
The Silviculture research program is committed to advancing forestry practices in Sweden’s boreal forests. This program seeks to tackle the pressing challenges of enhancing forest growth and the need for sustainable forestry practices that support biodiversity and carbon sequestration.
By integrating basic and applied science, the project aims to develop practical solutions rooted in basic scientific knowledge and an understanding of the underlying mechanism. The research seeks to enhance forest management strategies, based on the ecological and physiological processes that affect forest growth.
The program also focuses on utilizing natural spatial heterogeneity in forest management, moving away from the traditional homogeneous treatment of large forest areas. The long-term goal is to enhance forest productivity and sustainability, ensuring that forest management practices are well-grounded in scientific knowledge.
Structure of the research project Silviculture, showing the exchanges of ideas and results between the themes. The focus of theme 1 is on water and nutrients as growth regulating factors in relation to age, size and species mixtures at tree, stand and landscape scale. Theme 2 explores the potential of new management options, based on theme 1 and 3. Theme 3 aims to quantitatively integrate basic knowledge to be used in applied silvicultural practices.
IIASA's Role in the Project
The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) has a crucial role in the Silviculture project by providing expertise in forest modeling and systems analysis. Forest modeling is used to interpret experimental results and observations in terms of underlying mechanisms, and to link processes at different scales, and connect basic and applied sciences with the program. IIASA's involvement serves as a building platform for additional capacity for forest modeling and forest systems analysis in Sweden, with the goal to put basic science into practice for enhanced productivity across the Swedish boreal forest landscape.