Publications
NIBIOs employees contribute to several hundred scientific articles and research reports every year. You can browse or search in our collection which contains references and links to these publications as well as other research and dissemination activities. The collection is continously updated with new and historical material.
2026
Forfattere
Adriano Mazziotta Kyle Eyvindson Katharina Albrich Juha Honkaniemi Joyce Machado Nunes Romeiro Susanne Suvanto Annika KangasSammendrag
Natural disturbances such as windthrow, bark beetle outbreaks, root rot, wildfire and snow or ice damage are increasingly affecting temperate and boreal forests under climate change, creating a need for adaptive management to maintain forest resilience and productivity. Decision Support Systems (DSSs) integrating disturbance dynamics can support managers in adjusting management to these evolving risks. This review synthesizes management recommendations derived from DSSs incorporating natural disturbance models in European temperate and boreal forests. The results reveal that most DSSs rely on simulation models applied at strategic spatial and temporal scales, with particular emphasis on windthrow risk, bark beetle outbreak, and root rot damage. Conifer-dominated, even-aged plantations appear most vulnerable to multiple disturbances, whereas mixed-species stands show greater resilience. Simulations underscore that proactive strategies, such as shortening rotation length, species mixing, and targeted thinning, can reduce disturbance risks, but compromise timber revenues and other ecosystem services. Reactive strategies, including salvage logging and sanitary cuttings, address immediate damage but offer limited long-term mitigation. Optimization methods can help mitigate the trade-offs between profitability and forest resilience by minimizing disturbance risk and maximizing economic outcomes. While several DSSs can integrate single disturbances, only few DSSs can simulate interactions among disturbance models and climate scenarios. Complex data requirements constrain DSS application for operational forest management, restricting their use to researchers. Future DSS development should prioritize simple, applicable and accessible solutions while integrating advanced models capable of addressing diverse disturbance regimes. By leveraging advanced DSSs, forest managers can enhance forest resilience amid increasing climate-driven disturbance pressures.
Sammendrag
Sonchus arvensis L. is a perennial weed increasingly abundant in northern Europe, associated with organic farming and soil cultivation. The resprouting potential after disturbance and its subsequent development and growth under different site conditions remain unclear. This study investigated the effects of aboveground biomass removal of S. arvensis in Rostock (Germany), Jokioinen (Finland), and Ås (Norway). In the start year, 5 cm S. arvensis root fragments (ramets) were planted in spring under semi‐field conditions, with five replicates per treatment stage. The treatment stages were defined according to plant development stages at which aboveground biomass was removed by cutting: bud, flower, seed‐head, wilt and an uncut control. Plant development was assessed as BBCH stage in the autumn of the start year and in summer of the subsequent year. Plant growth was assessed in the subsequent year as below‐ and aboveground biomass (dry weight), number of shoots and leaves. In Ås, some ramets failed to resprout after cutting treatment in the start and subsequent year, whereas all plants resprouted in Rostock and Jokioinen. In general, biomass was higher in Rostock than in Jokioinen and Ås. Removing biomass in the start year affected plant development within the same, but not in the subsequent year. Biomass removal at the treatment stages bud and flower reduced plant growth, whereas it was hardly affected by removal at seed‐head or wilt stages compared to the uncut control. Overall, further development stages reached after resprouting in the start year were associated with reduced growth in the subsequent year.
Forfattere
Ksawery Kuligowski Adrian Woźniak Joanna Strycharz Nicole Nawrot Ewa Wojciechowska Cheryl Marie Cordeiro Erik Sindhøj Athanasios PantelopoulosSammendrag
Recycled nutrient fertilizers (RNFs) are central to circular nutrient management, yet their agronomic performance is often evaluated using yield‐based metrics alone. This study evaluated yield‐efficiency trade‐offs of pelleted waste‐derived RNFs using nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) and relative agronomic effectiveness (RAE) as complementary indicators. In a 4‐month controlled glasshouse pot experiment with a forage grass mixture ( Lolium perenne , Lolium multiflorum‐estanzuela , Festuca rubra , and Lolium hybridum ), two recycled fertilizers (BADSS [Biochar–ash–digestate–sewage‐sludge pellet (“black pellet”)] and SADSS [Shavings–ash–digested‐sewage‐sludge pellet (“yellow pellet”; chromium‐free bovine shavings)]), the same pellets combined with a fermented bakery–dairy amendment containing effective microorganisms (EM), and a commercial cow manure granulate were evaluated across a pellet‐N gradient of 20–370 kg N/ha over four sequential harvests. The fermented amendment supplied an additional 0.3612 g N/pot. Under these controlled conditions, RNF formulations matched or exceeded the reference fertilizer in cumulative biomass, with SADSS+EM (SADSS combined with the fermented bakery–dairy amendment containing effective microorganisms) producing the largest yield responses and RAE values. NUE declined strongly as N input increased. Accounting for N supplied by the fermented amendment substantially lowered calculated NUE for the amended treatments, showing that apparent performance gains reflected both co‐supplied nutrients and treatment‐specific interactions. Because the amendment also contained organic material and other constituents and no nutrient‐matched carrier control was included, the experiment does not isolate a microorganism‐specific effect. Non‐amended SADSS showed the most balanced relationship between RAE and NUE across application rates. These results indicate a yield‐efficiency trade‐off under controlled conditions and highlight the need for transparent accounting of all amendment‐derived nutrient inputs before field‐scale inference.
Forfattere
Eva Skarbøvik Anastasija Isidorova Maria Kämäri Pasi Valkama Sofie G. M. van’t Veen Emma E. Lannergård Jens Fölster Brian KronvangSammendrag
Mean concentrations of pollutants and nutrients are frequently used in the classification of water bodies under the European Commission Water Framework Directive. Turbidity can be used as a proxy for several particle-associated substances. We used three years of sensor turbidity data in each of 10 Nordic streams to assess the uncertainty in the annual arithmetic mean concentration of turbidity when sampling weekly, fortnightly, or monthly. On average, weekly sampling produced an uncertainty of 17±9% for all streams, whereas monthly sampling increased this to 40±19%. We then developed a multiple linear model that shows how the uncertainty in annual mean turbidity increases with decreasing sampling frequency, decreasing catchment size, and increasing proportion of agricultural land in the catchment. As an example, a river of 800 km 2 catchment area and 20% agricultural land will need 29 samples a year to give a mean annual turbidity within 10% uncertainty, but a stream of 10 km 2 catchment area and 80% agricultural land will need 95 samples to achieve the same uncertainty. Turbidity was a suitable proxy for total phosphorus in seven of the 10 streams. The range of the annual mean total phosphorus concentration was compared with the environmental objective (good water quality) in each river. The results highlight that when the estimated mean total phosphorus concentration is close to the concentration of the environmental objective, an infrequent sampling strategy can lead to false water quality classification. .
Sammendrag
Core rot in apple has only been considered a problem in a limited number of cultivars and has not been a focus in Norway, or in many other countries. There is currently a high demand for apple juice and cider in Norway. As core rot is not detectable on the fruit surface until the rot reaches the outer fruit flesh, it is possible for infected fruit to be used for juice without noticing the rot. Since Fusarium spp., one of the known causes of core rot, is a known producer of mycotoxins, precautionary investigations are needed. Over several seasons it was found that both pre- and postharvest rot of Fusarium spp. were common on most of the cultivars grown in Norway. As in other countries, Fusarium avenaceum has dominated so far, but Fusarium paeoniae was also identified on apple. Inoculation experiments with attached fruit and in storage were successful both in establishing core rot and detecting different mycotoxins from the fruit. There were differences between isolates of F. avenaceum in both the type of mycotoxins produced and the amount. A potential life cycle for Fusarium spp. on apple fruit in Norway is suggested, and possible ways of reducing the incidence both pre- and postharvest are discussed.
Forfattere
Fredheim, Katrine WeilinSammendrag
--- Abstract will be published: 2031-05-14
Forfattere
Mugaas, Tuva TorstensenSammendrag
Recent crises show that Norwegian food production is vulnerable to climate change and that the Norwegian food production system lacks adaptive capacity in the face of likely climate change scenarios. In this situation we can look to local ecological knowledge as a source of inspiration for increasing agroecosystem’s resilience. In countries with a large amount of outlaying land, transhumance pastoral systems are widely practised. In Norway this is through the system which is called summer farming (Norw. stølsdrift). To study vulnerability and strengths in the summer farming community, I did a case study in Valdres, the area with the highest density of summer farms nationally. To analyse responses and coping strategies when meeting extreme weather and prolonged stressors I have studied archival documents about summer farming and conducted interviews centred on practises and development trajectories from the period before industrialisation. This study shows that adaptive community actions in Valdres has been more influenced by prolonged stress, compared to transient shocks, resulting in effective and diverse climate adaptation practises with the ability to buffer disturbances and in this way also cope when facing extreme stressors. The most important practises for the system’s ability to maintain itself are centred around the use of diverse and flexible fodder and grazing resources. In line with my findings research shows that structural changes caused by socio-political stress is experienced as more pressing for the farming community than weather-related stressors. As agricultural policy on a national scale aims to increase resilience to climate change, summer farming must be valued for strengthening the farms’ robustness and, also because farmers perceptions towards adapting to climate change can be important for adaptative community actions to be implemented.
Forfattere
Elżbieta Ziółkowska Geoff Groom Jean-Sébastien Beaulne Anto Raja Dominic Hella Kehlenbeck Luna Kondrup Marcussen Łukasz Mikołajczyk Anne Muola Sari Peltonen Benoit Sarrazin Jürgen Schwarz Susanne Stein Bettina Wenzel Christopher John ToppingSammendrag
This data paper presents a harmonized set of spatial datasets describing 60 agricultural landscapes (10 × 10 km each) generated for selected agricultural regions across six European countries—Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Poland—within the Horizon 2020 EcoStack project. These landscape datasets were developed for use within the Animal, Landscape and Man Simulation System (ALMaSS) and applied within an integrated modeling framework designed to identify management strategies that effectively enhance multiple beneficial organisms, i.e., ecosystem service providers, within European agroecosystems. All landscape models were generated following the methodology detailed in Ziółkowska et al. (2026). Because input data availability and structure varied among countries, the full set of data sources and the processing steps required to account for national and regional specificities are documented. All inputs were harmonized to a common structure, spatial resolution, and Type of Landscape Element (TOLE) legend to support comparability across landscapes. The resulting datasets capture major gradients in farmland structure, composition, and management intensity across Europe. They can support not only agent-based simulations and scenario analyses but also ecological modeling and biodiversity assessments more broadly. All landscape models, associated files, metadata, and landscape-window selection criteria are provided in an open, citable format to facilitate reuse and further development.
Sammendrag
In the 1940s and 50s, spruce trees were planted in large areas in Northern Norway. These forests are now reaching maturity for harvesting. However, a long-standing question has been whether northern Norwegian spruce sawn timber has sufficient strength properties for use in load-bearing structures. According to new studies, the answer is yes.
Sammendrag
Each year, between 160 and 220 ha of turfgrass sod are laid in Norway. Increased use has raised questions about whether sod production leads to loss of agricultural soil. NIBIO has recently documented how much soil is removed during sod harvest – and what producers can do to reduce this loss.