Mixed forests, mixed education

SLU researcher Zsofia Reka Stangl has lived in Umeå for close to 15 years. She enjoys family life outside of the bigger city. But she could have gotten a better start.

– I started my Ph. D. at Umeå university and moved here in February. It wasn’t the greatest month to start perhaps, because it’s so cold and dark. The difference from Budapest was stark at the beginning, says Zsofia, who is now employed at SLU as a researcher.

Good Hungarian neighbours

As an expat in Sweden, there were many small cultural differences and peculiarities. But the most notable thing, according to Zsofia, was that it was harder to get to know people in Sweden.

– There are always differences between countries. But what stood out the most was that you don’t get to know your neighbours here like you do in Hungary. There, if you move into a new building, your neighbours will come knocking and have a coffee. In Sweden it takes longer. But it also depends on where you are in life. As a student, I hung out in international circles. Now we live in Vännäs and the neighbours are mostly Swedish families.

Aside from her basic degree, Zsofia has spent her adult life in Sweden. Her experience with Hungarian academia is therefore somewhat limited these days. But her impression of it, is (was) that researchers are "safer". That safety is something she sees as a challenge in Swedish academia.

– I was a student then, but my impression was that there were fewer jobs in Hungary. But the ones there were, were safer and fully financed. You didn’t have to apply for funding to cover your salary. As a researcher in Sweden, you have to fund yourself. Almost no-one is completely safe in that regard. That can be stressful at times.

Researching mixed forests

Teaching duties for Zsofia aren’t too taxing, and her PSR assignment sits at 15 percent. That leaves plenty of time for research. Zsofia’s is about plant physiology. She researches (among other things) how forests are affected by climate change. For example, carbon dynamics, meaning how much is stored, where it goes and how various factors influence this.

She is responsible for two Ph. D. students, who are looking into things like regeneration under a tree canopy, and how mixed forests (coniferous and deciduous) would work in northern Sweden, from a productivity point of view. The latter is a hot topic as monoculture and clear cutting is increasingly being questioned.

– The key question is whether mixed forests (most likely with a birch/coniferous mix) would affect productivity, and how. What are the physiological responses to a mixed forest and how would species come to interact with each other? A lot of observations have been made but we’re working with hypotheses; we want to try and understand why it grows they way it does.

– There’s increasing pressure from the EU regarding biodiversity and forest strategy is part of that. Creating more varied forests using birch would be an obvious choice for Sweden. It would create new possibilities for birds, insects and other organisms to thrive, says Zsofia.

Hard keeping track

Zsofia Reka Stangl serves as programme director of studies for the Forest Ecology and Sustainable Management master’s programme. She’s held the position for four years and enjoys the work. She notes that the students have become significantly more international in the last few years.

– A few years ago, we had the jägmästare programme and many students on that were Swedes, coming directly from SLU. Now that’s changed and we have several master’s programmes instead. That means there’s less skogsvetare on the programme, even though we still have a fair number. And we have a lot more international students.

Students usually have no trouble finding work post-graduating. But it’s hard to know exactly where they go since the alumni programme obviously is voluntary. And there simply aren’t enough volunteers:

– Our students are very capable. But it’s hard to motivate them to give us feedback. I’ve written a question in the evaluation form this year, asking what kind of job they would like, if they already have one lined up and so on. Hopefully that will give us some information, says Zsofia.

A mixed education

When it comes to Forest Ecology and Sustainable Management, Zsofia wants to maintain the interdisciplinary character of the programme. That’s where its main strengths lie, she says. It shouldn’t be just one thing or the other, it should be both. And thus something new entirely.

– We’re trying to fuse forestry and ecology into something new. But previously, we’ve had some students who were surprised because they expected something different; a different scope. But we’re trying to maintain that balance and work with both approaches at once. Working with both biodiversity and forestry is the whole point. It’s been somewhat clumsily formulated in the past, but we’re working on that. It’s a work in progress!

Text and photo: Henrik Persson

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