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
Authors
Christian PedersenAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
Afforestation of marginal cultivated land is an internationally approved climate mitigation strategy, however, with uncertain implications for soil organic carbon (SOC) storage. We examined the effect of forest planting by measuring SOC at two adjacent sites: one with a Norway spruce forest planted in 1968 and one actively grazed pasture. Both sites had similar land-use history before forest planting, and they were as similar as possible in all other edaphic factors. There were no significant differences in SOC stocks down to 30 cm mineral soil, 7.15 and 8.51 kg C m−2 in the forest plantation and pasture respectively. Only a minimal build-up of an O horizon, less than 2 cm, was observed in the plantation. The SOC stocks of the plantation and pasture were not significantly different from that of a nearby old forest, 7.17 kg C m−2. When comparing these three land-uses we found that there were significant differences in the upper 10 cm of the soil with regard to other soil properties. Nitrogen (N) stock and pH were significantly lower in the old forest compared to the plantation, which again was significantly lower than that of the pasture. The opposite was the case for the C/N ratio. We conclude that there were no significant differences in SOC stocks in the upper 30 cm 50 years after afforestation with Norway spruce, but that there is still a legacy from the former cultivation that may influence both productivity and organic matter dynamics.
Authors
Wendy FjellstadAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Sebastian EiterAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Simon Jakobsson Joachim Paul Töpper Marianne Evju Erik Framstad Anders Lyngstad Bård Pedersen Hanne Sickel Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson Vigdis Vandvik Liv Guri Velle Per Arild Aarrestad Signe NybøAbstract
Effective evidence-based nature conservation and habitat management relies on developing and refining our methodological toolbox for detecting critical ecological changes at an early stage. This requires not only optimizing the use and integration of evidence from available data, but also optimizing methods for dealing with imperfect knowledge and data deficiencies. For policy and management relevance, ecological data are often synthesized into indicators, which are assessed against reference levels and limit values. Here we explore challenges and opportunities in defining ecological condition in relation to a reference condition reflecting intact ecosystems, as well as setting limit values for good ecological condition, linked to critical ecological thresholds in dose–response relationships between pressures and condition variables. These two concepts have been widely studied and implemented in aquatic sciences, but rarely in terrestrial systems. In this paper, we address practical considerations, theoretical challenges and possible solutions using different approaches to determine reference and limit values for good ecological condition in terrestrial ecosystems, based on empirical experiences from a case study in central Norway. We present five approaches for setting indicator reference values for intact ecosystems: absolute biophysical boundaries, reference areas, reference communities, ecosystem dynamics based models, and habitat availability based models. We further present four approaches for identifying indicator limit values for good ecological condition: empirically estimated values, statistical distributions, assumed linear relationships, and expert judgement-based limits. This exercise highlights the versatile and robust nature of ecological condition assessments based on reference and limit values for different management purposes, for situations where knowledge of the underlying relationships is lacking, and for situations limited by data availability. Ecological condition Index Management Reference condition Terrestrial
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
2019
Abstract
Norway has a political goal to minimize the loss of cultural heritage due to removal, destruction or decay. On behalf of the national Directorate for Cultural Heritage, we have developed methods to monitor Cultural Heritage Environments. The complementary set of methods includes (1) landscape mapping through interpretation of aerial photographs, including field control of the map data, (2) qualitative and quantitative initial and repeat landscape photography, (3) field recording of cultural heritage objects including preparatory analysis of public statistical data, and (4) recording of stakeholder attitudes, perceptions and opinions. We applied these methods for the first time to the historical clustered farm settlement of Havrå in Hordaland County, West Norway. The methods are documented in a handbook and can be applied as a toolbox, where different monitoring methods or frequency of repeat recording may be selected, dependent on local situations, e.g., on the landscape character of the area in focus.
Abstract
No abstract has been registered