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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.

2022

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Abstract

According to the plant stress hypothesis, population peaks of herbivores such as moths are caused by plant stress factors that force plants to reallocate stored defensive proteins to transportable and easily digestive N-compounds. A suggested plant stress factor is ionization caused by cosmic ray muons, which are modulated by the 9.3-year lunar nodal phase cycle, solar activity, and atmospheric pressure. Vascular plants are more sensitive to ionization than are bryophytes, and woody plants are more sensitive than are herbaceous plants, but the difference may be less during dormancy in winter. We selected the 14 most common moth species from a 30-year light-trapping study in southern Norway to test whether the fluctuation patterns of species from three different feeding guilds were correlated with lunar/solar cycles, or with atmospheric pressure in winter, when muon fluxes are higher than in other seasons. The population indices of three species feeding on deciduous woody plants were positively correlated with the lunar nodal phase index, and there was a similar tendency for the remaining three species. No positive correlations with the lunar index were found for species feeding on herbs or mosses. For nine species, that is, from all three guilds, there was a significant negative correlation between the population index and winter atmospheric pressure in the previous year. The results are in accordance with predictions deduced from the cosmic ray hypothesis, but thorough investigations of the proposed physiological mechanisms are needed for the hypothesis to be widely accepted.

Abstract

The populations of European ash and its harmless fungal associate Hymenoscyphus albidus are in decline owing to ash dieback caused by the invasive Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, a fungus that in its native range in Asia is a harmless leaf endophyte of local ash species. To clarify the behavior of H. albidus and its spatial and temporal niche overlap with the invasive relative, we used light microscopy, fungal species-specific qPCR assays, and PacBio long-read amplicon sequencing of the ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region to examine fungal growth and species composition in attached leaves of European ash. The plant material was collected from a healthy stand in central Norway, where ash saplings in late autumn showed leaflet vein necrosis like that commonly related to H. fraxineus. For reference, leaflet samples were analyzed from stands with epidemic level of ash dieback in southeastern Norway and Estonia. While H. albidus was predominant in the necrotic veins in the healthy stand, H. fraxineus was predominant in the diseased stands. Otherwise, endophytes with pathogenic potential in the genera Venturia (anamorph Fusicladium), Mycosphaerella (anamorph Ramularia), and Phoma, and basidiomycetous yeasts formed the core leaflet mycobiome both in the healthy and diseased stands. In necrotic leaf areas with high levels of either H. albidus or H. fraxineus DNA, one common feature was the high colonization of sclerenchyma and phloem, a region from which the ascomata of both species arise. Our data suggest that H. albidus can induce necrosis in ash leaves, but that owing to low infection pressure, this first takes place in tissues weakened by autumn senescence, 1–2 months later in the season than what is characteristic of H. fraxineus at an epidemic phase of ash dieback. The most striking difference between these fungi would appear to be the high fecundity of H. fraxineus. The adaptation to a host that is phylogenetically closely related to European ash, a tree species with high occurrence frequency in Europe, and the presence of environmental conditions favorable to H. fraxineus life cycle completion in most years may enable the build-up of high infection pressure and challenge of leaf defense prior to autumn senescence.

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Abstract

Dette er en rapport som beskriver det norske jordkartleggingsprogrammet. Kjennskap til det norske programmet og de erfaringer som er gjort for bruk av WRB (2014) vil sannsynligvis være nyttig for det latviske arbeidet i prosjektet “E2SOILAGRI”. Arbeidet er definert som underaktivitet 4.1.1 i Terms of Reference for NIBIOs rolle i prosjektet. Summary This is a report which describes the Norwegian Soil Information System. Knowledge on the use and adjustments of the WRB (2014) in Norway, and the experiences which have been encountered, is considered useful for the Latvian work in the project “E2SOILAGRI”. This task is defined as sub-activity 4.1.1 in the Terms of Reference for the NIBIO assignment.

Abstract

Harvest weed seed control takes advantage of seed retention at maturity by collecting weed seeds as they pass through the harvester. We assessed the seed production and shedding pattern of common weed species in two wheat and two oat fields in Denmark. The aim was to evaluate the possibility of harvesting retained seeds on weeds at crop harvest by a combine harvester based on estimation of weeds seed retention. Before flowering, ten plants of each weed species were selected and surrounded by a seed trap comprising of a porous net. When the plants started shedding seeds, the seeds were collected from the traps and counted weekly until crop harvest. Just before crop harvest, the retained seeds on the plants were counted and the ratio of harvestable seeds and shed seeds during the growing season were determined. The seed production and shedding patterns varied between the species. In oat, Anagallis arvensis L., Capsella bursa-pastoris (L.) Medik., Chenopodium album L., Fallopia convolvulus (L.) Á. Löve, Geranium molle L., Persicaria maculosa Gray, Polygonum aviculare L., Silene noctiflora L., Sinapis arvensis L., Sonchus arvensis L., Spergula arvensis L., Stellaria media (L.) Vill.,Veronica persica Poir., and Viola arvensis Murray retained on average 61, 52, 67, 44, 58, 32, 59, 95, 67, 23, 45, 56, 51, and 33%, respectively, of their produced seeds at crop harvest. In wheat, Alopecurus myosuroides Huds. and Apera spica-venti (L.) P. Beauv. retained on average 34 and 33%, respectively, of their seeds at harvest. Silene noctiflora was classified as a good target for harvest weed seed control; A. myosuroides, A. spica-venti, C. bursa-pastoris, C. album, F. convolvulus, G. molle, P.maculosa, Sinapis arvensis, Sonchus arvensis, Spergula arvensis and V. arvensis were classified as intermediate targets; and A. arvensis, P. aviculare, S. media and V. persica were classified as poor targets. The research shows that there is a great potential to reduce the input of weed seeds to the soil seed bank by harvest weed seed control. Keywords: Harvest weed seed control; Soil seed bank ; Weed seed retention

Abstract

In this study, we investigated if a steam treatment program used to produce disease-free strawberry transplants has the potential to also eliminate strawberry mite (Phytonemus pallidus) and two-spotted spider mite (Tetranychus urticae). Crowns of strawberry plants collected in a commercial field, containing young, folded leaves with all life stages of P. pallidus, and strawberry leaf discs on water agar with T. urticae with non-diapausing adult females and eggs from a laboratory rearing, were exposed to warm aerated steam in a steam cabinet in a series of four experimental runs over 2 years. The steam treatments constituted of a 1-h pre-treatment with 37 °C steam followed by a 1-h recovery period at 21–25 °C, and then a main steam treatment at 44 °C for either 2, 4 (both P. pallidus and T. urticae) or 6 h (the more heat tolerant T. urticae only). After steaming, the plant material with P. pallidus or T. urticae were incubated at 21–25 °C until survival was assessed after 1–6 days, depending on the mite species and life-stage. Non-steamed plant material with mites was used as controls. The 4-h treatment killed all P. pallidus eggs, larvae and adults, and the 2-h treatment killed all individuals in all three stages except for one egg in one of the runs. There were no or minor effects of the steam treatments on T. urticae adult and egg survival. Based on these results, the tested steam treatments may be used to eliminate the strawberry mite but not the two-spotted spider mite from strawberry planting material.

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Abstract

Aquaculture industry is one of the major food-producing sectors in the world that provide nutritional food security for mankind. Fish and crustacean farmers are facing various challenges in treating the rapid spread of infectious diseases in recent times. Numerous strategies, including antibiotics, disinfectants, and other antimicrobial agents, have been applied to protect the cultivable aquatic animals from infectious diseases. These applications lead to the development of antimicrobial resistance, toxicity, and the accumulation of antibiotic residues in cells and organelles of the cultivable edible organisms and the environment. The use of naturally derived compounds, polysaccharides, and functional metabolites has gained immense attention among aquaculturists. Mushrooms and their nutraceutical components have been widely used in various sectors, including food, pharmaceutical, poultry, and aquaculture industries, for their non-toxic and eco-friendly properties. To date, there are several reports available on edible and medicinal mushrooms as a dietary ingredient for fish and decapod crustacean culture. The mushroom products such as mycelia, stalk, dry powder, polysaccharides, and extracts have been utilized in aquaculture as growth promoters and immunostimulants, improving the digestive enzyme activity, antimicrobials, and improving the health status of cultivable aquatic animals. This present review elucidates the effectiveness of mushrooms and mushroom-derived compounds as prebiotics in aquaculture. The challenges and future perspectives of mushroom-derived bioactive molecules have been discussed in this review.