Open position for a postdoctoral researcher on forest soil

HoliSoils on April 26, 2023

Forest soil with mushroom
Forest soil with mushroom

Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) is looking for a postdoctoral researcher in a multidisciplinary research team, which develops sustainable land-use and ecosystem management practices. The researcher will work in a team involved international projects, including Benchmarks and HoliSoils, where it executes field experiments on both peatland and upland forests to study ecosystem processes and to test management regime impacts on ecosystem water, carbon and greenhouse gas fluxes. The postdoctoral researcher will be engaged in an active international collaboration that aims at improving the scientific knowledge about soil processes, soil indicators, and the effects of management on forest soils.

The researcher will study how forest management affects soil element cycles, greenhouse gas fluxes and their drivers. The researcher will:

  1. Implement field experiment, where effects of management practices and natural disturbances on soil biological activity and greenhouse gas fluxes are studied;
  2. Analyze obtained empirical data;
  3. Evaluate and develop soil health indicators.

The researcher will also be responsible for scientific writing and reporting of the results as a lead author.

The deadline for applications is 23 May 2023 at 4.00 pm Finnish time (EEST).

Read all the details about this position and find out how to apply!

Summer school on the Resilience of Forest to Climate Change

HoliSoils on April 25, 2023

Boreal Forest.
Boreal Forest.

Remote sensing and machine learning-based approaches are key to detect, predict and analyse changes in forests under climate change. The training offered in this summer school will include theory lectures, on climate resilience and remote sensing, practical exercises and a field trip to disturbed areas. Other subject studies are dynamics of boreal forests and forestry in the boreal region.

Participants will have the opportunity to work in groups, learning how to retrieve remote sensing data, detect and analyse forest change, classify data, as well as making predictions of forest damage (i.e. disturbances).

The summer school will be organised at the University of Eastern Finland in Joensuu Finland, in collaboration with INRAe and the Horizon Europe Eco2adapt project and the support from IUFRO Division 8 on Forest Environment.

The programme will take place from 7 to 18 August 2023.

The main topical contents will be:

  • Forestry in boreal forests, Finland
  • Which forests are prone to disturbances in boreal areas?
  • Planetary Computer and remote sensing data
  • Monitoring disturbances and their management (i.e. mitigation measures)
  • Machine learning theory
  • Change detection analyses

The person in charge for this summer school is Frank Berninger () and the involved experts include Frank Berninger (UEF, Finland), Blas Mola (UEF, Finland), Dino Ienco (Inrae, TETIS, France), Kenji Ose (Inrae, TETIS, France).

Read more information and apply by 15 June!

New postdoctoral opportunity on microbial diversity and soil processes

HoliSoils on March 2, 2023

Microscope
Microscope

A new postdoc position has been opened at the Department of Physical Geography, Stockholm University, with a focus on microbial processes in soil.

The ideal candidate has strong quantitative skills (statistical or process-based modelling) to quantify how microbial diversity affects carbon cycling in soil, and how to describe these linkages in soil carbon cycling models. The selected candidate will work with Stefano Manzoni on either HoliSoils project, or the ERC project “Soil microbial responses to land use and climatic changes in the light of evolution”. Both projects tackle questions at the intersection of ecology, soil science, and biogeosciences, and offer outstanding international networking opportunities.

The deadline for application is 5 May 2023.

Read all the details about this position and find out how to apply

The 2023 Wageningen Soil Conference Call for Abstracts is now open!

HoliSoils on February 7, 2023

Wageningen Soil Conference call for abstracts
Wageningen Soil Conference call for abstracts

The Wageningen University & Research and ISRIC will bring together soil experts to work on solutions for a sustainable world at the Wageningen Soil Conference between 28 August and 1 September 2023.

Soil scientists from the whole world are invited to submit abstracts of their work, within one of these topics:

  • Soils for Society 
  • Advances in Measuring and Modelling Soil Processes 
  • Mapping and Evaluating Soil Functions across Scales 
  • Soils for Nature-Based Solutions 

Submit your abstract by 17 April 2023!

 Read more details on how to apply

Post-doctoral opportunity in forest soil modelling

HoliSoils on February 1, 2023

Forest soil and a ladybug
Forest soil and a ladybug

The School of Biological Sciences of the University of Aberdeen is looking for an enthusiastic and motivated postdoctoral Research Fellow to join their Environmental Modelling team and work on soil modelling in the framework of the HoliSoils project. In particular, working together with Dr Marta Dondini, the Research Fellow will explore the impacts, trade-offs, and synergies of forest management scenarios for soils and forests on the Europewide GHG balance under future climate conditions.

Apply by 13 February to seize this great opportunity to work with HoliSoils!

Read all the details about this open position and find out how to apply

New publication on the impact of management on soil carbon sequestration

HoliSoils on December 7, 2022

Mushrooms on forest soil
Mushrooms on forest soil

A new study, developed in the framework of the HoliSols project, was recently published on Forest Ecology and Management.

The publication synthesises information on forest management practices that can mitigate climate change by increasing soil carbon stocks and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The study also identifies soil processes that affect soil greenhouse gas balance and discusses how models represent forest management effects on soil in greenhouse gas inventories and scenario analyses to address forest climate change mitigation potential.

Read the full article

Reference

Mäkipääa, R., Abramoff, R., Adamczyk, B., Baldy, V., Biryol, C., Bosela, M., Casals, P., Yuste, J.C., Dondini, M., Filipek, S., Garcia-Pausas, J., Gros, R., Gömöryová, E., Hashimoto, S., Hassegawa, M., Immonen, P., Laiho, R., Li, H., Li, Q., Luyssaert, S., Menival, C., Mori, T., Naudts, K., Santonja, M., Smolander, A., Toriyama, J., Tupek, B., Ubeda, X., Verkerk, P.J., Lehtonen, A. 2023. How does management affect soil C sequestration and greenhouse gas fluxes in boreal and temperate forests? – A review. Forest Ecology and Management, 529, 120637. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2022.120637



Get ready for the Wageningen Soil Conference 2023

HoliSoils on December 7, 2022

Wageningen Soil Conference
Wageningen Soil Conference

The fifth edition of the Wageningen Soil Conference will take place between 28 August and 1 September 2023. The conference, organised by Wageningen University & Research and ISRIC, has an interactive character with conference sessions as well as workshops on many different soil-related topics. The focus of the conference will be on working together on solutions for a sustainable world.  

The four conference days are divided into different topics:

  • Soils for society;
  • Advances in measuring and modeling soil processes;
  • Mapping and evaluation of soil dunctions across scales;
  • Soils for nature-based solutions.

The programme for 2023 will consist of keynote presentations and parallel sessions in the mornings, masterclasses in the afternoons, fantastic side events, and much more.

During the fifth edition of the Wageningen Soil Conference, a wide range of scientific and interactive masterclasses will be offered in the afternoons. The call for ideas on organsing these masterclasses is now open. Submit your proposal by 12 December!

The registrations for the Conference will open in March 2023.

Read more about the Wageningen Soil Conference

Two open positions on Climate-Smart Forestry at EFI

HoliSoils on December 5, 2022

Aerial view of a forest in autumn
Aerial view of a forest in autumn

The European Forest Institute (EFI) is looking for two researchers to work on Climate-Smart Forestry.

To reinforce EFI’s Bioeconomy Programme, EFI is seeking a Researcher on Climate-Smart Forestry and a Researcher / Senior Researcher on social sciences in Climate-Smart Forestry.

Both positions will be based at EFI’s headquarters in Joensuu, Finland. The researchers will work in different EU-funded projects. In particular, the Researcher on Climate-Smart Forestry will also contribute to the HoliSoils project.

The deadline for applications is 9 January 2023.

Read more on these and other positions open at EFI

European projects join forces to tackle the impact of climate change on forests

HoliSoils on November 24, 2022

Meeting in Germany
Meeting in Germany

Over 30 researchers from 8 EU-funded projects are working together to come up with strategies to fight climate change and deal with its impacts on forests. Several HoliSoils researchers attended the meeting which took place on 16-18 November in Freising, Germany. Joining HoliSoils were experts from the research projects ForestPaths, CLIMB-Forest, FORWARDS, FORECO, WildE, RESCUE, and ForMII.

The focus of the meeting was how existing simulation models for forests and land use (like EFISCEN-space, LPJ-GUESS and CRAFTY) should be improved. Participants identified some major topics, for instance how forest disturbances such as storms, wildfire and insect outbreaks, as well as climate-smart forest management practices, could be included in such advanced simulation models.

The meeting gave researchers the opportunity to identify important next steps on how the projects can support each other. The event proved to very fruitful, and a similar meeting has been planned in approximately a year from now.

HoliSoils surveys on soil vulnerability to natural disturbances

HoliSoils on November 9, 2022

Forest soil and muchrooms
Forest soil and muchrooms

Holisoils launched a set of three surveys to collect expert opinions on how natural disturbances may affect soil variables.

The main objective of these surveys is to understand the extent to which soils might be vulnerable to an increase in the frequency and severity of natural disturbances (e.g. fire, drought, tree mortality, etc.) as a result of anthropogenic climate change.

These questionnaires will serve many different purposes. Given the limited knowledge about which physical, chemical and biological soil characteristics are most vulnerable to the impact of natural disturbances, the survey will fill current gaps in our understanding of potential threats to soil functioning. Secondly, the surveys aim to compare the different opinions and views on soil vulnerability of experts coming from different soil science disciplines or geographical contexts.

Take the surveys now: