Defence of Thesis 2 october 2026: Els Ribbers – Faculty of Natural Sciences

Doctoral Candidate Els Ribbers at the Department of Biology will hold a trial lecture and defend her doctoral thesis for the degree of Philosophiae Doctor (PhD). The degree is administered by the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Thesis title Forest change drives forest-climate feedbacks in (Norwegian) boreal forests Trial lecture Assigned topic: Making decisions in forestry: A forest owner’s perspective on economic, environmental and climate considerations Assessment Committee The Faculty of Natural Sciences has appointed the following members to the assessment committee for the evaluation of the thesis: First opponent : Professor Cecilia Akselsson, Lund Universitet, Sweden Second opponent : Professor Kristina Blennow, SLU, Sweden Chair of the committee : Associate Professor Daniela Sueldo The committee has concluded that the thesis is worthy of public defense for the PhD degree. Supervisors Main supervisor : Associate Professor Hanna Lee, NTNU, Norway Co-supervisor : Senior Researcher Priscilla Mooney, NORCE, Norway Co-supervisor : Senior Researcher Helene Østli Muri, NTNU and NILU, Norway Time and venue The PhD trial lecture and defence of the thesis are open to the public: Trial lecture: 2 October 2026 at 10:15 – S4, Sentralbygg 1, Gløshaugen, NTNU Defence of the thesis: 2 October 2026 at 13:15 – S4, Sentralbygg 1, Gløshaugen, NTNU Digital: Join: Meeting ID: 353 198 791 454 230 Passcode: Ne35EP6M Thesis summary "This thesis aimed to understand how forest change impacts the climate mitigation and adaptation capacities of (Norwegian) boreal forests. Overall, the four studies agree that boreal forests are changing, and that this forest change plays an important role in shaping both the boreal climate response and forest resilience against climate-related damages. With climate warming, a change in land-cover is inevitable. As a result of global warming and active afforestation policies, we can expect an influx of more southern species and increased growth rates with higher and denser vegetation, with associated change in climate-forest feedbacks. How these forest changes are impacting local-to-regional climate is dependent on the type of forest change: a transition from open grass- and shrublands to evergreen (coniferous) forests will likely result in increased warming, increased precipitation seasonality and increased climate-related damages. Contrastingly, a change of existing evergreen forests to mixed or deciduous forests can limit some of these climate impacts, as precipitation seasonality and snow-masking are reduced, and mixed forests are more resilient. However, our studies show that climate-forest interactions, and related management decisions, are an understudied and underappreciated topic in boreal Norway and the bigger boreal zone. This leads to a common issue throughout this work, which is a general lack of standardised observations on local weather conditions, as well as on historical damages, management strategies, fuel loadings and vegetation types in the forest stands. This prevents improvement of science-based policies as well as prohibits development of useful tools for forest owners and policymakers to improve the climate resilience of their forest systems. This thesis therefore fills an important gap in current scientific literature and contributes to a better understanding of the interactions between land-cover (specifically related to forest changes) and the local-to-regional climate that are most relevant for society and policymakers. It also provides important information on how to move forward with this topic, both in scientific research and in management and policy."

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