The purpose of this study is to analyze the economic effects of different fertilization programs both on stand- and forest-level. The study is applied on an objective sample of inventory data for a forest area in Kalix in northern Sweden. The forest area belongs to the forest company Sveaskog. The study includes different economic models and will be used as a support when the company decides how to invest and how much to invest in fertilization. The study investigates the economy of five different fertilization policies. For each program the rate of interest invested in fertilization and the cost for the extra produced volume has been calculated.

Being an architect I create spaces with roof, walls and fl oor. The availability of the essential materials to create such spaces is practically unlimited. The materials also play a significant part to the character of the created space. I hope to contribute to the general understanding of materials as elements in the design of urban spaces by having intensely explored one specific material in depth, pointing out its bad and good qualities. I am of the opinion that the reason for choosing a material shouldn?t be because of a shortage of knowledge, facts or references, but what character you want for the room. When travelling across Europe, it sometimes feels like clay paving is everywhere, but back in Sweden it is almost unseen of in modern landscape architecture.

The main part of the goats in the world is located in developing countries, whereas active breeding programs are mainly restricted to Northern America and Europe. Goat milk can be processed to several products and goat cheese is the main product. An organized breeding program is carried out in France and Norway but is not present in Sweden. Important selection traits for milk producing goats include milk, protein and fat yield along with protein and fat content. Functional traits have been more important the past years and they have large economic importance for the farmers.

The aim of this study was to map the prevalence of aeolian sand dunes in Västerbotten, northern Sweden to find dunes formed during earlier deglaciation phases, which was then preserved in cold-based conditions during the youngest stadial of the Weichselian glaciation. These preserved dunes were expected to be covered by a layer of till and have a rather faint morphology compared to dunes formed during the Holocene. Consequently, high resolution LIDAR-derived images from the Swedish mapping, cadastral and land registration authority (Lantmäteriet) was used to detect the dunes throughout an area covering most of Västerbotten, above the highest coastline and below the mountain range. The analysis resulted in several new findings of aeolian dunes compared to the findings in the quaternary soil map created by the Geological Survey of Sweden. Despite the fact some of the dunes at the LIDAR-derived image had a strange faint appearance, it was quickly evident during the fieldwork that the aeolian sand was not covered by till on any of the dunes visited.

During the timber floating era, most of Sweden?s watercourses were altered. This decreased the amount of available spawning habitats for salmonids, and hence had a negative effect on the riverine brown trout (Salmo trutta) populations. Reconstruction of spawning grounds is today a common measure in restoration of altered streams in Sweden. However, very little evaluation of the effectiveness of these reconstructed spawning grounds exists.

The technological legacy from the early electrification of the Swedish railroads has resulted in a power grid with a lower grid frequency than the national power grid from which it is fed. Energy transfer between these power grids with different frequencies requires substations, adapting the grid frequency for the rail road power grid. For this purpose, a feeding power grid has been built, stretching across the country from Boden in the north to Tälle/Häggvik in the south.Power transfer in the Swedish power grid results in voltage angle differences which increase with increasing loads and transfer distance. These voltage angle differences are transferred from the power feeding substations to the rail road power grid, will in some extent cause loss of energy due to unwanted power flows from north to south.To minimize the losses due to this phenomenon, a power management system called EFS 132 kV has been developed and implemented. The system minimizes the unwanted power flows and controls the desired power flow for a good distribution of loads between the power feeding substations.This thesis investigates the extent of the transmission losses avoided due to the EFS 132 kV that coordinates the idling angles to a common reference point.The results indicate that EFS 132 kV affects the power flow, especially between the northern substations through an improved load distribution.

The depth-to-water-index (DTW-index) is derived from digital elevation models (DEM) to map soil wetness, in terms of distance from soil surface to the ground water table. The aim of this GIS based study was to investigate the existence of a relationship between DTW-index and forest site productivity (SP). The belief of such an assumed relationship was based on knowledge that the ground water level is related to site properties that can either promote or impede tree growth. Data primarily comprised rasters of the Krycklan catchment in northern Sweden and depicted DTW-index and a laser scanned vegetation height. The 100th height percentile of each pixel in the vegetation raster was assumed to mirror the top-height, letting it act as a relative measure of SP within a delineated area of equal stand age.

This project investigated how elevation and vegetation type influences variation in plant litter phenolic content and protein precipitation capacity among and within common plant species for two different vegetation types, heath and meadow, in a subarctic ecosystem in the Abisko region of northern Sweden. As nutrient availability generally decreases with increasing elevation as a result of decreasing temperature, I hypothesised that phenolic content would increase with elevation and be higher on the heath than the meadow. To test this, the total phenolic content and protein precipitation capacity was estimated in leaf litter from 13 species in both heath and meadow vegetation across an elevational gradient ranging from 500 to 1000 meters above sea level (m.a.s.l.) in the study region. The results showed that elevation and vegetation type both had a strong impact on both variables. Total phenolic concentrations decreased with elevation for the meadow, and were greater for the heath than the meadow.

The objective of this study was to investigate the attitude towards African swine fever (ASF) primarily among smallholder pig farmers but also among other actors along the pork value chain in Gulu district, Uganda. More specifically, the study aimed to investigate the specific challenges facing both farmers and other members of the pork value chain using participatory epidemiology (PE). ASF is a feared viral disease of pigs associated with high mortality, which is endemic in many parts of Africa. The recent history of Gulu district in Northern Uganda can be described as turbulent and the human population has suffered during decades of war and civil unrest. Pig keeping is considered a potential opportunity for business as well as a way of providing more animal protein in the diet. However, this is threatened by ASF as farmers can lose entire herds due to the disease. This study can confirm some previously known factors and risk activities such as the free range system of pigs and movement of pigs and pork during ongoing outbreaks, which make disease control difficult.

Soft rubber flooring have gained in popularity over the last years. Rubber flooring al-lows cow to move more freely without slipping and improves claw and leg health. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of a stepwise introduktion of soft flooring on cow`s placement in cow houses with robotic milking. A case study was carried out in a herd in northern Sweden with 41 cows. Observations were made every 15 minutes between 09.00 and 16.00 concering cow placement in cu-bicles, in cubicle alley, in feeding alley and in feeding alley with the head through feed-ing gate. One observation period was carried out per flooring alternativ: 1) all concrete slatted floor, 2) rubber slatted floor in feeding alley and concrete slatted floor in cubicle alley and 3) rubber slatted floors in feeding alley and solid rubber floors in cubicle alley. The study showed that 6 %-units fewer cows lay in the cubicles when the feeding alley surface was slatted rubber.

The purpose of this paper has been to find out what motives buyers of forest property has for there purchasse, what competence they have in economics and forestry, and what analysis they had done before the purchase. The study is based on interviews with nine different buyers from two geographical areas, five from Hälsingland and four from Småland/Skåne. A forest property is a property where the value to 100 % consist of forest. A part from the interviews every purhase has been analysed in comparison to an estimation of the yield value. The theoretical yield value was estimated with a computer programme.

A common problem in forestry is plant death caused by frost. The risk of frost is highest on wind protected, flat or low-lying areas in the terrain. Here you often have regeneration problems with Norwegian spruce which is especially sensitive to spring frost. Swedish tree experiments have shown that the black spruce can be a suitable alternative on these areas, for example on moisture frost prone areas. The species originates from North America and its pioneer tree characteristics make it more frost hardy than Norwegian spruce.

Wildlife fences are today commonly used along highways to reduce the risk of vehicle collisions with wildlife. Since traffic and roads have expanded over the years, wildlife behaviour has become more interesting not only for the prevention of vehicle collisions but also to understand how human activities impact their natural habitats. Moose is one of those animals that have increased in interest in such studies. In this study, I tested if the probability to cross wildlife fences of moose would increase with increasing home range sizes, and also at what time of the year they cross. The study area is situated in Nordmaling municipality, located in Northern Sweden in the County of Västerbotten.

This study was carried out at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Dept. of Agricultural Research for Northern Sweden. The aim of the study was to determine how plant species richness and diversity influence the nitrogen pools and nitrogen fluxes in the soil. Plant and soil samples from a biodiversity experiment in grasslands were used. Thirty plots with 12 grassland plant species (legumes, grasses, and non-legume herbs), combined from 1-12 species were investigated.

The 1900s saw two incidents of states using their military in civil disorder situations, which resulted in the killing of unarmed citizens. May 14, 1931 in Ådalen, marks a significant part of Swedish history and its view of the use of military force.  On that day, a peaceful protest march escalated, which resulted in live firing by the military stationed there to uphold law and order. This resulted in the deaths of five civilians and the prohibition of the use of military force in incidents of civil disorder. In 1972 in Northern Ireland a similar event took place on January 30, which is commonly known as Bloody Sunday. The Troubles were raging and resulted in protests for civil rights by nationalists.