Jonsson and colleagues investigate ecosystem services for managed forests with spruce-pine, spruce-birch, and pine-birch, with different proportions of the tree species. They find that some combinations of these yield a higher production especially of timber and of bilberries. Read more in Nature Plants.

Cintas with colleagues argue that the forest should be used to substitute for fossil fuels. They model two energy scenarios and four forestry scenarios, and use different models than those who argue that bioenergy from forests gives a carbon debt because it takes time for the trees to grow again. Read more in Forest Ecology and Management.

Andersson and Westholm are social scientists who have investigated the research program Future Forests 2009-2012. They find that the forest industry has had a large influence over the research program, from the initial application which was first rejected by an international panel of scientists but was later accepted, to which interests were included in the program and how the research was communicated. The risk is that the research program hides existing conflicts and avoids seeing future risks. Read more in Science, Technology and Human Values.

Johnsson and colleagues analyze the amount of dead wood, which is important for biodiversity, in Swedish forests. A forest policy goal is to increase the amount of dead wood, and it has indeed increased with 25 % since the mid-90’s, but this is mainly because of storms and not changed forestry methods. Also, it is only in southern Sweden that the volume has increased – in northen Sweden the volume is stable or decreasing. Read more in Forest Ecology and Management.