What's your research story?
Dear fellow boreal researchers,
 We want to hear from you. In our first newsletter, we announced several new social media services designed to help us met our objectives of promoting research related to boreal forests and connecting those involved in boreal forest research. If you haven't already done so, then I encourage you to check out our website, Facebook page, YouTube channel and Research Gate project. You can also follow us on Twitter (@BorealForest).
The great thing about these platforms is that we can promote boreal forest research; your research. So we want to hear from you. What new articles have you just published? What new research are you working on? What have you recently read that you found interesting? What would you like to collaborate on across the circumboreal region? Let us know and we would be delighted to highlight your stories.
In this issue, we begin by highlighting the special issue of the Canadian Journal of Forest Research focusing on the 2015 IBFRA conference in Finland. We also have part 1 of a series that focuses on social media for scientists. An update on the 2017 IBFRA conference, Our Boreal Our Future, as well as more 60-second science round out this issue.
Connect with us, share your knowledge, spread the word.
Sincerely,
Rasmus Astrup
IBFRA President
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Special issue of the Canadian Journal of Forest Research
 Reprinted from "Towards a new era of forest science in the boreal region". Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 2016, 46(12): vii, 10.1139/cjfr-2016-0371.
Raisa Mäkipää, Rasmus Astrup, Pierre Y. Bernier
Sustainable forest management in an era of global changes has always been a central thematic area for the International Boreal Forest Research Association. At the 17th IBFRA conference held on 24–29 May 2015 in Rovaniemi, Finland, the theme of global change was accompanied by a new theme related to the use and value of big data in boreal forest management and research. Keynote presentations had a clear message that sustainably managed boreal forests and peatlands play a significant role in climate change mitigation. However, the choice of the most efficient mitigation options will vary with regional differences in ecology, institutional strength, and management intensity. In addition to changes in greenhouse gas fluxes linked to ecosystem dynamics, the design of climate change mitigation strategies should also account for the fate of harvested wood products and for the substitution of more energy-intensive materials such as concrete and steel. For climate change mitigation, it is therefore not only forest management that matters, but also ensuring the best possible end use for the produced biomass.
Key note presentations on use and value of big data in the forest sector demonstrated the role of time series of remote sensing data in forest monitoring and research. In addition, new technologies and methods including terrestrial laser scanning are starting to provide detailed three-dimensional information from forest stands from which management tools and scientific understanding will be developed. Finally, citizen science was shown to offer a vast potential for the generation of forest-based data. Thus, new means are being developed by which forest scientists and managers will be able to obtain new, more frequent, and more detailed information on the forest. The ensuing development of knowledge will benefit the forest sector, create new opportunities for furthering boreal forest science, and finally benefit the society as a whole.
Keynote speakers at the IBFRA 2015 conference (www.ibfra2015.org) were Werner Kurz, Andrey Sirin, Mike Wulder, Mikko Kaasalainen, Tord Snäll, Leena Paavilainen and Taneli Kolström, and Urban Bergsten. In addition, the conference hosted 70 oral presentations and 60 poster presentations.
Thanks to the Canadian Journal of Forest Research for presenting a special feature which includes eight articles that represent scientific topics discussed during the 2015 IBFRA conference in Rovaniemi, Finland:
- Dalsgaard et al. Underestimation of boreal forest soil carbon stocks related to soil classification and drainage. doi:10.1139/cjfr-2015-0466
- Nordström et al. Impacts of global climate change mitigation scenarios on forests and harvesting in Sweden. doi:10.1139/cjfr-2016-0122
- Repo et al. The responses of Scots pine seedlings to waterlogging during the growing season. doi:10.1139/cjfr-2015-0447
- Stokland et al. Burial of downed deadwood is strongly affected by log attributes, forest ground vegetation, edaphic conditions, and climate zones. doi:10.1139/cjfr-2015-0461
- Strand et al. Carbon and nitrogen stocks in Norwegian forest soils — the importance of soil formation, climate, and vegetation type for organic matter accumulation. doi:10.1139/cjfr-2015-0467
- Kenzo et al. Morphological and physicochemical traits of leaves of different life-forms of various broadleaf woody plants in interior Alaska. doi:10.1139/cjfr-2015-0417
- Tanaka-Oda et al. Variability in the growth rates and foliage δ15N values of black spruce trees across a slope gradient in the Alaskan Interior. doi:10.1139/cjfr-2015-0469
- Helle et al. Wildlife monitoring in Finland: online information for game administration, hunters, and the wider public. doi:10.1139/cjfr-2015-0454
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To tweet or not to tweet?
Thoughts on social media for scientists
Brian Bonnell, IBFRA Secretary (Canadian Forest Service)
As a scientist, should you spend some of your valuable time tweeting, on Facebook or blogging about your work? What value is social media to a researcher? Some argue against it while others say you absolutely must have an online presence. Has publish or perish turned into Tweet or perish? I believe that social media is a great tool and can do a lot of things. I also believe it may not be for everyone. Depending on your objectives for sharing your work, collaborating and finding out about the latest research advances, it could be a very valuable tool.
Christie Wilcox, writing in Scientific American, has this to say: "Scientists. We’re an enigmatic group of people. On the one hand, we are trailblazers. We’re the innovators and inventors whose job it is, quite literally, to expand the world’s technology through knowledge...Yet when it comes to social adaptation and technology, we’re more than behind the curve...It may seem of little consequence whether scientists are using social media. That certainly seems to be the attitude of many scientists – social media platforms like Facebook are seen as little more than ways to tell everyone how good the omelette you just made was...But social media platforms aren’t just digital water coolers. They are the way the world is networking and communicating. They are how and where we share information – with friends, colleagues, acquaintances and any and everyone else."
 A 2014 Nature survey explored why scientists use social media with following discussions, posting work content, discovering peers, and discovering recommended papers being the main reasons. In an American Scientist blog post on The Benefits of Twitter for Scientists, David Shiffman, a marine conservation biologist and award-winning science communicator, writes, “my own research (and years of personal experience) has shown that if properly used, Twitter makes it possible for scholars to follow along with cutting-edge research in their discipline as it is presented at conferences on the other side of the world, to directly share their expertise with policy makers and journalists, and to get feedback from expert peers as they work on their own research projects.”
Social media is simply communications online. However, the main difference between social media and traditional media such as publications is the “social” part. It is the interaction with others that make social media different from earlier forms of communications and knowledge transfer. At the same time, it is not a replacement for direct, face-to-face interaction. Dr. Sarah Boon dispels five key myths that seem to come up in most discussions of scientists using Twitter in her 2014 blog post for the Canadian Science Publishing website.
What usually makes it daunting to the beginner is the sheer number of types of social media and the many different platforms for each type adding complexity and often confusion as to what platforms to use and how. When I started a couple of years ago, I know I felt overwhelmed and, at times, still do. At the same time, it has also opened a word of knowledge and connections that would have been difficult for me to obtain or make without social media. To simplify, there are six main uses – publishing, sharing, messaging, discussing, collaborating and networking – and three main players – Twitter, Facebook and Google. Beyond that, the myriad of things you hear are just services, the most popular of which are owned by the big three.
"Honestly, it isn’t easy at first – but it gets easier with practice. If you’re new to social media, start off as a spectator following people with common interests. Then, ease into sharing links to stories, papers and other things that fascinate you. Finally, start creating original content. This takes time, but once you see the results you’ll be glad you did it." (Kirk Englehardt, Vice Chancellor for Marketing and Communication at University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, 2015)
Want to know more or get started in social media? Check out the resources below and stay tuned for the next IBFRA newsletter when part 2 will explore how to get started with social media as a scientist.
For more information:
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2017 Conference News
Dear fellow boreal researchers,
The submission process for contributed abstracts is now open. The deadline for submission ends today, February 28, 2017 with speakers and presenters being informed of acceptance by mid-March. Accepted abstracts will be assigned to the most appropriate theme and session. Please visit the conference website to submit an abstract or for additional information.
We are also accepting special session proposals which should include a title, abstract, organizer, and names and suggested titles of constituent talks (if applicable) of proposed special sessions. In addition, the type of proposed special session should be indicated. The following formats will be considered: panels, research sessions, open discussions for science missions, and short workshops. The special session proposals can be sent to the Head of the Scientific Committee, Christopher Woodall.
For more information, please visit the conference web site: http://2017ibfra.org
Check out our conference promotion videos and share! Subscribe to our YouTube channel to receive notices of other videos as they are released.
Organized and sponsored by:
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