Quite recently, six new PhD positions in foresty have been announced, in Sweden. All of them are within FRAS project, which focuses on future forests in southern Sweden. If you like to become a PhD candidate in forestry in Sweden, this post is perfectly tailored to you!
FRAS Project
The main idea behind FRAS project is to contribute to the further development of forest management in southern Sweden, and adapt forest management to current and future needs and conditions. This will be done in close collaboration with the forest industry in the region. A dialogue will be conducted with other stakeholders involved in forestry to capture all forest benefits .
The program will focus on a number of PhD projects that are focused on different phases of management, in order to create a holistic approach to forest management chain, from regeneration to harvesting mature stands.
Two main themes of PhD positions
The research has two general themes that will permeate PhD projects and involve collaboration between graduate students, research colleagues and business representatives. The first theme is a more detailed customization of various management measures to variation in habitat characteristics within and between populations. This can be done by exploring the use of new digital data sources like water maps and terrain models for increased adaptation of management practices. The second theme is to create opportunities for a more varied forest management at the landscape level by diversifying management strategies for the patient’s goals.
Communication with different parts of the forest sector is an important part of the program. Traditional communication paths such as excursions and forest evenings will be mixed with new ones such as web courses and applications for mobile phones and tablets. The research program will reinforce skills in maintenance area and to ensure that both existing and new knowledge forestry for the benefit.
PhD positions combo!
Here you have all of them, together with short descriptions and links to SLU website, where you can read more about these PhD positions in detail and the application process at SLU.
I) Regeneration of Scots pine
In order to counteract the present negative trend of Scots pine in the area, we are now looking for a PhD-student that will develop new regeneration methods for Scots pine in southern Sweden. In the PhD-project, new field experiments will be installed and data from them will be analyzed. Data from already existing experiments will also be used in the project, among other to investigate the effect of browsing and to find methods to reduce the negative effects of browsing on production and economy.
READ MORE HERE: Regeneration of Scots pine
II) Effective regenerations
The aim of this PhD project is to identify forest regeneration chains; combinations of methods of eg. site preparation, plant material and tree species, that result in high plant survival and growth for different forestry goals. New information from GIS-tools that are already used within forestry, will be integrated with knowledge of the biological conditions. In this way, methods can be created that will make the regenerations sustainable regarding economy, production and the environment.
The PhD student will use scientific experiments in combination with profound analyses to examine these questions. To be able to evaluate the results of today´s regenerations data from existing and new field inventories of plantations will be used. In addition, established field experiments with different soil preparation methods and different planting densities will be used and new field experiments may be established. A significant part of the work will involve analyses and evaluations of different regeneration alternatives, including studies of how new information technology can be integrated and used in the forest regeneration stage.
READ MORE HERE: Effective regenerations
III)Pre-commercial thinning for diverse forest types
We are looking for a PhD student who will study how pre-commercial thinning can be used to promote the variety of the young forest and how it will influence the stand development. The PhD student will study how naturally regenerated broadleaves can be utilized to create mixed stands. The PhD student is also going to evaluate the possibility to promote structural variety already the time of pre-commercial thinning. A part of the work will be to compile and analyse data from existing field experiments but also to establish and evaluate new field experiments.
READ MORE HERE:Pre-commercial thinning for diverse forest types
IV) Biodiversity management in forest thinnings
We are offering a PhD position for development of new strategies for first commercial thinning in pine and spruce stands in Southern Sweden. The project is divided in two main parts. The first is about thinning aiming to keep mixed conifer/deciduous forest stands. The other is about
measures and precautions directed to earlier retention of trees and biotopes. Each part should be evaluated with respect to wood production and species conservation. Field work will contain both species inventories and forest mensuration.
READ MORE HERE: Biodiversity management in forest thinnings
V) Effective silvicultural treatments
The aim of this PhD project is to evaluate both traditional and new variables (e.g. leaf area) of the forest stand in order to increase the accuracy of silvicultural measures. Studies will also be made on what scale it makes sense to vary the thinning strategy. New variables that may be important for decisions about thinning and thinning strategy should describe the canopy closure, tree species composition and competition between species and local conditions of the forest stand. One purpose is also to study the smallest scale that is meaningful and financially feasible to collect and process data for variation of thinning strategies.
READ MORE HERE: Effective silvicultural treatments
VI) Silviculture and wood quality in mixed stands
The purpose of the PhD project is to increase our understanding on specific wood qualitative aspects of mixed (spruce and birch) forest stands in Southern Sweden. Selected birch genotypes will also be investigated. Assessing the genotypic variations in wood, fibre, stem quality and growth characteristics for different birch clones coming from ongoing trials it is of great value in introducing supplementary and more industry specific traits in the Swedish long-term breeding programme for birch. Other ongoing trials with mixed stands of various species composition and at different maturity levels will provide material for exploring the effect of management practices on stem quality and wood properties of both spruce and birch. Developed models, which connect the external to internal timber quality, will lay the scientific ground to improve the production efficiency of value added wood products from birch plantations and mixed forest stands.
READ MORE HERE: Silviculture and wood quality in mixed stands