Hopp til hovedinnholdet

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.

2023

To document

Abstract

Future development of bioeconomy is expected to change land use in the Nordic countries in agriculture and forestry. The changes are likely to affect water quality due to changes in nutrient run-off. To explore possible future land-use changes and their environmental impact, stakeholders and experts from four Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden) were consulted. The methodological framework for the consultation was to identify a set of relevant land-use attributes for agriculture and forestry, e.g. tillage conservation effort, fertiliser use, animal husbandry, biogas production from manure, forestry management options, and implementation of mitigation measures, including protection of sensitive areas. The stakeholders and experts provided their opinions on how these attributes might change in terms of their environmental impacts on water quality given five Nordic bioeconomic scenarios (sustainability, business as usual, self-sufficiency, cities first and maximizing economic growth). A compilation methodology was developed to allow comparing and merging the stakeholder and expert opinions for each attribute and scenario. The compiled opinions for agriculture and forestry suggest that the business-as-usual scenario may slightly decrease the current environmental impact for most attributes due to new technologies, but that the sustainability scenario would be the only option to achieve a clear environmental improvement. In contrast, for the self-sufficiency scenario, as well as the maximum growth scenario, a deterioration of the environment and water quality was expected for most of the attributes. The results from the stakeholder consultations are used as inputs to models for estimating the impact of the land-use attributes and scenarios on nutrient run-off from catchments in the Nordic countries (as reported in other papers in this special issue). Furthermore, these results will facilitate policy level discussions concerning how to facilitate the shift to bioeconomy with increasing biomass exploitation without deteriorating water quality and ecological status in Nordic rivers and lakes.

To document

Abstract

Biodiversity is declining globally in response to multiple human stressors, including climate forcing. Nonetheless, local diversity trends are inconsistent in some taxa, obscuring contributions of local processes to global patterns. Arctic tundra diversity, including plants, fungi, and lichens, declined during a 15-year experiment that combined warming with exclusion of large herbivores known to influence tundra vegetation composition. Tundra diversity declined regardless of experimental treatment, as background growing season temperatures rose with sea ice loss. However, diversity declined slower with large herbivores than without them. This difference was associated with an increase in effective diversity of large herbivores as formerly abundant caribou declined and muskoxen increased. Efforts that promote herbivore diversity, such as rewilding, may help mitigate impacts of warming on tundra diversity.

Abstract

LegacyNet is a voluntary network of 32 international sites, established to investigate the yield benefits of multispecies grassland leys and their legacy effects on a follow-on crop. Relatively few experiments have investigated the impact of manipulating species diversity in grassland leys within crop rotations, and fewer still have accounted for variability across environments and soil types. A common experiment is being conducted at all 32 LegacyNet sites, with 52 grassland plots of systematically varied combinations of six forage species from three functional groups (two grasses, two legumes and two herbs) being sown at each site. The plots are measured and harvested for a period of at least 18 months. After this time, grassland plots are terminated, and a follow-on crop established on each plot (retaining the same plot structure). Measurements taken during the grassland and follow-on crop stages include dry matter yield, forage quality, botanical composition, and legacy effects. In this paper, we introduce the LegacyNet international experiment, its design, and overall aims and objectives.

To document

Abstract

This chapter gathers information about the current legal requirements related to the emission of ammonia from animal housing in 24 out of the 27 EU countries and in 7 non-EU countries. Overall, the chapter shows that most of the included countries have established substantial procedures to limit ammonia emission and practically no procedures to limit greenhouse gas emission. The review can also be seen as an introduction to the substantial initiatives and decisions taken by the EU in relation to ammonia emission from animal housing, and as a notification on the absence of corresponding initiatives and decisions in relation to greenhouse gases. An EU directive on industrial emissions from 2010 and an implementation decision from 2017 are the main general instruments to reduce ammonia emission from animal housing in the EU. These treaties put limits to ammonia emissions from installations with more than 2000 places for fattening pigs, with more than 750 places for sows, and with more than 40,000 places for poultry. As an example, the upper general limit for fattening pigs is 2.6 kg ammonia per animal place per year. This chapter indicates that the important animal producing countries in the EU as well as United Kingdom have implemented the EU requirements and that a few countries including the Flemish part of Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Slovakia, and Spain have introduced even stricter requirements.

To document

Abstract

Light acts as a trigger to enhance the accumulation of secondary compounds in the aboveground part of plants; however, whether a similar triggering effect occurs in roots is unclear. Using an aeroponic setup, we investigated the effect of long term exposure of roots to LED lighting of different wavelengths on the growth andp hytochemical composition of two high-value medicinal plants, Artemisia annua and Hypericum perforatum. In A. annua, root exposure to white, blue, and red light enhanced the accumulation of artemisinin in the shoots by 2.3-, 2.5-, and 1.9-fold, respectively. In H. perforatum, root exposure to white, blue, red, and green light enhanced the accumulation of coumaroylquinic acid in leaves by 89, 65, 84, and 74%, respectively. Root lighting also increased flavonol concentrations. In contrast to its effects in the shoots, root illumination did not change phytochemical composition in the roots or root exudates. Thus, root illumination induces a systemic response, resulting in modulation of the phytochemical composition in distal tissues remote from the light exposure site.