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.
2020
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The categorical and qualitative nature of currently available soil structural data along with the lack of a geographically broad dataset have impeded progress in understanding the development of soil structure. In this study, we assembled a soil, climate, and ecological dataset for the USA, and used it to analyze relationships between soil structure (ped type, shape, size, and grade) and exogenous and endogenous variables influencing the development of soil structure. We analyzed a subset of the National Cooperative Soil Survey (NCSS) Soil Characterization database after merging this information with climatological and ecological data. The merged and cleaned dataset contains >4400 observations from approximately 1600 pedons. We found that climate, as an exogenous factor was the most important predictor of ped shape and size. Cold and/or dry climates promoted the development of larger anisotropic peds with rougher surfaces whereas warmer and more humid climates promoted the development of finer equidimensional peds with smoother surfaces. Based on these findings, we argue that climate promotes the development of soil structure along either fragmentation or aggregation pathways. The former pathway is characterized by largely mechanical processes in cold and dry environments, whereas aggregation is promoted by predominately biological and chemical mechanisms found in warmer and wet environments. This connection between climate and the development of soil structure represents a potentially important effect of climate on a morphological property strongly linked to soil hydrology that warrants further investigation with continental-scale soil data.
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Soil particles and bound nutrients that erode from agricultural land may end up in surface waters and cause undesirable changes to the environment. Various measures, among them constructed wetlands have been proposed as mitigation, but their efficiency varies greatly. This work was motivated by the assumption that the induced coagulation of particles may accelerate sedimentation in such wetlands and by that help reduce the amount of material that is lost from the vicinity of the diffuse source. Our specific aim was to laboratory-test the effectiveness of various salt-based coagulants in accelerating the process of sedimentation. We tested the effect of Na+, Mg2+, Ca2+, Fe3+ and Al3+ cations in 10, 20, 40 and 80 mg L-1 doses added to a soil solution in select, soluble forms of their chlorides, sulphates and hydroxides. We mixed such salts with 1 gram of physically dispersed, clay and silt rich (>85% in total) soil material in 500 mL of solution and used time-lapse photography and image analysis to evaluate the progress of sedimentation over 3 hours. We found that 20–40 mg L-1 doses of Mg2+, Ca2+ in their chloride or sulphate forms appeared to provide the best consensus in terms of efficiently accelerating sedimentation using environmentally present and acceptable salts but keeping their dosage to a minimum. Comprehensive in-field efficiency and environmental acceptability testing is warranted prior to any practical implementation, as well as an assessment of small scale economic and large-scale environmental benefits by retaining soil and nutrients at/near the farm.
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Sekhar Udaya NagothuAbstract
The final chapter in the book summarizes the main messages from the preceding chapters. It analyses the diverse views of the bioeconomy concept and supports the view that sustainable bioeconomy development has the potential to change the way we produce and consume natural resources while reducing the negative impacts on the environment. However, there are always risks associated with any new paradigm, hence, it is necessary to ensure transparency in the process, consider the interests of the most vulnerable groups and introduce genuine stakeholder management from the start. Whether, and to what extent, bioeconomy can contribute to the SDGs is a debatable issue. However, several case studies in the book do support the idea that bioeconomy can help in achieving several SDGs. The chapter also highlights the importance of sustainability indicators, including ecological (i.e., the local ecological footprint, total organic carbon, soil nitrogen, transport of minerals from land to rivers and oceans and other ecosystem services), economic and social sustainability indices in the context of bioeconomy development. Their measurement and monitoring are essential to ensure that we are on the sustainable development path. The chapter suggests possible measures to overcome constraints or risks associated with bioeconomy and proposes the necessary conditions required for sustainable bioeconomy development.
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This chapter focuses on ocean-land interactions and the potential for bioeconomy that offers unique opportunities to feed the increasing human population. Oceans can provide a circular bioeconomy by using increased CO2, and dissolved nutrients (P, N, Fe and other elements) in the water, leached from land-based activities. Estimates show that CO2 capture by seaweed cultivation alone can range from 1,500 to 3,000 tons per square kilometre. Ocean photosynthetic production provides more food and energy for human consumption without external inputs. This will contribute to sustainable development by providing food security and will aid the recovery of degraded ecosystems, thus directly contributing to the SDG 2 (reducing hunger) and SDG 14 (protecting life below water). Nevertheless, increasing food production from the oceans has its associated risks if the proper conditions are not met. Hence, proper coastal land use management is important as it continuously affects the nutrient flows, which in turn can lead to more serious changes in carbonate chemistry and ocean acidification. Genuine and stable partnerships, therefore, are necessary to share responsibility for environmental stewardship and to manage marine and coastal ecosystems sustainably. The chapter suggests the need for financial incentives to encourage research and innovations, support farmers associations and establish common platforms to share data and knowledge on oceans for better environmental management.
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This chapter provides a comprehensive literature review of sustainable bioeconomy development, with a focus on the definition, concepts, potential and risks involved. Countries differ on how they view bioeconomy, with some putting emphasis on sustainability and ecosystem services, while others focus on economic growth as the main goal. The literature review shows that bioeconomy is a rather new concept, at times its goals are conflicting, and its objectives are opposing. Hence, the lack of a common bioeconomy agenda and understanding across the globe will be one of the main constraints to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, bioeconomy brings the sustainable development discussions back onto the policy agenda, at both the national and international levels. There are sceptics who do not support this argument and claim that bioeconomy and SDGs do not go together and this is the agenda set by some industrialized countries and the corporate sector to suit their own interests. As the impacts of bioeconomy spread beyond country borders, a common agenda is necessary to keep the balance between the economic, environmental and social objectives. Experience of bioeconomy so far is limited and hence future development must be based on the strictly responsible, accountable and sustainable use of natural resources.
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In the future, the world is expected to rely increasingly on renewable biomass resources for food, fodder, fibre and fuel. The sustainability of this transition to bioeconomy for our water systems depends to a large extent on how we manage our land resources. Changes in land use together with climate change will affect water quantity and quality, which again will have implications for the ecosystem services provided by water resources. These are the main topics of this Ambio special issue on ‘‘Environmental effects of a green bio-economy’’. This paper offers a summary of the eleven papers included in this issue and, at the same time, outlines an approach to quantify and mitigate the impacts of bioeconomy on water resources and their ecosystem services, with indications of useful tools and knowledge needs.
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Eva Skarbøvik Jukka Aroviita Jens Fölster Anne Lyche Solheim Katarina Kyllmar Katri Rankinen Brian KronvangAbstract
Reference conditions of water bodies are defined as the natural or minimal anthropogenically disturbed state. We compared the methods for determining total phosphorus and total nitrogen concentrations in rivers in Finland, Norway and Sweden as well as the established reference conditions and evaluated the possibility for transfer and harmonisation of methods. We found that both methods and values differed, especially for lowland rivers with a high proportion of agriculture in the catchment. Since Denmark has not yet set reference conditions for rivers, two of the Nordic methods were tested for Danish conditions. We conclude that some of the established methods are promising but that further development is required. We moreover argue that harmonisation of reference conditions is needed to obtain common benchmarks for assessing the impacts of current and future land use changes on water quality.
Authors
D. Vanella D.S. Intrigliolo S. Consoli G. Longo-Minnolo G. Lizzio R.C. Dumitrache E. Mateescu Johannes Deelstra J.M. Ramírez-CuestaAbstract
The reliability of short-term weather forecast provided by COSMO model in simulating reference evapotranspiration (ET0) was evaluated in 7 study sites distributed in 4 countries (Italy, Norway, Romania and Spain). The main objective of the study was to assess the optimal scenario for calculating ET0, using the FAO-56 Penman-Monteith (PM) equation, by separately considering the accuracy in the use of “past” and “forecast” data input. Firstly, each forecasted variable (air temperature, Tair; relative humidity, RH; wind speed, u2; solar radiation, Rs) and ET0 were compared with in situ observations at hourly and daily scales. Moreover the seasonality effect in the forecast performance was evaluated. Secondly, simulated ET0 were computed every three days with: (i) a “past scenario” that used the observed data input measured in situ during the previous three days, (ii) a “forecast scenario” that used the forecasted input variables for the next three days; and compared with (iii) actual ET0 obtained from the in situ measured data. A general good agreement was found between observed and forecasted agro-meteorological parameters at the different explored time-scales. The best performance was obtained for Tair and Rs, followed by RH and u2. Globally, the comparison between ET0 from the measured and forecasted data input showed high performance, with R2 and RMSE of 0.90 and 0.68 mm d−1. ET0 simulations resulted more accurate using the “forecast scenario” (1.7% overestimation), rather than using the “past scenario” (2.6% underestimation). These results open promising perspectives in the use of forecast for ET0 assessment for different agriculture practices and particularly for irrigation scheduling under water scarcity conditions.