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Figure 1: Simon Grove inspects a hollow
oak-tree in Sweden with Karl-Olof Bergman.
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Figure 2: This tree shows one of the
insect-boxes that Nicklas demonstrated could support many of the
species associated with real tree-hollows, if primed with the right
concoction of sawdust, oatmeal and dead chickens! Let’s
be grateful that we should never get to the stage of requiring this
sort of conservation intervention in Tasmania’s production
forest landscapes.
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For the second time in four years, Simon
Grove (Forestry
Tasmania) has travelled to Sweden as an invited expert in
matters deadwoodological. Four years ago, it was to provide
an external assessment of a long-term research program focused on
catering for dead wood biodiversity in Sweden’s managed
forests. This time, the trip was to act as the
‘opponent’ for doctoral student Nicklas Jansson’s
thesis ‘defence’ at Linköping University.
The Swedish system demands that their doctoral students wrap up
their studies by giving a public presentation of their work, which
is followed by a short presentation by the ‘opponent’
on how their work fits into the bigger picture. This over,
the main part of the event is a public discussion between the
opponent and the student on the nitty-gritty of the student’s
work. The aim of the opponent is to tease out the strengths
and weaknesses of the researcher, so that the examiners (sitting in
the audience) can gauge whether the student has developed and
demonstrated a sufficient level of expertise to be granted a
doctorate. It’s all very different from the Australian
approach, but – despite the pressure it puts on students
– has the advantage of giving public recognition and a sense
of ‘closure’. Needless to say, Nicklas, who had
studied saproxylic beetles living in hollow oak trees in the
culturally significant ‘Eklandskap’ (oak landscape)
south of Linköping, passed with flying colours, and the day
ended with a big party. Simon was also called upon to present
a seminar on “What role for beetle research in sustainable
forest management in Tasmania and elsewhere?”, as well as to
meet individually with students and staff with overlapping research
interests. It seems likely that the links made during this
trip will prove valuable as Simon and others at Forestry Tasmania
develop their landscape ecology research programme in the Southern
Forests Experimental Forest Landscape over the coming few
years.
It was not all indoor work though. Nicklas and his
supervisors Per Milberg and Karl-Olof Bergman put aside the weekend
to show Simon around their landscape, including a visit to some of
their best study-sites (Figures 1 and 2).
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