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Thomas Wieloch will study which processes hinder carbon assimilation in wheat (Photo: Mattias Pettersson, Umeå University)
Formas, the Swedish governmental research council for sustainable development, awarded Thomas Wieloch, postdoc at Umeå Plant Science Centre and SLU, a mobility grant for early-career researchers. He will investigate which processes hinder carbon assimilation in wheat and try to identify possible ways to improve productivity. His project will be in collaboration with his current supervisor Totte Niittylä and with Alex Sessions from the California Institute of Technology.
Congratulations to your mobility grant! Are you excited to start your project?
Thank you! Absolutely! This is the next step in my academic career. In addition to developing my own research, which I am already familiar with, I will now also have to manage project funds. A great responsibility I have not had before. I am very grateful to Formas for their trust and support.
You plan to identify processes that inhibit photosynthesis and carbon assimilation in C3 plants focusing on wheat. Why did you choose to work with wheat?
I would like to work with wheat because wheat is an extremely important crop both nationally and globally. It is actually one of the so-called ‘big three’ cereal crops feeding the world which means that it contributes substantially to the diet of several billions of people. In my opinion, these are very good reasons to try and better understand how this plant works at the metabolic level and to improve it.
Why is it important to identify processes that inhibit photosynthesis?
Ultimately, my project is all about releasing the brakes on photosynthesis. Biochemical mathematical models suggest that plants in general do not usually achieve their full photosynthetic potential. I believe that identifying inhibitory processes will provide the scientific basis for efforts aimed at optimising photosynthesis genetically, and this has enormous potential for improving agricultural productivity and food security.
You plan to work with stable isotopes which are naturally occurring, non-radioactive forms of a chemical element that are often used as tracers in biological systems. How can isotope technologies help to understand photosynthesis and carbon assimilation in plants, especially in C3 plants?
Stable isotopes can tell us how plants utilise their resources. Using isotope technologies, we may obtain information on where, within a metabolic network, resources get lost or where they are not used in the best possible way. This is not especially true for C3 plants, but for plants in general.
You are currently working as postdoc in Totte Niittylä’s group at UPSC and plan to continue there during the first two years of the project. Why did you choose to join UPSC and Totte Niittylä’s group in the first place and how will the group’s expertise contribute to your research project?
UPSC is one of the strongest research environments in experimental plant biology in Europe. It is home to excellent research groups covering a broad range of topics and very well equipped with basically everything I need to conduct my experiments. While I am quite proficient in modelling biochemical processes based on isotope data, Totte Niittylä’s group has longstanding experience in conducting isotope tracer experiments and biochemical analyses which means that our skillsets are complementing each other in very good ways. Besides, Totte is very supportive, and this is making a real difference especially for an early-career researcher. He is going out of his way to help me advance my career, and I am extremely grateful for that.
The third and fourth year of your project you plan to spend with Alex Sessions at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. What do you hope to learn in his group and how will this benefit your project?
Alex Sessions’ group is working on solving highly challenging problems within the stable isotope field that many other groups seemingly tend to stay away from. Recently, his group developed software for modelling isotope changes in complex networks. I believe this software constitutes an important breakthrough since it allows estimations of carbon fluxes based on natural-abundance isotope data in a convenient way. Sooner or later, everyone in the stable isotope field will want to implement these software capabilities in their research to obtain the best results possible, and I would like to be at the forefront of this development. I have great respect for this group’s dedication to pushing current boundaries.
Why did you choose to apply at Formas for the mobility grant for early-career researchers?
Formas provides a great mobility grant package. This package enables young scientists to independently develop their own line of research and visit research environments outside of Sweden where they may learn new methods, expand their research network, and get inspired by what others do. The package not only includes the awardee’s salary, but also covers additional living costs for the time spent at research institutes outside of Sweden, project-related costs, pension benefits and so on. To sum it up, Formas offers early-career researchers an entirely fair framework in which to advance their careers.
Do you have some tips for other early-career researchers applying for similar grants?
I am not feeling entirely comfortable about giving advice on what to do to get a research grant because my experience in this area is still quite limited. I think what helped me though was a longer list of published first- and corresponding-author papers which show that I have successfully and independently completed research projects before. I have also tried to make sure that my proposed project clearly addresses societal needs and asked Totte, Alex, and our Grants Office for advice as I developed my application which I believe made it a lot more competitive.
Project title: Releasing the brakes on photosynthesis – Identifying processes impeding photosynthesis in wheat leaves by cutting-edge isotope techniques
More information about Formas’ mobility grants for early-career researchers
For questions, please contact:
Thomas Wieloch
Umeå Plant Science Centre
Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Sweden
Email:
Twitter: @WielochThomas
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Rishikesh Bhalearo is honoured with a EMBO Membership for his contributions to life sciences (photo: Andreas Palmén)
The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) announced today the election of 69 new EMBO Members and Associate Members. One of them is Rishikesh Bhalerao, professor at the Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology at SLU, who is honoured with the membership for his “outstanding contributions to life sciences”.
Every year, the EMBO Council elects new members who have made outstanding contributions to the field of life sciences. This year, 60 new EMBO members from 17 different European countries and nine Associated Members based outside of Europe will join the membership organisation. They will contribute with their expertise to the execution of EMBO’s activities and help shaping the future direction the organisation will take to strengthen research communities across Europe and beyond. The EMBO Membership is a lifelong honour.
With the election of Rishikesh Bhalerao, the SLU Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology, that is part of UPSC, has two scientists who are members of EMBO. The other is Ove Nilsson who was elected in 2016. Rishikesh Bhalerao and Ove Nilsson are the only EMBO Members in Sweden actively engaged in plant research.
“I am honoured and humbled by being elected as EMBO member and pleased to join this exclusive group of international researchers", says Rishikesh Bhalerao. “This election signifies the recognition of our work not just nationally but at international level. The credit naturally goes to all my group members and to the UPSC research environment that have made this possible.”
In his research, Rishikesh Bhalerao and his group investigate how plants adapt their growth to the environment focusing on how this is controlled on the molecular level. They follow two main lines of research. Using the perennial plant hybrid aspen as an experimental model, they study how daylength and temperature control seasonal growth cycles in trees. In the second line of research, Rishikesh Bhalerao’s group studies mechano-chemical control of bending of tissues in plants using apical hook development in thale cress - among scientists better known as Arabidopsis thaliana.
Rishikesh Bhalerao’s findings have been published in high-ranking journals like Science, PNAS, Nature Communications and Plant Cell. After his PhD at Umeå University, he went for a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding in Cologne, Germany. In 1997, he came back to Umeå and joined SLU where he was appointed as professor in 2005. He has been part of UPSC since its foundation in 1999 and as vice-chair of the UPSC board he is actively involved developing the research centre further.
As EMBO Member Rishikesh Bhalerao will join a network of 1900 life scientists and can actively participate in EMBO’s activities. Members participate for example in the evaluation of funding applications. They are serving on EMBO’s Council, committees and editorial boards of EMBO Press journals and also act as mentors for young scientists. All new members will be formally welcomed at the annual EMBO Members’ Meeting on October 25-27 in Heidelberg in Germany.
Link to the official press release from EMBO
More information about EMBO on the website of the organisation
For questions, please contact:
Rishikesh Bhalerao
Umeå Plant Science Centre
Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Email:
https://www.upsc.se/rishikesh_bhalerao
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Different populations of Norway spruce have adapted genetically to the local light conditions at different latitudes across Sweden (Photo: María Rosario García-Gil)
Why can Norway spruce from Northern Sweden tolerate shade better than Norway spruce from Southern Sweden? Sonali Ranade and María Rosario García-Gil from UPSC compared the DNA sequence of Norway spruce trees from different latitudes across Sweden and found variations in the genes of light-sensing photoreceptors. These variations could be aligned with the light conditions at the different latitudes. Their results were published recently in the journal Plant, Cell and Environment.
Sonali Ranade and María Rosario García-Gil have shown earlier that Norway spruce populations in Sweden are differently adjusted to the different local light conditions in Sweden. Norway spruce from the North tolerates shade much better than Norway spruce populations from Southern Sweden and this comes along with a better resistance to diseases. Now, the researchers have identified one underlying factor for this adaptation to the latitudinal different light conditions – variations in the genes for photoreceptors.
“Photoreceptors are light sensitive proteins. Plants use them to understand light quality and to sense daylength. Based on the perceived information, plants regulate processes and signalling pathways to adjust their development to their environment”, explains Sonali Ranade, first author of both studies. “We could show now that the genes for two photoreceptors - phytochromes and cryptochromes - genetically vary in Swedish Norway spruce populations and that this variation follows a gradient from North to South.”
The variation is located in functional parts of the photoreceptor
The researchers were comparing the DNA sequence of 1654 different Norway spruce trees that derived from different latitudes across Sweden. They divided the group into six smaller populations according to different latitudes and were looking for small variations in the DNA sequence of the different trees. To focus first on photoreceptors, especially on phytochromes, was obvious for them as they are central regulators of the light pathways in plants.
Phytochromes perceive red and far-red light which is at the extreme end of the visible light spectrum. Under shade conditions, the red to far-red light ratio is low because there is much more far-red light available than red light. Cryptochromes sense blue light and play an important role for adjusting the plant’s growth and development to the day-night cycle. The variations that the researchers identified in the DNA sequences of the phytochrome and cryptochrome genes of Norway spruce were all located in regions that contain information for functional parts of the photoreceptor.
Different populations have adapted to local light conditions
“We do not know how and if the function of the photoreceptors in the different Norway spruce populations is changed but we think that these modifications were probably important to adapt the tree’s growth and development to the latitudinally different light conditions in Sweden,” says Sonali Ranade. “The growing period in Northern Sweden is much shorter than in the South. The trees would not have survived if they would burst their buds when it is still freezing in spring or have not set their buds yet when the first snow arrives in autumn.”
Genetically, all populations of Norway spruce in Sweden derive from two different origins reflected in two main populations - a southern and central population and a northern population. The researchers were expecting that the genetic variation would reflect mainly these two main populations. Instead, they found that the gradient changed continuously from South to North, clearly following the changing light quality through the different latitudes across Sweden, meaning that different populations have adapted to local light conditions.
Light quality differs between Northern and Southern Sweden because the amount of far-red (FR) light increases towards the north reducing the ratio between red and far-red light. Photoreceptors sense light quality and researchers have now discovered that the photoreceptor genes of Norway spruce vary across populations from different latitudes across Sweden, revealing local adaptations to different light conditions (illustration: Sonali Ranade).
“Detecting the genetic basis of local adaptation to environmental conditions in coniferous tree species is difficult”, says María Rosario García-Gil, group leader at Umeå Plant Science Centre. “Often many genes of small effect contribute to a certain characteristic leading to a complex genetic architecture. These species also have a huge genome size compared to herbaceous plants like for example thale cress and their genome is still much less understood.”
The findings from the current study are interesting from an evolutionary perspective illustrating how populations adapt to the local environment but the researchers think that this is not all. Norway spruce is an economically important conifer species for the Swedish forest industry. Understanding how trees to adapt to local conditions - like in this case local light conditions - and knowing which genes are influencing a certain tree characteristic might be also useful to design novel strategies for breeding programmes for Norway spruce.
About the article:
Ranade, S.S., García-Gil, M.R. (2023) Clinal variation in PHY (PAS domain) and CRY (CCT domain) - Signs of local adaptation to light quality in Norway spruce. Plant, Cell & Environment, 1– 10. https://doi.org/10.1111/pce.14638
The previous study:
Ranade, S.S., García-Gil, M.R. (2021) Molecular signatures of local adaptation to light in Norway spruce. Planta 253, 53. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-020-03517-9
Link to a news about the previous study of Sonali Ranade and María Rosario García-Gil
For more information, please contact:
Sonali Ranade
Umeå Plant Science Centre
Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Email:
María Rosario García-Gil
Umeå Plant Science Centre
Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Email:
https://www.upsc.se/rosario_garcia
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Conifer needles consume oxygen in early spring even during the day (photo: Stefan Jansson)
Plants give us oxygen through photosynthesis - this is commonly taught in school. An international research team have now shown that particularly in early spring when low temperatures coincide with high light, conifer needles consume – not produce – oxygen by using an ancient mechanism. The results were published in Nature Communications.
Plant photosynthesis, that occurs in the thylakoid membranes inside the chloroplasts of the leaves, release oxygen to our atmosphere and produce carbohydrates. Animals and fungi perform the opposite reaction and consume oxygen during respiration. Plants also respire, for example during the night and in the roots but during the day leaves and needles are true “oxygen factories”.
"I thought there was something wrong with the instrument"
Tatyana Shutova, senior research engineer at Umeå University, was very surprised while testing a new instrument to measure the oxygen released by these needles. She found that green thylakoid membrane samples from pine and spruce needles in the winter behaved opposite to summer needles. They consumed oxygen in the light.
“I thought there was something wrong with the instrument and repeated the measurements,” said Tatyana Shutova, who works in Stefan Jansson’s group at Umeå Plant Science Centre. “The results were consistent over several winters and for both Scots pine and Norway spruce”.
The samples Tatyana Shutova analysed were collected by Pushan Bag who studied in his PhD project at Umeå University how conifers could stay green during the long and cold boreal winters.
"We took an elimination approach to opt out other pathways."
Puzzled by the results, the researchers set out to investigate the phenomena using a combination of sophisticated techniques. Together with Dmitry Shevela from Umeå University and Johannes Messinger, professor at Uppsala University, they used a specialised instrument that allowed them to distinguish between oxygen produced and consumed.
“To pinpoint where exactly the oxygen was taken up, we took an elimination approach to opt out other pathways that could potentially consume oxygen and were finally left with only one option: the oxygen consumption occurred around photosystem I - one of the two main photosynthesis complexes - and involved a special type of protein called Flavodiiron proteins” explained Pushan Bag, now Human Frontiers long term fellow at University of Oxford. The team also included Sanchali Nanda and Jenna Lihavainen from Umeå university and Alexander Ivanov from University of Western Ontario, London, Canada.
Flavodiiron proteins are used by algae and cyanobacteria to protect their photosynthetic apparatus from damage by excess light. Flowering plants have lost them during their evolution but conifers not, and this study suggest that they contribute to photoprotection also in conifers.
"Conifers seem to have adopted a “better safe than sorry”- strategy."
In a previous study that the researchers published three years ago in the same journal they identified another mechanism – a kind of shortcut between photosystem II and I that is used by conifers to protect their photosynthetic apparatus.
“There are interesting parallels between these two studies,” says Stefan Jansson, professor for plant cell- and molecular biology at Umeå University who led the project. “In both cases, conifers have retained a process that is present in lower plants but that flowering plants have lost or do not utilize to the same extent. Conifers seem to have adopted a “better safe than sorry”-strategy which may be less efficient under optimal conditions but makes them more competitive in a harsh climate.”
The article
Bag, P., Shutova, T., Shevela, D., Lihavainen J., Nanda, S., Ivanov, A. G., Messinger J. & Jansson S.; Flavodiiron-mediated O2 photoreduction at photosystem I acceptor-side provides photoprotection to conifer thylakoids in early spring. Nature Communications 14, 3210 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38938-z
Link to the news about the previous article published three years ago in Nature Communications
The previous article:
Bag, P., Chukhutsina, V., Zhang, Z. et al. Direct energy transfer from photosystem II to photosystem I confers winter sustainability in Scots Pine. Nature Communications 11, 6388 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20137-9
For questions, please contact:
Professor Stefan Jansson
UPSC, Department of plant physiology
Umeå university
901 87 Umeå
Phone 070-677 23 31
Email
Text: Pushan Bag & Stefan Jansson
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Professor Malcolm Bennett, the new Honorary Doctor at SLU (photo: by courtesy of University of Nottingham)Last week, SLU announced the names of honorary doctors for 2023. Malcolm Bennett, Professor of Plant Science at University of Nottingham, is one of them. He has close collaborations with several research groups at UPSC and his support has been crucial for the development of UPSC as a world leading centre for experimental plant biology. He was appointed by the Faculty of Forest Sciences to which one of the two UPSC departments belong.
Malcolm Bennett’s research focusses on how plant roots grow and adapt in their soil environment. His group originally identified the first gene that controlled root angle and encodes the first transport protein described for the plant hormone auxin. Malcolm and colleagues later developed cutting edge non-invasive visualisation techniques for monitoring root growth in natural soil environments using X-ray microtomography and AI-based image analysis techniques.
His most recent work discovered how roots sense soil stresses such as compaction or water availability. This was done in collaboration with UPSC researchers and published in Science in 2021 and 2022. Malcolm Bennett has published over 200 articles in leading journals and is the recipient of several research awards including election as a Fellow of the Royal Society and a member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO).
“I am thrilled to be awarded the honorary doctorate from SLU", says Malcolm Bennett. “I have worked closely with collaborators at UPSC throughout my career, publishing over 20 joint research papers since 2000. The world leading plant biology researchers and hormone profiling expertise at UPSC has played a key part in sustaining and deepening this collaboration over the past decades.”
Six new Honorary Doctors are appointed this year: two for the Faculty of Landscape Architecture, Horticulture and Crop Production Sciences, one for the Faculty of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences, two for the Faculty of Forest Sciences and one for the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science. The new Honorary Doctors will be officially appointed during SLU’s Doctoral Award Ceremony on the 7th of October 2023 in Uppsala. The day before, on the 6th of October, they will give a public lecture about their research field.
More information about the six honorary doctors on SLU’s homepage (only in Swedish)
More information about Malcolm Bennett's research
The articles in Science to which researchers from UPSC contributed:
Poonam Mehra et al., Hydraulic flux–responsive hormone redistribution determines root branching. Science 378,762-768(2022). DOI:10.1126/science.add3771
Bipin K. Pandey et al., Plant roots sense soil compaction through restricted ethylene diffusion. Science 371,276-280(2021). DOI:10.1126/science.abf3013
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The appointment as research area was celebrated at UPSC with some cake.
Last week, Umeå University decided on three research areas that they will prioritise and fund with SEK 3.5 million each for a period of five years starting in 2024. One of the prioritised areas will be “Plant science for a sustainable green transformation of the Subarctic” which is coordinated by the Department of Plant Physiology at UPSC.
The proposed research area comprises fundamental and applied plant research like it is done at UPSC but also political and economic science approaches, involving nine additional departments or centres from Umeå University. The goal is to “work towards fostering the transition towards a sustainable forestry and food production in the European arctic”.
The selection process for research areas has started in 2022 when the Swedish government proposed to allocate research funding to all higher education institutions based on specific profile areas. Even though the government is not funding this initiative any longer, Umeå University decided to continue the work with the aim to strengthen research quality and competitiveness at the university.
Please find more information in the news from Umeå University
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Stefan Jansson receives award for his achievements to promote academic research and development (Photo: Fredrik Larsson
Stefan Jansson is awarded the 2023 Bo and Barbro Hammarström Award at Umeå University for his prominent efforts to promote academic research and development in chemistry, and cell and molecular biology.
Stefan Jansson is professor of plant cell and molecular biology and is one of Scandinavia’s foremost plant researchers and – on top of that – one of Umeå University’s most meritorious and cited researcher. He is even member of three Swedish national royal academies. He has also shouldered a vast administrative responsibility at the University spending a lot of his time on leading research projects and by taking over other academic responsibilities.
How do you feel about receiving this award?
“It feels great, of course. I had just bought a bottle of Cava when I received the surprising news – so that came in handy. Excitingly, what is being rewarded are ‘prominent efforts for the promotion of academic research and development’. Most awards celebrate academic excellence. Excellence is a necessity, but excellence doesn’t always go hand in hand with activities that don’t necessarily favour the acquisition of your own personal research qualifications. If this award encourages researchers to put the team before themself, it also fulfils a higher purpose,” says Stefan Jansson.
He involved all from school groups to senior citizens in popular science activities
In the award motivation, Stefan Jansson is selected as this year’s award recipient thanks to his outstanding ability to reach out with popular science. Not least his project “Höstförsöket” that describes photosynthesis and what happens to leaves in autumn has involved over 11,000 school pupils and has been covered on both national TV, radio and in news papers. Stefan Jansson has been an active participant in political debates, Q&A sessions aimed at young audiences, research events and book fairs aimed at various groups in society such as politicians, senior citizens, representatives from business and industry as well as school classes.
What have you done to reach out with your research to so many?
“Maybe talent is one part of this, but hard work is certainly another. I decided in 2010 when my career was somewhat secured that I would start spending roughly one day per week on bringing research discussion into society. I don’t tend to count hours but estimate that I have probably spent that amount of time over the years,” says Stefan Jansson.
Stefan Jansson has just submitted a new research application, and this award was a helpful addition to his CV.
“Positive feedback is always inspiring, and inspiration is a truly important asset in research,” he says.
The annual award of SEK 100 000 will be presented for five years – between 2023 and 2027 – at the University’s Annual Celebration Ceremony.
Link to the Swedish press release on Umeå University's homepage
Text: Maja Wik (Umeå University)
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PhD student Isabella Hallberg-Sramek has studied the expectations that are put on the Swedish forests and how they can be addressed by forest management (Photo: Olle Melkerhed)
How, why and for whom should forests be managed? PhD student Isabella Hallberg-Sramek identified these as key questions underlying forest conflicts and expectations on forests in Sweden. Together with local stakeholders and by using different transdisciplinary scientific approaches she worked on identifying practical solutions to adjust forest management strategies to current and future needs. In this interview, she talks about her PhD thesis and highlights the importance to include social and human aspects in forest management planning.
You analysed which expectations are put on the Swedish forests and how they can be addressed with different forest management strategies. What motivated you to work on such a project at the interface between natural and social science and humanities?
My background is in natural sciences. When I started to study forestry at SLU and also started to work during summers in forestry, I realized that a lot of what we were taught was not really what was practiced. Science and practice seemed to be a disconnected. That is when I became interested in the human aspect of forest management. Forest owners but also environmental organisations, Sami people who work with reindeer husbandry, hunters, people that use the forest for recreation and so on – all the different stakeholders are involved in forest management and the relations between them affects management strategies and acceptance.
When we think only from the natural science perspective, we easily forget that forest management is also a human activity. We can only get a complete picture of forest management and understand all dimensions of it when we understand also the social and human aspects. When Annika Nordin, who supervised already my Master thesis, was offering me this PhD project, I was interested from the beginning.
Why do the different expectations that are put today on forests in Sweden lead to conflicts?
Forest management historically and today has been very focussed on quantitative research and mostly on knowledge coming from biology, economy, statistics and ecology. However now, forest management becomes more contested with many different stakeholders and various conflicts related to how to best meet all their different expectations. Partly, these conflicts are related to current management practices but there are also more expectations on forests today than in the past.
In the 18th century, when science-based forest management was initiated, the only focus was on wood production and the question was how to achieve this goal. The conflict by then was between people favouring more continuous cover forestry versus even-aged forest management with clear-cutting.
That conflict still persists but now we have also additional expectations on forests and climate change adds an extra spice to it. There are disagreements on what forest management is supposed to provide in terms of ecosystem services such as climate change mitigation, biodiversity, recreation and wood and on who should benefit from forests and on how to achieve these goals.
What do you consider as the major outcome of your thesis?
I think one main result is that we can learn a lot from practice. We cannot expect science to produce all the knowledge especially with respect to alternative management methods but also need to rely on the local experiences of stakeholders and practitioners. In the project that I was involved in, we really wanted to bring this discussion down to the local level: what expectations are placed on the forests here, now, by whom and what impacts are we expecting from climate change and how can we mitigate them?
We organised forest excursions here in Västerbotten and in Kronoberg in Southern Sweden and invited different stakeholders. These excursions were eye openers for us all because everyone saw and thought of different things even though we all stood on the exact same spot. Exchanging the knowledge helped everyone to understand the other person’s position better and this made it easier to find new solutions and ways for compromises.
The local stakeholders also pointed out that they would like to see more local examples of different managing methods and see what has worked and what not. There are forest owners who are already now practising different methods and we should acknowledge their knowledge and see what we can learn from them.
At one of the forest excursions with local stakeholders in Vindeln, Västerbotten (Photo: Teresa Borgman)
You combine practical aspects such as talking to local forest stakeholders with machine learning and modelling approaches in your thesis. What was the benefit of combining such different approaches?
First of all, I think it is fun to test new techniques, try new things and new ways of research. For one part of my thesis, we used the Heureka system, that has been developed at SLU. We quantitatively evaluated different forest scenarios by modelling them over a 100-year period. In the next step, we analysed the different scenarios qualitatively in a workshop together with the stakeholders.
It was so interesting to see that the stakeholder brought forward totally different things than came out from the modelling. They were discussing for example the possible outcome of a scenario on the local level, what kind of conflicts it would create between different types of stakeholders and if it would be socially accepted. These aspects were not captured by our models, but it will be very important to implement them in the management planning. Combining these two types of evaluation side-by-side, the quantitative modelling approach and the qualitative one, was therefore a big benefit.
Did anything unexpected came out during your analyses?
For me that avenue to use machine learning was very unexpected, more unexpected than the results itself. We wanted to analyse what type of forest related conflicts are being discussed in the media. There were already analyses of specific conflicts available, mostly analysing what different stakeholders have said. However, we wanted to get a broad overview and understand how big the conflicts are in relation to each other.
To read everything myself and sort it manually would have taken too much time but then we end up using topic modelling. This machine learning approach originates from computer sciences but is now used also in bioinformatics, social sciences and humanities and probably even in more fields. With the help of this tool, we could screen a large number of media articles, identify the main topics and cluster them. Then, we could go deeper into the cluster analysis and check for example if a topic or conflict was discussed differently in different parts of Sweden, how it has differed over time and do more spatial and temporal but also relational analyses of these different types of conflicts.
When venturing out to do this machine learning I was really wondering where that will bring me, but it is a very useful tool that I have now used also when doing literature reviews.
Did you had to overcome any major challenges during your PhD time?
I was working with scientists from history of science and ideas and from political sciences and initially we had these language barriers. Our training and background knowledge was different and we used different references as we came from totally different fields. It took some time to learn to understand each other but also to get to know the main references that the others used and that resurfaced once in a while. I needed to ask stupid questions like just to make sure that we really talk about the same thing. That was a huge challenge in the beginning but now I understand the way they are working and arguing very well. I even managed to set up a new collaboration with a sociologist and a historian of science and ideas, I have not worked together with before, and got them interested to work together with me on one publication.
Your research is very unusual for UPSC where most researcher work with molecular plant biology. Do you think your results can also benefit this type of research?
I think that one main aspect of it is to understand peoples understanding of forests: what techniques are used today and why, how are people thinking about the future, what future do they want. We need to get a more holistic perspective on forests and trees. Widening our perspective to understand better the practical implications of science and also the needs of society can help us to see better how and in which areas science can benefit the current transformation. It took courage to step out of my comfort zone and try something new, but my work has profited a lot from this.
What are you planning to do now?
I will continue as postdoc at SLU and Wageningen University and work with forest owners, their experiences of and their aspirations for the application of alternative practices. It will be close to what I have done during my thesis but more specifically focussing on forest owners. I will be employed at SLU but will be a visiting postdoctoral researcher at Wageningen University.
About the public defence
Isabella Hallberg-Sramek, Umeå Plant Science Centre, Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, defends her PhD thesis on Wednesday, 24th of May 2023. Faculty opponent is Professor Georg Winkel, Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands. The thesis was supervised by Annika Nordin from SLU together with Camilla Sandström, Erland Mårald, both from Umeå University, and Eva-Maria Nordström from SLU as assistant supervisors.
Title of the thesis: Tailoring forest management to local socio-ecological contexts - Addressing climate change and local stakeholders’ expectations of forests
Link to the thesis: https://doi.org/10.54612/a.6os9e6ei21
More Information about Isabella Hallberg-Sramek's research:
In March 2022, Isabella Hallberg-Sramek was awarded with the “Svenska Humanistiska Förbundets pris”, a prize for a young person who has carried out commendable intellectual work in the spirit of humanism. In connection with the prize, another interview with her was published. Find the interview here on the SLU homepage (only in Swedish)
More about the project “Bring down the sky to the earth” that Isabella Hallberg-Sramek was involved in on the homepage of Umeå University
News about Isabella Hallberg-Sramek’s article in which she evaluates the different forest management scenarios using the Heureka System for modelling and the qualitative evaluation by the local stakeholders (only in Swedish)
More about the Heureka System, a software developed at SLU that Isabella Hallberg-Sramek used to evaluate different forest management scenarios via modelling
For more information, please contact:
Isabella Hallberg-Sramek
Umeå Plant Science Centre
Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Email:
https://www.slu.se/en/ew-cv/isabella-hallberg-sramek/
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On June 1 and 2, UPSC is arranging the UPSC Symposium for Early Career Plant Scientists. The main organizers of the symposium are Stéphane Verger and Petra Marhava, two young group leaders at UPSC. We have asked them about their motivation to organise this event, why they specifically address Early Career Researchers and what UPSC as a workplace is offering to young researchers.
You two are organizing the UPSC Symposium for Early Career Plant Scientists. What is the purpose of this symposium?
Our main goal is to attract very good young researchers to join UPSC as postdocs. UPSC is a great place to work and Umeå is a wonderful and very safe city to live in, but the fact that it is so far north often seems to discourage candidates to apply for positions here. They may be scared of the cold climate and the short days during winter. Inviting young talented researchers to come and present their research here in Umeå allows us to show them UPSC, Umeå and its surroundings, and hopefully convince them that Umeå is actually a great place to work and live.
This concept is nothing that we invented. Similar events are being organized in many other places, and they have also been organized in the past at UPSC. Very good young researchers came to UPSC as a result of them and these researchers have contributed very positively to the research at UPSC and to UPSC in general.
Why are you addressing specifically Early Career Researchers?
The idea behind this initiative is to select strong “early career researchers” for the symposium that have high chances to be successful in applications for postdoctoral fellowships such as those offered by Marie Curie, EMBO and HFSP. These are prestigious fellowships for the candidate and the institute, but we know that it is extremely competitive to get one. We will do our best to have a backup solution in case the applications of the candidates are not successful. There are all the time new postdoc opportunities opening at UPSC thanks to fundings obtained by individual PIs, and those strong candidates could be perfect fits for one of these opportunities.
What is the benefit for the applying candidates?
We think it is a great opportunity for those young talented researchers, who are finishing their PhD or have recently finished, to present their work in an international context. They can meet several PIs and other researchers, discuss their research with them and expand their research network. Moreover, UPSC will cover all expenses for the invited candidates.
What do you think should one think of when choosing a postdoctoral project?
The topic and/or approaches should appear to be significantly different from the PhD work but not too far away, so that you can still justify some sort of coherence in your career. It could also be a major disciplinary change especially if your PhD expertise can bring something new or useful to a different subject or model that you are targeting in your postdoctoral project. Generally, it is important to show that you have thought well and chosen your project (and research group) because it makes sense for you and your career plan. It is better than just taking up any open postdoc position that was available and that you got offered because you weren’t sure what to do after your PhD.
The project should be of course novel and appear generally exciting to the research community, but a key point is also to choose a team and supervisor that you feel comfortable with and that could give you the opportunities that you will need for your future career.
Why do you think UPSC is a good place for an Early Career Plant Scientist?
At UPSC, we have about 30 research groups with strong international reputation that cover a broad range of plant research areas and model organisms and collaborate a lot internally. The institute is also impressively well equipped with different shared platforms and facilities available for all kind of plant research and they are well connected to other facilities on the national level. It is an excellent environment for learning new techniques and acquiring new skills.
UPSC is a very international workplace with more than 40 different nationalities. Out of about 200 researchers, there are more than 100 postdocs and PhD students. It is a very nice, supportive, and stimulating community of young researcher to interact with. They are also very active in organising social activities outside of the working hours like for example cycling, skiing or playing “Innebandy”, a kind of floor hockey that is very popular in Sweden. Even though you might think Umeå is “at the end of the world”, you will see there are many fun things to do.
What do you like most about working at UPSC?
As a PI, it is really great that so many of the resources are shared within UPSC. When new people join our groups, we don’t have to struggle to find equipment that we need for their project or to get the help or training for some specific technique they would like to use. The personnel on the platforms provide excellent support for that.
An advantage is also that we have large open space labs where people from different teams are mixed. Like this you get in contact with people from other groups easily. People collaborate and share openly and it is easy to learn about or be trained for a new technique by a colleague from a different team. We and our group members appreciate this a lot!
More information about the UPSC Early Career Plant Scientist Symposium
Deadline for application: April 15, 2023
Contact
Petra Marhava
Umeå Plant Science Centre
Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Email:
https://www.upsc.se/petra_marhava
Stéphane Verger
Umeå Plant Science Centre
Department of Plant Physiology
Umeå University
Email:
https://www.upsc.se/stephane_verger
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Photo: Sonali Ranade
Torgny Näsholm’s research on amino acids as nitrogen source for plants revolutionised the understanding of plant nutrition. His results led to the development of novel and environmentally friendly nitrogen bio stimulants which are now commercialized by the company Arevo - a development that was last week awarded with the 2023 University spin-off prize at Umeågalan.
Torgny Näsholm initiated his research on nitrogen nutrition while working at the Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) that is part of UPSC. He is now Professor in Tree Ecophysiology at the SLU Department of Forest Ecology and Management but still collaborates closely with the UPSC research groups as an associated group leader.
His ground-breaking discovery, published in Nature 1998, was that trees can take up amino acids directly and that this is the preferred nitrogen source in boreal forests rather than ammonium or nitrate. This discovery changed the understanding of plant nutrition and led to the development of new types of nitrogen bio stimulants based on the amino acid arginine.
These bio stimulants have not only a positive effect on plant growth and stress resistance - they also reduce the leakage of nitrogen into the ground water. This is helps to decrease the environmental impact of nitrogen fertilisation, a point that was highlighted in the motivation for the University spin-off prize that was handed over on Wednesday last week at Umeågalan.
Several patents based on Torgny Näsholm’s research were originally filed and granted to the UPSC spin-off company SweTree Technologies that specialized this development in the daughter company SweTree Nutrition. The inventions are now developed and commercialized by new investors in the company Arevo.
Umeågalan is arranged by Umeå Municipality and Umeå University together with Umeå University Holding, SLU Holding and Umeå’s business community. The idea behind is to stimulate new collaborations and to contribute to make Umeå an attractive place for doing business. Eleven awards in different categories were handed out this year during the event on March 23 to companies located in the Umeå region.