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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.

2016

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Abstract

During post glacial colonization, loss of genetic diversity due to leading edge effects may be attenuated in forest trees because of their prolonged juvenile phase, allowing many migrants to reach the colonizing front before populations become reproductive. The northern range margins of temperate tree taxa in Europe are particularly suitable to study the genetic processes that follow colonization because they have been little affected by northern refugia. Here we examined how post glacial range dynamics have shaped the genetic structure of common ash (Fraxinus excelsior L.) in its northern range compared to its central range in Europe. We used four chloroplast and six nuclear microsatellites to screen 42 populations (1099 trees), half of which corresponded to newly sampled populations in the northern range and half of which represented reference populations from the central range obtained from previously studies. We found that northern range populations of common ash have the same chloroplast haplotypes as south-eastern European populations, suggesting that colonization of the northern range took place along a single migration route, a result confirmed by the structure at the nuclear microsatellites. Along this route, diversity strongly decreased only in the northern range, concomitantly with increasing population differentiation and complex population substructures, a pattern consistent with a leading edge colonization model. Our study highlights that while diversity is maintained in the central range of common ash due to broad colonizing fronts and high levels of gene flow, it profoundly decreases in the northern range, where colonization was unidirectional and probably involved repeated founder events and population fluctuations. Currently, common ash is threatened by ash dieback, and our results on northern populations will be valuable for developing gene conservation strategies.

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Abstract

Shelf life of plum is limited by several factors, including development of fungal decay. In either one or two seasons, European plum cultivars were exposed to different applications of calcium or fungicide before harvest or left unsprayed. On the experimental trees, the yield was harvested as commercial practice, giving a sample of fruit with a range in maturity acceptable for sale. The yield was divided into two groups, less and more ripened fruit. Fruit samples from each group were stored for 10-14 days at 4°C followed by a simulated shelf life period of 2-3 days at 20°C. Fruit quality was assessed at harvest and after storage. Number of fruit with fungal decay was counted at the end of storage and after simulated shelf life. At harvest, the more ripened fruit had higher weight, soluble solids content, background and cover colour, and lower firmness in most of the experiments. Fruit from trees sprayed six times with calcium had higher weight in first year, but not in second, was less ripen as measured by colour and firmness on some cultivars, but not on others. Time of fungicide application had no effect on fruit quality at harvest. Differences in fruit quality at harvest were most often similar after storage. Fruit grouped as more mature at harvest developed more fungal decay after simulated shelf life than less mature fruit in five of eight experiments. In one out of six experiments calcium applications reduced development of postharvest fungal decay. Fungicide applications had no effect on postharvest fungal decay in either of four experiments. The present results indicate that the ripening degree of plum fruit is more important for development of fungal decay than preharvest applications of calcium or fungicides

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Abstract

No abstract has been registered

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Abstract

Ten saplings of European ash (Fraxinus excelsior L.) naturally infected by the invasive ash dieback pathogen Hymenoscyphus fraxineus were collected in Ukraine and Norway and examined for bark necrosis and extension of discoloration in sapwood and pith in a stem region. Tissue-specific colonization profiles were determined by spatial analyses of symptomatic and visually healthy stem tissues using a H. fraxineus-specific qPCR assay and light microscopy. Our data suggest that hyphal growth in the starch-rich perimedullary pith is of particular importance for both axial and radial spread of H. fraxineus, but that most of its biomass accumulates in sapwood parenchyma. The study confirms the results from earlier work and presents new information that refines the current stem invasion model.

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Abstract

There is evidence that recently occurring top dieback of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karsten) tress in southern Norway is associated with drought stress. We compared functional wood traits of 20 healthy looking trees and 20 trees with visual signs of top dieback. SilviScan technology was applied to measure cell dimensions (lumen and cell wall thickness) in a selected set of trunk wood specimens where vulnerability to cavitation (P50) data were available. The wall/lumen ratio ((t/b)²) was a quite good proxy for P50. Cell dimensions were measured on wood cores of all 40 trees; theoretical vulnerability of single annual rings could be thus estimated. Declining trees tended to have lower (t/b)² before and during a period of water deficit (difference between precipitation and potential evapotranspiration) that lasted from 2004 to 2006. The results are discussed with respect to genetic predisposition.

2015