storage and uptake? 

2021

Involved researchers

Main applicant: Thomas Holst, (Deptartment of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, LU)
Co-applicant: Olle Anderbrant, (Department of Biology, LU)

About the project

The pine weevil is causing high economic losses in newly established or replanted forests by feeding on bark and cambium of conifer seedlings. As a defense mechanism against herbivory, and due to the damage on plant tissue, plants under stress change their emission pattern of volatile organic compounds (BVOC). These compounds are highly reactive and a major player in atmospheric chemistry, and precursor to secondary organic aerosols (SOA).

The project aims to observe the attack of the pine weevil on conifer in real-time, monitor the plant’s stress-induced BVOC emissions in high temporal resolution, and provide quantitative data on stress-induced BVOC emissions required for implementation and validation of plant-stress modules in vegetation models, and to validate models on atmospheric chemistry and aerosol formation used to estimate the radiative forcing of BVOC/aerosol feedbacks.

The project outcomes will give detailed information on insect/plant relationships to the forest management useful for strategies in pest-control in monoculture ecosystems, enhance understanding of the variability of BVOC emissions from ecosystems in a changing environment, and provide crucial data for parameterization and validation of ecosystem models to assess uncertainties in climate modelling.

2021

Involved researchers

Main applicant: Peng Zhang (Researcher at the Department of Earth Sciences, UGOT) 
Co-applicants: Deliang Chen (Professor at Department of Earth Sciences, UGOT); 
Hans W. Chen (Assistant professor at Geoscience and Remote SensingChalmers)

About the project

Global warming is causing earlier spring vegetation greening which has increased spring soil water depletion, exacerbating summer soil drying over Eurasian cold regions. However, whether such changes in spring vegetation growth, together with warmer summers, have led to soil water depletion to a level where summer water availability becomes a limiting factor for summer vegetation growth (i.e., causing summer vegetation drought) relative to the water demand for the vegetation growth remains unclear.

This project aims to quantify the inter-annual variation of the summer vegetation drought stress in Sweden and find out how the intensity of the vegetation drought stress has changed over the past decades in relation to earlier spring vegetation greening and warmer summers, and how the changes have affected summer vegetation growth and carbon fluxes in Sweden. Successfully addressing these research questions will provide us with valuable insight into future trajectories in vegetation growth and carbon sink potential in Sweden in a warmer climate. In contrast to previous studies, this project will develop a method to quantify summer vegetation drought stress, from a vegetation-growth-water-demand perspective, based on the observed response strength of weekly vegetation growth to net atmosphere water supply during the summer. 

2021

Involved researchers

Main applicant: Giuliana Zanchi, INES, Lund University (currently at the Swedish Forest Agency)
Co-applicant (contact): Johanna Alkan Olsson, CEC, Lund University

About the project

The project aims to develop a knowledge basis on continuous cover forestry in Nordic forests though the collection of data and information in the forest and from forest owners and professionals. The development of this knowledge basis is the first necessary step to enable any type of future assessment of the potential implementation of continuous cover forestry in Fennoscandia and its effects on forest ecosystems and the services provided by forests. Currently, the knowledge on this forestry practice in boreal forests is very limited, strongly constraining our capability to investigate its impacts and provide recommendations useful for policy making. The project will be based on an interdisciplinary research collaboration supported by a close interaction with forest owners and professionals.

2021

Involved researchers

Main applicant: Anne D. Bjorkman (Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, UGOT) 
Co-applicants: Robert Björk (Department of Earth Sciences, UGOT), David Wårlind (Department of Phusical Geography and Ecosystem Science, LU), Paul Miller, (Department of Phusical Geography and Ecosystem Science, LU)
Isla Myers-Smith (Global Change Research Institute, the University of Edinburgh) 

About the project

The Arctic is the fastest-warming region on Earth, and its soils contain more than double the amount of carbon currently in the atmosphere. Changes in Arctic vegetation can influence whether this carbon is released into the atmosphere, thus contributing to additional climate warming, but our understanding of this potential is still poor.

Dead plant material (litter) is the primary carbon input to Arctic soils, and thus represents a key component of regional carbon cycling. In order to understand how changes in vegetation could alter litter decomposability across the Arctic, we will: 1) quantify the relationship between plant traits and litter decomposition rates using field experiments and trait measurements, and 2) determine the contribution of Arctic vegetation change to regional-scale changes in litter decomposability by combining empirically estimated trait-decomposability relationships with biome-wide trait databases and multi-decadal records of vegetation change at hundreds of locations across the Arctic.

The knowledge generated by this project will feed into an Arctic-enabled Dynamic Global Vegetation Model (LPJ-GUESS) to determine the contribution of Arctic plant litter decomposition to regional estimates of carbon cycling and to identify potential climate-vegetation feedbacks.

2021

Involved researchers

Main applicant: Lars Eklundh, INES, LU
Co-applicants: Henrik Smith, CEC, LU and Peter Olsson, CEC, LU

About the project

This project aims at developing remote sensing methodology for biodiversity research. The focus is semi-natural grasslands: important reservoirs of biodiversity in intensively managed landscapes, but affected by both local management and landscape context. Given the spatial extents involved, the vital task to monitor their status in a landscape perspective to inform relevant conservation policies is challenging. We propose that monitoring can be facilitated by establishing relationships between remotely sensed habitat descriptors and biodiversity estimates.

We aim to investigate remotely sensed data of productivity, phenology, structure, and spectral variability using novel data from the latest series of satellites. The project will add remote sensing expertise to enable synergistic analyses of novel aspects in grasslands with an on-going project. Thereby, several un-sampled properties will be investigated:

• biological productivity of grasslands and surrounding crop fields (agricultural intensity)
• phenology
• canopy structure and height
• wetness and nutrient status of the grasslands and surrounding landscape and
• spectral diversity

The project will develop methodology for future large-area biodiversity investigations as well as disentangling the role of local and landscape scale drivers of biodiversity. 

Start: 2020

Biodiversity monitoring of insects is a daunting task, traditionally requiring prohibitive amounts of time and taxonomic expertise. Metabarcoding of environmental DNA (eDNA) has propelled the field of biodiversity monitoring of macroorganism into a new era. Metabarcoding allows the simultaneous identification of multiple species using short characteristic gene sequences, while eDNA refers to the DNA released by organisms into water, sediment or air. In a pilot experiment we have shown for the first time that airborne eDNA can be used to detect flying insects. Here we propose to develop and validate the method for the biodiversity monitoring of insects. The method development will be coordinated with other BECC researchers that start using eDNA in a wide range of projects, to foster competence building and institutional learning about eDNA methods at BECC. The proposal is an interdisciplinary collaboration between three departments, two faculties and two strategic research areas (BECC and MERGE), leveraging the unique combination of taxonomical, ecological, molecular biological and aerosol technological expertise present. The proposed method has applications in biodiversity studies, invasive species monitoring, pest monitoring and public health. 

Contact

Project leader

Niklas Wahlberg - portal.research.lu.se

Department of Biology 

niklas [dot] wahlberg [at] biol [dot] lu [dot] se (niklas[dot]wahlberg[at]biol[dot]lu[dot]se)

+46462223102

Collaborating researchers

Fabian Roger (Centre for Environmental and Climate Science) - portal.research.lu.se
Jakob Löndahl (Ergonomics and Aerosol Technology) - portal.research.lu.se

A project on the biodiversity offsetting policies in Sweden and abroad. It entails an interdisciplinary perspective from environmental science and political science. The analysis cover the institutional design, policy processes, actor perceptions, and the current implementation practices.

Biodiversity offsetting policies - portal.research.lu.se

Contact

Project leader

Åsa Knaggård - portal.research.lu.se

Department of Political Science
asa [dot] knaggard [at] svet [dot] lu [dot] se (asa[dot]knaggard[at]svet[dot]lu[dot]se)
+46 46 222 01 64

Collaborating researchers

Johanna Alkan Olsson (Centre for Environmental and Climate Science) - portal.research.lu.se

Fariborz Zelli (Department of Political Science) - portal.research.lu.se

Helena Hanson (Centre for Environmental and Climate Science) - portal.research.lu.se

Nils Droste (Department of Political Science) -  portal.research.lu.se

Terese Thoni - (Centre for Environmental and Climate Science) - portal.research.lu.se

Guilherme Rodrigues Lima (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) - ufrj.br

Start: 2020

Peatlands are a key element when it comes to meet several challenges outlined in the UN sustainable development goals. Despite covering less than 3% of the Earth’s land surface, peatlands store 30% of all soil carbon and are important carrier of biodiversity. But, climate and land-use changes have resulted in an alarming tree colonization affecting biodiversity, hydrology and carbon sequestration for many boreal peatlands. As for now, hardly any interdisciplinary study has investigated the cause and effects of such tree colonization and involved feedbacks. We will therefore use the latest developments in simulation techniques to explicit tree colonization modelling and linked hydrology, carbon and climate feedbacks. However, the models need to be validated before we can determine how accurate such projections are. We therefore propose a Postdoctoral project to (1) compile existing monitoring data showing links and feedbacks between climate, hydrology and tree growth in peatlands, and (2) use our data to test existing models and to provide reliable projections of peatland responses in the context of future climate scenarios. We will cooperate with stakeholders operating peatland restoration projects, allowing direct implementation of our results in restoration initiatives to maximize the benefits of the project in terms of sustainable management.

Contact

Project leader

Johannes Edvardsson - portal.research.lu.se

Quaternary Sciences

johannes [dot] edvardsson [at] geol [dot] lu [dot] se (johannes[dot]edvardsson[at]geol[dot]lu[dot]se)

+46 46 222 78 84

Collaborating researchers

Veiko Lehsten (Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science) - portal.research.lu.se

Leif Klemedtsson (Department of Earth Sciences, University of Gothenburg) - gu.se

Åsa Kasimir (Department of Earth Sciences, University of Gothenburg) - gu.se

Start: 2020

There is no clear scientific consensus about the effects of the herbicide glyphosate on human health and the environment. Yet, the societal debates about its regulation and economic consequences are heated. Social media (and more specifically Twitter) content constitutes a useful source of information and influence for policy makers, stakeholders and other actors when it comes to important socio-ecological issues such as the potentially harmful use of glyphosate in farming and gardening. Understanding the dynamics and (emotional) content of the discourse can raise awareness and help to take relevant actions. To map the discursive terrain over time, we will employ state of the art social media analysis algorithms that allow us to derive sentiment (like happiness and sadness), stances (like certainty and uncertainty), and latent topics from around 2.5 million tweets on glyphosate from 2006-2019 in all European languages. Thereby, the GlyphoSentiment project will contribute knowledge on how to tackle the socio-ecological challenges and improve our understanding of how science, policy, and social media discourse interact on a highly contested topic.

Glyphosate in social media - a spatio-temporal analysis of twitter controversies among European stakeholders - portal.research.lu.se

Contact

Project leader

Nils Droste - portal.research.lu.se

Department of Political Science
nils [dot] droste [at] svet [dot] lu [dot] se (nils[dot]droste[at]svet[dot]lu[dot]se)
+46 763417341
 

Collaborating researchers

Marion Dupoux (Department of Economics, University of Gothenburg) - gu.se

Niklas Boke Olén (Centre for Environmental and Climate Science) - portal.research.lu.se

Hakim Abdi (Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science) - portal.research.lu.se

Maj Rundlöf (Department of Biology) - portal.research.lu.se

Start: 2020

Pesticides are used to control pests in agriculture, but can also lead to exposure and effects on non-target pollinators. Bees are important pollinators that can be exposed to pesticides when foraging for pollen and nectar in agricultural landscapes. There are several routes of pesticide exposure for bees, but one less explored is that through air. Pesticides in the air are part of the national environmental quality monitoring since ten years and residues of over 50 compounds can be found throughout the vegetation season. In this project, we aim to quantify bee pollinator exposure to pesticides through air and food along an agricultural intensification gradient defined by the proportion of cropland in the surrounding landscape. We will sample air, bees, nectar and pollen at six apple orchards in southernmost Sweden, distributed along a gradient of increasing cropland and decreasing semi-natural grassland and forest in the landscape. The identity and concentrations of pesticides will be related among materials and to the intensification gradient, forming the basis for land use policy to reduce pollinator pesticide exposure. Our findings will be useful for pollinator conservation, harnessing pollination services to crops and wild plants and for authorities, growers of insect pollinated crops and beekeepers. 

Contact

Project leader

Maj Rundlöf - portal.research.lu.se

Department of Biology
maj [dot] rundlof [at] biol [dot] lu [dot] se (maj[dot]rundlof[at]biol[dot]lu[dot]se)
+46 709298524

Collaborating researchers

Ove Jonsson (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) - slu.se

Jenny Kreuger (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) - slu.se

In 2018, Sweden saw its most extreme wildfire season in modern history. Climate warming is predicted to increase the frequency of extreme fire seasons, yet knowledge on fire impacts on the Eurasian forests and their feedback on climate is scarce, particularly for early post-fire regeneration years. This creates a large uncertainty in carbon budgets, impairs climate model predictions and undermines identification of post-fire management that best supports Swedish climate targets and the Paris Agreement. 

We address these gaps by examining Sweden’s largest wildfire of 2018. With BECC guest researcher and Formas funding, we capture effects of common and alternative forest-management approaches on the forest's greenhouse gas (GHG) budget since the critical first post-fire year. This BECC project will considerably extend ongoing research. We link responses across disciplines, from soil microbial ecology, biogeochemistry, micrometeorology to biodiversity, and bridge across spatial scales from microbial growth rates and gross nutrient mineralisation rates to ecosystem GHG emissions and uptake. We quantify the impact of forest management on the "microbial pump", nutrient limitation, nutrient bioavailability, and biodiversity resilience, and relate the findings to soil and ecosystem GHG exchanges to identify key ecological drivers for above- and belowground forest ecosystem recovery.

Contact

Project leader

Natascha Kljun - portal.research.lu.se

Centre for Environmental and Climate Science
natascha [dot] kljun [at] cec [dot] lu [dot] se (natascha[dot]kljun[at]cec[dot]lu[dot]se)
+46 761357744

Collaborating researchers

Louise C Andresen (Department of Earth Sciences, University of Gothenburg) - gu.se

Johannes Rousk (Department of Biology) - portal.research.lu.se

Johan Ekroos (Centre for Environmental and Climate Science) - portal.research.lu.se

2021

Involved researchers

Main applicant: Anneli Poska (Dept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, LU) 
Co-applicants: Karl Ljung (Department of Geology), Göran Wallin (Biological and Environmental sciences, UGOT) 
Collaborators: Simon Bell (Director of PhD/MPhil Programme in Landscape Architecture, Edinburgh College), Gustav Strandberg (SMHI); Hanna Lundmark (SLU, Umeå); Mark Brady (SLU, AgriFood Economics Centre); Giuliana Zanchi (Skogsstyrelsen)

About the project

The project will bring together a multidisciplinary (forestry, ecosystem modelling, biochemistry, (palaeo)ecology, carbon dynamics, etc.) group of researchers, and a collaborator group adding to the project’s cross-disciplinarity dimension. Combining modern palaeoecological and biochemical analysis methods with ecosystem modelling, forestry history, and economics we will determine and quantify the impact of three forest management strategies: selective cutting, transitional, and clear-cutting-based forest management. These strategies have been implemented in Sweden during the last 200 years on vegetation composition, plant biodiversity, surface water nutrient loading, and biomass and timber production.

The palaeoecological data on vegetation composition, plant diversity, trophic state of lake water, and biochemical composition of dissolved organic matter is representative of the area at most 1 km from the centre of the lake and will be collected for three historical periods: 1) before 1850 CE (representative of selective-cutting) 2) 1850 – 1950 CE (representative of a transitional period from selective- to clearcutting) 3) after 1950 CE (representative of clear-cutting). Two dynamic models, LPJ-Guess and ForSAFE, will be used to simulate the effects of forest management strategies on biomass production, timber yield, and dissolved organic carbon export at three (stand– ForSAFE, local (2x2 km) – LPJ-Guess, and regional (province) – LPJGuess) spatial scales.

Fusing ecosystem models with multi-scale measurements to improve agricultural prediction of yields, soil carbon turnover, and greenhouse gas emissions

2022

Involved researchers

Coordinators: Wenxin Zhang (Dept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, LU), Lars Eklundh (Dept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, LU), Jonas Ardö (Dept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, LU) and Lettice Hicks (Department of Biology, LU).

About the project

Measurement and monitoring techniques have been continuously improved in recent decades, providing comprehensive datasets that aid in our understanding of the mechanisms underlying processes such as soil biogeochemistry and crop phenology and productivity, as well as the consequences of agricultural management. Most of these observations are collected based on specific purposes and contexts, reflecting ecosystem dynamics at different spatial and temporal scales. For instance, the Sentinel-2 satellite retrievals provide above-ground vegetation greenness to indicate crop phenology and productivity at a scale of 10m × 10m, while eddy covariance techniques provide continuous and high-frequency measurements of CO2 and heat fluxes at a footprint coverage of 1–25 hectares. In contrast, soil incubation experiments are usually conducted within microcosms or soil chips, with techniques such as optical microscopy resolving soil biogeochemical processes on a cm-toµm scale. These wide ranges of data present challenges in translating all the information to the same system and unifying it across different scales.

Process-based ecosystem models are capable of representing ecosystem processes across scales and flexible enough to upscale observations to the ecosystem level. In this action group (AG), we will unite scientists working on agriculture measurements, Earth observations and ecosystem modelling to discuss the challenges and feasibility of building a model framework that can integrate multi-scale measurements. This group will promote multi-disciplinary collaboration on model-data fusion aiming to improve agricultural prediction of crop yields, soil carbon turnover, and greenhouse gas emissions. Specifically, we will address the following questions:

1. What specific mechanisms or processes are lacking in crop models (e.g., Aquacrop, CoupModel and LPJ-GUESS) that limit their application for agriculture?
2. What measurements/observations should be fused in the model as drivers in addition to climate data? What are the benefits of the model's prediction?
3. Is it feasible to fuse multi-scale measurements into the same model? What approach should be taken to data fusion: data assimilation or calibration?
4. How can we promote such a model-data fusion framework in agricultural applications and interact with stakeholders to address pressing issues such as the optimization of soil carbon sequestration and fertility for sustainable agriculture; yield responses to drought; negative or zero emissions of agriculture greenhouse gases; and nutrient leakage?

2022

Involved researchers

Coordinators: Alexandra Nikoleris (Environmental and Energy Systems Studies, LTH) and Nils Droste (Department of Political Science, LU)
Collaborator: Bregje van Veelen (Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies, LUCSUS)

About the project

In this action group we aim to bring a new set of methods to the BECC community, namely futures studies. The overall purpose is to explore a future for meaningful and desirable biodiversity conservation through an interdisciplinary, collaborative storyworld-building effort.

Pantopia is a world some 150 years in the future in which biodiversity loss has been stabilized, climate change is controlled, and society has reached a resilient state in which people live in harmony with nature. This is the setting, which we aim to explore and co-create further with an interdisciplinary group of researchers.

This world-building exercise will provide insights for the BECC community on which futures are desirable and help to identify potential pathways into them. This follows the ideas of the IPBES scenario developments for nature positive futures (IPBES, 2022). 

2021

Involved researchers

Action group coordinator and team leaders: Albert Brangarí (Department of Biology, LU), Julia Kelly (Centre for Environmental and Climate Science, LU), Lettice Hicks (Department of Biology, LU), Anders Alhström (Dept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, LU). 
Other core-group members: Natascha Kljun (Centre for Environmental and Climate Science, LU), Johan Uddling (Department of Biological & Environmental Sciences, GU), Göran Wallin (Department of Biological & Environmental Sciences, GU), Johannes Rousk (Department of Biology, LU).

About the project

Soils contain more carbon (C) than is stored in vegetation and the atmosphere combined. As such, any variation in soil C stocks will have a big influence on the global C cycle and climate. The emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) from terrestrial ecosystems to the atmosphere has been traditionally studied from two “schools of thought” (or “scales of thought”). One focuses on the ecosystem level, studying the C exchanges between soil, vegetation and the atmosphere by using data from eddy covariance flux towers. The other centers on CO2 emissions at the soil level and uses data from respiration chambers installed in the field or measurements obtained from laboratory incubations. Unfortunately, researchers from these different schools rarely work together and are unaware of each other’s concepts and findings.

The main aim of this action group is to reconcile these different research approaches. For this, we will focus on a specific type of CO2 emission that has been extensively studied from the two perspectives, but separately, and would certainly benefit from a more holistic approach that integrates different scales and disciplines. The phenomenon of interest is known as the Birch effect and consists of a dramatic increase in decomposition and mineralization rates when dry soils are rewetted by precipitation or irrigation, which results in a large pulse of CO2 that can last from a few hours to several weeks. This phenomenon has been well documented in ecosystems experiencing periodic or seasonal dry periods (e.g., in Mediterranean or savanna ecosystems), where the increased fluxes after rewetting can constitute a large fraction of the annual emissions. In contrast, only a few studies have investigated these emissions in ecosystems less prone to droughts and, for instance, reports in Sweden are limited to measurements at the soil level in chambers or laboratory incubations.

The core-team of this action group are confident that increased CO2 emissions after rewetting should also be observed in data from eddy covariance flux towers, in particular after exceptional rain deficits such as the drought of 2018. Due to climate change, periods of drought will only get more frequent in these latitudes; therefore, establishing the grounds for such observations is key to accurately estimating drought-related CO2 emissions from soil and including them in models. A secondary aim of this action group is to set the basis for a new interdisciplinary line of research to study the current impact of the Birch effect in Swedish and similar ecosystems worldwide and to estimate its potential relevance under future climate change scenarios.

2021

Involved researchers

Main applicant: Romana Salis (Department of Biology, LU)
Co-applicants: Georgina Brennan (guest researcher, Department of Biology, LU), Anna Persson (Centre for Environmental and Climate research, LU), Niklas Wahlberg (Biological museum, LU), Dag Ahrén (Department of Bioology, LU), Magne Friberg (Department of Biology, LU), Olof Hellgren (Department of Biology, LU), Anders Nilsson (Department of Biology, LU)

About the project

Global biodiversity is in decline due to human land use, exploitation, and climate change. To understand whether our forthcoming actions and policy implementation counteract this alarming trend, it is paramount to closely follow the state of biodiversity at regional and global scales.

The monitoring of species from the DNA they leave behind, so called ‘environmental DNA’ (eDNA) has emerged as one of the most powerful tools at our disposal. Environmental DNA refers to all DNA contained in an environmental sample, including whole microorganisms, propagules such as pollen and spores as well extra-organismal DNA which has been shed by larger organisms. Collecting samples for eDNA is rapid, cost-effective and non-destructive. In combination with high-throughput sequencing, it is now possible to simultaneously detect thousands of species from complex environmental samples (by eDNA metabarcoding or shotgun metagenomics). Making eDNA a powerful tool and revolutionizing the detection of biodiversity in many ecosystems (Deiner et al., 2017a). The use of eDNA is rapidly growing: in terrestrial ecosystems flower swabs have been sequenced to study pollinator interactions (Thomsen and Sigsgaard, 2019), leaves to study ungulate browsers (Nichols et al., 2015), blood meals to study vertebrate diversity (Schnell et al., 2018), droppings to study diets (Deagle et al., 2005), honey to study foraging behaviour of bees (de Vere et al., 2017), or topsoil to measure mammal diversity (Leempoel et al., 2020).

The application of eDNA methods has huge potential to stimulate progress in research within BECC. While studying biodiversity is at the core of a large part of the research, to date only few of us have tapped into the full potential of eDNA methods. The aim of this action group is to achieve competence and network building and serve as a kick-starter for the integration of modern eDNA methods in biodiversity research, and as such support ongoing projects and strengthen future applications and research.

START: 2020

Instrumental observations of climate and environmental variables are often comparably short and representative of local settings. In the context of global warming and other recent environmental changes the short time span of instrumental records can make it difficult to quantify the impacts of human-induced changes since the industrial revolution. Environmental and climate reconstructions based on palaeo-ecological and geochemical proxy data from natural archives can be of high resolution (even seasonal) and of very high quality. Such records can range from site-specific reconstructions to gridded reconstructions on regional to global scales. Proxy records and other pre-instrumental data effectively provide a baseline as a backdrop for the current changes, not only as estimates of preindustrial levels, but also provide information on changes in variability and spatial patterns. The most realistic time frame to explore is the past millennium, the period from which high-resolution proxy records, historical accounts and museum collections are most abundant.

With this action group we aim to extend the temporal perspective of BECC-relevant research to achieve enhanced mechanistic understanding and quantification of recent and future dynamics of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Focus will be placed on environmental and climate change across a range of scales in both space and time to foster new collaborations and research proposals. We will inform BECC-affiliated working groups of the potential of using pre-instrumental records through seminars and workshops. A specific aim is to cast a report outlining the added value of, as well as the methods involved in, pre-instrumental approaches to inform environmental and climate change. The report will be based on topics and methods mastered by the LU and GU BECC researchers active in the action group and can form the 
basis of a review paper.  
 

Application of pre-industrial data to quantify current impacts of environmental and climate change - portal.research.lu.se

Contact

Coordinator

Dan Hammarlund (Department of Geology) - portal.research.lu.se

Collaborating researchers

Jesper Sjolte (Department of Geology) - portal.research.lu.se

Johannes Edvardsson (Department of Geology) - portal.research.lu.se

Helena Filipsson (Department of Geology) - portal.research.lu.se

Karl Ljung (Department of Geology) - portal.research.lu.se

Anne Birgitte Nielsen (Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science) - portal.research.lu.se

Anna Runemark (Department of Biology) - portal.research.lu.se

Deliang Chen (Department of Earth Sciences, University of Gothenburg) - gu.se

Hans W Linderholm (Department of Earth Sciences, University of Gothenburg) - gu.se

START: 2020

The overarching aim of the proposed action group is to seek an improved understanding of how landscape structure impacts plant-pollinator community structure and function, mediated through ecological interactions and functional-trait evolution. Such understanding is imperative for informing management strategies for maintaining pollination systems that underlie multiple ecosystem services. We argue that a major constraint on our ability to understand, predict, and prevent the consequences of current pollinator declines and subsequent service loss is limited knowledge about how ecological, evolutionary, and spatial processes interact. The importance of interacting eco-evolutionary and spatial processes for conservation are highlighted in recent literature. This calls for a better understanding of the mechanistic underpinning of these processes in the context of ecosystems services. Answering this call is, however, non-trivial. Eco-evolutionary feedbacks are difficult to study, making combined theoretical and empirical investigations across levels of biological organization (e.g. population- and community-level analysis) and across spatiotemporal scales essential. Expertise from different scientific fields within biology is also required. Evidence for evolutionary response to human-altered landscapes and domesticated species is accumulating. First, differences both in the landscape composition and in the traits of 
domesticated species, compared with their wild ancestors, alter the selection pressures acting on wild species and result in evolutionary responses. While pesticide resistance is the most well-studied phenomenon, other evolutionary responses including host shifts, phenological shifts, and shifts in morphology and rate of development have been observed  in response to interactions with domesticated crops. For example, experimental-evolution studies on seed beetles have shown differences between those reared on domesticated and wild plants, which led to reduced larval competition ability with potential important implications for interacting species. To date, there is little knowledge of the effects of such evolutionary responses on interactions with other wild organisms and communities. No clear methodological framework or suggested entry point to how such complexity can be studied holistically exists. With this in mind, our specific aim is to synthesize the field, explicitly focusing on designing novel scientific avenues for studying the combined effect of eco-evolutionary and spatial processes in plant-pollinator systems ultimately affecting their structure and function. We embrace the idea that no single methodological approach will provide the required understanding but synergies among approaches will. 

Evolutionary feedbacks in plant-pollinator communities novel avenues for studying structure and function - portal.research.lu.se

Contact

Coordinator

Mikael Pontarp (Department of Biology) - portal.research.lu.se

Collaborating researchers

Øystein Opedal (Department of Biology) - portal.research.lu.se

Anna Runemark (Department of Biology) - portal.research.lu.se

Anna Persson (Centre for Environmental and Climate Sciences) - portal.research.lu.se

Magne Friberg (Department of Biology) - portal.research.lu.se

Henrik Smith (Centre for Environmental and Climate Sciences) - portal.research.lu.se

Colin Olito (Department of Biology) - portal.research.lu.se

Alexandre Antonelli (Department of Biological & Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg) - portal.research.lu.se

START: 2020

The purpose of this Action Group is to launch an initiative within BECC that centres around the global loss of biodiversity and to what extent natural and domesticated populations will remain sustainable in light of increasing land-use demands from a growing human population and ongoing anthropogenic induced climate change. 
We aim to close a knowledge gap related to the genomic effects and consequences of increasingly fragmented landscapes on natural and domesticated populations. Specifically, we aim to understanding how historical population demography and breeding designs will influence the viability of declining populations, and yield losses in economically important crops, in terms of loss of genomic variation and expression of the inbreeding load at different developmental stages.

Genomic causes and consequences of inbreeding in natural and domesticated populations — portal.research.lu.se

Contact

Coordinator

Bengt Hansson (Department of Biology) - portal.research.lu.se 

Department of Biology
bengt [dot] hansson [at] biol [dot] lu [dot] se (bengt[dot]hansson[at]biol[dot]lu[dot]se)
 

Collaborating researchers

Colin Olito (Department of Biology) - portal.research.lu.se

Mark V. Brady (CEC) - portal.research.lu.se

Ola Olsson (Department of Biology) - portal.research.lu.se

Magne Friberg (Department of Biology) - portal.research.lu.se

Anna Runemark (Department of Biology - portal.research.lu.se

START: 2020

Boreal end hemiboreal forests are expected to be particularly exposed and vulnerable to climate change due to the extreme changes predicted for areas at high latitudes in the northern hemisphere. In addition, boreal and hemiboreal forests in Europe are traditionally managed as monospecific even-aged coniferous forests which are highly vulnerable to environmental changes. This vulnerability calls for action to better understand the risks connected to climate change and the barriers to forest management change in order to improve the resilience of boreal 
and hemiboreal forests by implementing adaptation and mitigation forest management strategies based on the gained knowledge. 

The aim of this action group (AG) is to foster collaboration between research groups in BECC to find solutions to increase resilience of boreal and hemiboreal forests. In particular, the AG wants to further develop research opportunities connecting experimental research and remote sensing to ecosystem 
modelling and linking to research investigating social and cultural factors that influence forest management. Moreover, the AG will engage in transferring knowledge to stakeholders and the next generation of researchers. 

Resilient forests - portal.research.lu.se

Contact

Coordinator

Giuliana Zanchi (Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science) - portal.research.lu.se

Collaborating researchers

Anna Maria Jönsson (Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science) - portal.research.lu.se

Johanna Alkan Olsson (Centre for Environmental and Climate Sciences) - portal.research.lu.se

Margarida Soares (Department of Biology) - portal.research.lu.se

Natascha Kljun (Centre for Environmental an Climate Sciences - portal.research.lu.se

Virginia Garcia (Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Sciences) - portal.research.lu.se

Annemarie Reurslag Gärdenäs (Department of Biological Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg) - portal.research.lu.se

Johan Ekroos (Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Helsinki) -researchportal.helsinki.fi

By assembling a new group of scientists with complementary expertise, we identified in the developing of a research project (‘Understanding Arctic browning from macro to nano’) a lack of a review on nanoSIMS methodologies for imaging of i. amino acids and peptides in cells and their matrix (embedded in epoxy), ii. carbon and nitrogen in soil (freeze dried and gold embedded), and iii. cellular uptake of C and N in aquatic environment. This action group aims at bringing the nanoSIMS methodology into the terrestrial ecosystem context of carbon and nutrient cycling. We will provide a review paper, clarifying how the imaging technique can be used for calculating the rates of: depolymerization, amino acid mineralization, and amino acid consumption by plant root-, bacterial and fungal cells in soil, and how to determine a factor of amino acid adsorption to soil particles. In addition we will provide advice for the method on replication, time steps, sensitivity of the method and amount of isotope labelled C and N.

Contact

Coordinator

Louise C Andresen (Department of Earth Sciences, University of Gothenburg) - gu.se

START: 2020

There is an increasing need for practical strategies that effectively reduce and prevent negative impacts from climate change on biodiversity, hereafter referred to as adaptation strategies for biodiversity. To achieve effective adaptation strategies for biodiversity, there is a need to better understand how outcomes are affected by biophysical context (e.g. species' mobility and adaptability to climate change, if the focus is on genetic, functional or species diversity), social context (e.g. stakeholders' attitude, behavior and engagement, and impacts on livelihood), and their interaction.  

Aim: to better understand how social-ecological context matters for the outcomes of adaptation strategies for terrestrial biodiversity. This will be achieved through knowledge exchange and creation during the planned workshop (Activity 1), in the network that the AG creates with BECC researchers from different research fields and an expert group consisting of invited external researchers and representatives from local and regional authorities, and by a quantitative review and synthesis assessing the published literature on existing adaptation strategies for biodiversity and how they have been studied (Activity 2).
 

Social and ecological context of climate change adaptation for biodiversity - portal.research.lu.se

Contact

Coordinator

William Sidemo Holm - (Centre for Environmental and Climate Sciences) - portal.research.lu.se

Collaborating researchers

Kimberly Nicholas (LUCSUS) - portal.research.lu.se

Nils Droste (Department of Political Science) - portal.research.lu.se

Pål Axel Olsson (Department of Biology) - portal.research.lu.se

Jessica Coria (Department of Economics, University of Gothenburg) - gu.se

Johan Ekroos (Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Helsinki) - researchportal.helsinki.fi

START: 2020

It is now becoming evident that climate change disturbs biogeochemical processes and affects both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. In order to better understand whether these disturbances will further accelerate or mitigate climate change we need to know key influencing factors and integrate them over different scales (time and space) and environments (terrestrial and aquatic) 1. Vibrational (micro)spectroscopy techniques provide possibility to address this need by studying structural properties and responses of sample systems 2. 
The existing Vibrational (micro)spectroscopy labs within Mbio Microscopy Facility, Lund University have been 
equipped through funds granted to Centre of Environmental and Climate Science (CEC) and have recently been complemented with several new instruments, including a super-resolution infrared imaging microscope. It is important that researchers within BECC know and take advantage of the potential provided by the (micro)spectroscopy techniques and that the obtained results are integrated to constitute a bigger picture of the importance and relationship between various biogeochemical processes within terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

Therefore, the aim of the AG is (1) to identify common knowledge-gaps within microscale biogeochemistry, and the best approaches to tackle them by bringing together a network of researchers of different expertise. The AG will further (2) provide introduction and training on the use of the novel vibrational (micro)spectroscopy techniques and related data analysis approaches. This, added to the toolbox of other analytical methods conventionally used within the fields, will ensure that more comprehensive results are obtained. The routines and protocols created in the course of AG activities will also create a base and serve a broad user community within and outside BECC. Ultimately, the AG will initiate a vibrational spectroscopy hub with research focused on (but not limited to) biogeochemistry and carbon cycle. Its aim is to connect people with common methodological and research interests. We expect that the knowledge generated during continuous communication between AG researchers, on common research questions and using similar methods, in the long term, will provide insight on the importance of various biogeochemical processes and point to the need for them to be implemented in ecosystem models.

ECOSPEC - portal.research.lu.se

Contact

Coordinator

Milda Pucetaite (Department of Biology) - portal.research.lu.se

Collaborating researchers

Viktoriia Meklesh (Centre for Environmental and Climate Sciences) - portal.research.lu.se

Per Persson (Centre for Environmental and Climate Sciences) - portal.research.lu.se

Edith Hammer (Department of Biology) - portal.research.lu.se

Dimitrios Floudas (Department of Biology) - portal.research.lu.se

Michiel Op de Beeck (Department of Biology) - portal.research.lu.se

Albert Brangarí (Department of Biology) - portal.research.lu.se

Margarida Soares (Department of Biology) - portal.research.lu.se

Helena Filipsson (Department of Geology) - portal.research.lu.se

Martin Berggren (Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Sciences) - portal.research.lu.se

Mats Björkman (Department of Earth Sciences, University of Gothenburg) - gu.se

Louise C Andresen (Department of Earth Sciences, University of Gothenburg) - gu.se