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.
2008
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Sebastian EiterAbstract
Anmeldt bok: Price, Martin F. editor, 2007. Mountain area research and management: integrated approaches. Earthscan, Sterling, Virginia. xiv + 302 p. $95.00, ISBN: 978-1-84407-427-3.
Lecture – Farming in protected landscapes
Wendy Fjellstad, Klaus Mittenzwei, Wenche E. Dramstad, ...
Abstract
Achieving multifunctionality on a parcel of land, or in a landscape as a whole, requires a delicate balance between the different functions. This is particularly so when one of the desired functions is agricultural production. This paper examines the special challenges involved when cultural landscapes are protected by law. Norwegian `Landscape Protection Areas` are intended to preserve the landscape character of special landscapes. Ideally these landscapes should preserve ecological functions, whilst at the same time allowing for recreation and tourism, and the economic returns to ensure continued use of the landscape in the future. Balancing these functions is fraught with difficulties. The former agricultural systems that shaped these cultural landscapes may no longer be viable from the perspective of food production, and biodiversity is notoriously bad at paying for itself. Are the farmers that own the land willing to take on new roles as landscape managers rather than food producers? And who will pay for this? We present results of a questionnaire to farmers that own or manage farmland in Landscape Protection Areas. Of the 893 respondents, almost a quarter claimed that their farm business had been negatively affected by landscape protection. Niche products or alternative income possibilities had not been realised. We found a generally negative attitude towards municipal authorities and 24 % of respondents were strongly against the establishment of new Landscape Protection Areas, even if the State paid compensation for their economic loss. Based on results of the study we suggest that major improvements to the protection system could be made simply by improving communication between management authorities and farmers and involving farmers in making management plans.
2007
Authors
Klaus Mittenzwei Wendy Fjellstad Wenche Dramstad Ola Flaten Arnt Kristian Gjertsen Maria L. Loureiro Sjur Spildo PrestegardAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Einar Heegaard Rune Halvorsen Økland Harald Bratli Wenche Dramstad Gunnar Engan Oddvar Pedersen Heidi SolstadAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Klaus Mittenzwei Wendy Fjellstad Wenche E. Dramstad Ola Flaten Arnt Kristian Gjertsen Maria Loureiro Sjur Spildo PrestegardAbstract
In recent years the objectives of agricultural policy have shifted from a principal focus on production and income towards agriculture\"s provision of public goods summarized by the term ‘multifunctionality\". Agricultural sector models, which are important tools for policy advice, need to be adjusted in order to maintain their relevance and reliability in accordance with policy changes. This paper investigates the strengths and limitations of incorporating multifunctionality indicators in the agricultural sector model Common Agricultural Policy Regional Impact Analysis (CAPRI) by reviewing the existing literature and incorporating such indicators in the model. Multifunctionality indicators are developed and implemented for four selected aspects of multifunctionality: food security, landscape, environmental concerns and rural viability. By running different policy reform scenarios, it is shown that indicators closely related to the underlying economic variables of the sector model may provide useful to describe the effects of policy reforms on agriculture\"s multifunctionality. However, these indicators do not completely cover the selected aspects of multifunctionality. In order to yield a broader coverage, this paper proposes to strengthen interdisciplinary research by linking agricultural sector models with other model systems like farm-based economical-ecological models, regional economic models or landscape information systems.
2006
Abstract
There is increasing awareness of the need to monitor trends in our constantly changing agricultural landscapes. Monitoring programmes often use remote sensing data and focus on changes in land cover/land use in relation to values such as biodiversity, cultural heritage and recreation.Although a wide range of indicators is in use, landscape aesthetics is a topic that is frequently neglected. Our aim was to determine whether aspects of landscape content and configuration could be used as surrogate measures for visual landscape quality in monitoring programmes based on remote sensing.In this paper, we test whether map-derived indicators of landscape structure from the Norwegian monitoring programme for agricultural landscapes are correlated with visual landscape preferences. Two groups of people participated: (1) locals and (2) non-local students.Using the total dataset, we found significant positive correlations between preferences and spatial metrics, including number of land types, number of patches and land type diversity. In addition, preference scores were high where water was present within the mapped image area, even if the water itself was not visible in the images.When the dataset was split into two groups, we found no significant correlation between the preference scores of the students and locals. Whilst the student group preferred images portraying diverse and heterogeneous landscapes, neither diversity nor heterogeneity was correlated with the preference scores of the locals.We conclude that certain indicators based on spatial structure also have relevance in relation to landscape preferences in agricultural landscapes. However, the finding that different groups of people prefer different types of landscape underlines the need for care when interpreting indicator values
Authors
Rune Halvorsen Økland Harald Bratli Wenche E. Dramstad A. Edvardsen Gunnar Engan Wendy Fjellstad Einar Heegaard Oddvar Pedersen Heidi SolstadAbstract
Knowledge of variation in vascular plant species richness and species composition in modern agricultural landscapes is important for appropriate biodiversity management. From species lists for 2201 land-type patches in 16 1-km2 plots five data sets differing in sampling-unit size from patch to plot were prepared.Variation in each data set was partitioned into seven sources: patch geometry, patch type, geographic location, plot affiliation, habitat diversity, ecological factors, and land-use intensity.Patch species richness was highly predictable (75% of variance explained) by patch area, within-patch heterogeneity and patch type. Plot species richness was, however, not predictable by any explanatory variable, most likely because all studied landscapes contained all main patch types ploughed land, woodland, grassland and other open land and hence had a large core of common species.Patch species composition was explained by variation along major environmental complex gradients but appeared nested to lower degrees in modern than in traditional agricultural landscapes because species-poor parts of the landscape do not contain well-defined subsets of the species pool of species-rich parts.Variation in species composition was scale dependent because the relative importance of specific complex gradients changed with increasing sampling-unit size, and because the amount of randomness in data sets decreased with increasing sampling-unit size. Our results indicate that broad landscape structural changes will have consequences for landscape-scale species richness that are hard or impossible to predict by simple surrogate variables.
2005
Abstract
No abstract has been registered