Stockholm university
Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences

News

Grassland and forest in Tsaratanana massif, in the north of Madagascar
Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences

DEEP seeks PhD student in Plant systematics — apply by 6 June

The Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences invites applications for a four-year PhD position in the framework of the project "Reconstructing Madagascar’s biome history using plant phylogenetics”, led by Jan Hackel and co-supervised by Prof. Catarina Rydin.

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Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences

DEEP seeks PhD student in Ecology and Evolution – apply by 22 April!

The Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences invites applications for a four-year PhD position in the framework of the project “Harnessing evolutionary transitions, machine learning, and genomics to decode pollen evolution and unravel sexual selection mechanisms shared across kingdoms” led by Prof. Tanja Slotte in close collaboration with co-investigators Prof. John Fitzpatrick, Prof. Catarina Rydin, and Dr. Allison Hsiang at Stockholm University.

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Researcher Sofia Wikström holds a sediment sample from a shallow bay. Photo: Betty Gubri
Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Sheltered bays are significant carbon sinks in the Baltic Sea

Coastal zones are identified as important natural carbon sinks globally, especially habitats with abundant vegetation such as seagrass meadows and mangrove areas. In brackish environments like the Baltic Sea, knowledge of carbon sequestration in coastal habitats is limited, but a new study shows that shallow and partly enclosed Baltic bays are significant sinks for carbon and nutrients.

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Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences

DEEP seeks Associate Professor in Plant Molecular Physiology – apply now!

The Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences (DEEP) at Stockholm University is inviting applications for a tenured Associate Professor position in Plant Molecular Physiology. Situated in Sweden’s dynamic capital, the university offers a world-class research environment where education and research thrive together.

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Three researchers in the lab looking at a whiteboard.

Lignin paves the way for a fossil-free society

Lignin is the substance that gives plants strength and resilience. Properties that make lignin a promising replacement for materials produced from oil and coal. Researchers at Stockholm University are investigating the potential of lignin as a basis for future materials.

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Postdoc fellowship (2 years) in bioinformatics of plant-microbe interactions – deadline 25 January

A postdoctoral stipend is available with an actinorhizal nitrogen-fixing root nodule symbioses. The position is sponsored by the Carl Trygger Foundation to the laboratory of Professor Katharina Pawlowski at Stockholm University in the Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences. The department has approximately 100 employees, including 25 research groups, 10 postdocs and approximately 35 PhD students; research and teaching are conducted in an international environment.

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Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences

Postdoc Fellowship in Marine Microbiology

A postdoctoral stipend is available with an emphasis on planktonic N2 fixing symbioses. The position is sponsored by the Carl Trygger Foundation to the laboratory of Professor Rachel A Foster at Stockholm University in the Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences. At the Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences, research and teaching are conducted in an international environment. The department has approximately 100 employees, including 25 research groups, 10 postdocs and approximately 35 are PhD students.

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Tanja Slotte receives funding from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation

Each year, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation awards research grants in the fields of medicine, science, and technology to research projects that are judged to have such high scientific potential that they are likely to lead to future scientific breakthroughs. Each project is evaluated by a group of international experts in the respective field.

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Portraits of six researchers combined

Six researchers share SEK 175 million from the Wallenberg Foundation

The importance of Arctic methane emissions for the climate, how matter is formed and broken down, evolutionary shifts in the plant kingdom, and new effective methods for producing bioactive substances that will meet future needs for medicines and advanced electronics. These are just a few examples of basic research at Stockholm University that has received funding from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.

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Loads of sticklebacks.
Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

FORCE investigates how sticklebacks affect coasts and climate

Large predatory fish have become harder to find in the coastal bays of the Baltic Sea, which are now dominated by sticklebacks. Many of these bays have also become more turbid and show signs of severe eutrophication. Scientists have seen this shift spread from the open sea to coastal environments and are now looking for explanations as to why this has happened and whether it could contribute to unforeseen climate impacts.

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Loads of sticklebacks.
Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

FORCE investigates how sticklebacks affect coasts and climate

Large predatory fish have become harder to find in the coastal bays of the Baltic Sea, which are now dominated by sticklebacks. Many of these bays have also become more turbid and show signs of severe eutrophication. Scientists have seen this shift spread from the open sea to coastal environments and are now looking for explanations as to why this has happened and whether it could contribute to unforeseen climate impacts.

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Students standing by the shore. The Baltic Sea in the background.
Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

PhD students connect coast and society in a changing climate

Solving complex questions about interactions between the sea and climate change, and how they relate to society, requires a broad set of skills. In a new research school, PhD students from diverse scientific disciplines at Stockholm University get a unique opportunity to learn how transdisciplinary approaches and research communication can lead to sustainable management of coastal environments.

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Earlier spring phytoplankton blooms disrupt the balance in the Baltic Sea

With spring around the corner is the arrival of migratory birds, flowering of plants and emergence of insects. The timing of these ‘phenological events’ is starting earlier for many organisms with climate warming. A new study from researcher at Stockholm University shows that spring starts earlier also in the Baltic Sea but their zooplankton grazers are not following up with the same speed and miss this high-quality spring food resource.

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Stickle backs in hand

Having good neighbours and few top predators make predatory fish populations more resilient

A regime shift is gradually spreading through the archipelagos of the Swedish Baltic Sea coast, where shallow bays, previously dominated by pike and perch have one by one become dominated by one of their prey species, the three-spined stickleback. Now, research shows that the ability of the pike and perch to maintain dominance over stickleback increases if there are plenty of pike and perch close-by that can help the local population withstand the stickleback intrusion. The researchers also found that the resilience of the pike and perch populations decreased with increasing predation from grey seal and great cormorant.

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Marine fish farms.
Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences

Underestimated risks of pesticides in food production 

Food production in agriculture and fish farms uses large amounts of chemicals such as pesticides and antibiotics to secure harvests, but we currently know very little about the environmental effects of this use. This is according to a new thesis from Stockholm University, which suggests ways to improve this information.

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Makrofoto av hundstarr
Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences

Wetland plants can clean water from PFAS

Many lakes and rivers are contaminated with the environmental contaminant PFAS. Researchers at Stockholm University show in a new study that floating wetlands with wetland plants can purify water from PFAS by up to 40 percent in one day. The study is published in the scientific journal “Journal of Environmental Management”.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Major Baltic Sea research initiative - 12 PhD positions open

Within a new graduate school in ocean, climate and environmental issues, 12 doctoral students will be admitted at several of Stockholm University's departments.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

The smell of the sea – a key to understanding climate change?

How does the smell of the sea impact the world’s climate? This question lies at the heart of the Cyano-VOC research project. Within this endeavour, aerosol chemists collaborate with microbiologists to investigate the volatile organic compounds emitted by cyanobacteria and other plankton residing along the coastlines of the Baltic Sea.

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SU researchers will lead the development of new sustainable fibers for consumer use

The BIO-Lush consortium led by professor Aji Mathew from MMK/SUCCeSS has been awarded almost 5 M€ in funding from the EU-call Circular Bio-based Europe (CBE). The four-year project is planned to start in 2023 and will address a growing need to utilize biomass for sustainable and high-quality fibre extraction.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Baltic Breakfast: Messing with the seabed – and below it

The seabed and the bedrock could play an important role for the green transition; for mining of minerals and storing of carbon dioxide. But the environmental consequences of such activities are not fully understood, showed the presentations at the last Baltic Breakfast.

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Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences

Plankton - important for the climate

The world’s oceans play a central role in the global climate. Wallenberg Academy Fellow Rachel Foster, Stockholm University, is researching on marine plankton communities that impact nitrogen and carbon cycles. Plankton are of extreme importance for earth’s climate. They produce half of all oxygen, lock up enormous amounts of carbon and reduce carbon dioxide. But exactly how? And how long can they continue, now as the world heats up?

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Laying the foundation for our understanding of the Baltic Sea

A van full of sampling equipment leaves Stockholm University at half past five in the morning. Twelve hours later it returns, carrying hundreds of bottles, jars and test tubes filled with water from different locations and depths in the Baltic Sea. Follow along on a day of environmental monitoring at sea!

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Researchers: Additional chemicals need to be considered in the new Global Biodiversity Framework

The Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework needs to consider additional groups of chemicals, according to a large international group of researchers. For the UN Biodiversity Conference, COP15, they have developed a perspective article and a policy brief with concrete proposals for better inclusion of hazardous chemicals in the forthcoming targets.

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Successful investment in ocean research network

The Baltic Sea Fellows initiative, a network of young Baltic Sea researchers from several disciplines, was launched to strengthen the environmental Baltic Sea research at Stockholm University. The results of this year's awarded research grants from the Swedish Research Council and Formas show that it is going well. The group of researchers has raised over 25 million Swedish crowns this year.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Master's studies by the sea

Imagine being able to do your Master's work by the Baltic Sea during the summer. India Findji, who studies marine biology at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, managed to fulfill that dream this summer. She did her work at the Stockholm University field station Askö Laboratory, together with Jonna Källås, another Master's student from Sweden.

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Successful strategic funding of marine research

A progress report for the strategic research area funding to marine research at Stockholm University is now published. The report concludes that the research group Baltic Sea Fellows, which is financed by the strategic funding, has published 200+ publications and managed to double the funding with external grants.

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Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences

DEEP researcher Elias Broman recieved post doc funding from SUCCeSS

The research project Elias Broman will be working on is named "Safe water reuse in a changing environment –microbial degradation of contaminants in European rivers". Two other funded post doc projects were also announced during the SUCCeSS workshop this summer.

Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Big grant to a Baltic Sea Fellow

One of our Baltic Sea Fellows, Wei-Li Hong from the Department of Geological Sciences, today got a prestigious award from the Swedish Foundations’ Starting Grant. We are very proud, says Christoph Humborg, scientific leader at the Baltic Sea Centre and coordinator of the Baltic Fellows interdisciplinary network of young Baltic Sea researchers.

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Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences

A poorly known and critically endangered species of Merlin’s grass surprises researchers

A poorly known and critically endangered species of Merlin’s grass (Isoetaceae) endemic to the Eastern Cape of South Africa is demonstrated to be of substantial evolutionary significance. The species, Isoetes wormaldii, is sister to the rest of the family and genetically and morphologically distinct.

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Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences

The Smallest Animals in the Water: Tiny but Mighty

Monika Winder, professor at DEEP, shares insights about the wonders of zooplankton that are the smallest animals in the water, in a blog post for kids published in the Frontiers For Young Minds. If you're a teacher for example, feel free to share the article!

Cormorant eggs – an opportunity for contaminant monitoring

The number of great cormorants in Sweden increased greatly during the 1990s and they are now a common species around the Swedish coast and many of the lakes. During the breeding season great cormorants build colonies with a distinctive fishy odor which, along with their voracious appetite for fish, has often made them unpopular. However, great cormorants could give valuable information on environmental contaminants found in aquatic environments according to a new collaborative study from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), the Swedish Museum of Natural History (NRM) and Stockholm University.

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Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences

What Are the Small Lumps you see on Some Plant Roots?

Fede Berckx, PhD candidate at DEEP, shares insights about the wonders of plant roots in a blog post for kids published in the Frontiers For Young Minds. The blog post covers how microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi, can live together with plants in a tight relationship where they help each other to provide nutrients.

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