The second live meeting of the FORECO project was held from 13th to 14th May in Lund, Sweden, organized by the project partners from the Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science of Lund University.
The first meeting day was held at Lund University. All the partners presented the progress in their respective work packages, including advances on the combined use of remote sensing and ground-based approaches to assess forest recovery after disturbances, updates of LPJ-GUESS and related disturbance submodules, and preliminary results from the optimization of management strategies under the risk of extreme disturbances. Potential synergies between project partners and with other related European projects were further discussed. A representative of FSC also joined the meeting and gave a presentation on the ecosystem services certification procedure.
The program of the second meeting day consisted of an excursion in managed forests of southern Sweden. We were joined by forest managers and other stakeholders, who showed us how they manage forests in light of the risks connected to global change. The field trip sparked discussions about adaptation strategies to the challenges of global change and the role of spruce, a species which will particularly suffer the warmer climate and intensification of disturbance regimes, in the future of forest management in southern Sweden.
The excursion started at Gustafsborg, which is an industrial forest owner that also offers services to private forest owners. The company has a strong focus on timber and biomass production, working predominantly with spruce plantations managed with a clearcut system. We proceeded with a guided tour of the Hyltemossa research station, which is part of the ICOS (Integrated Carbon Observation System) network, providing standardised measurements of greenhouse gases throughout Europe. The station is located in a spruce forest managed by the Gustafsborg company and features atmosphere and ecosystem flux towers measuring gas exchange at various heights above the ground using eddy covariance techniques, besides collecting meteorological data, and monitoring biomass growth, vegetation diversity, and soil characteristics in permanent plots. Finally, we had guided tour of the Fulltofta forest recreation area, where timber production is only a secondary goal. We walked through open areas and forest stands, characterized by diverse structures and species compositions. Here managers rely on a variety of silvicultural systems combining planted and natural regeneration, with a strong focus on improving forests adaptive capacity to global change.
All pictures by Tom Nagel (University of Ljubljana)