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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.

2019

Sammendrag

The role of soil moisture on organic matter decomposition remains poorly understood and underrepresented in coupled global climate models. Traditionally, organic matter decomposition is represented as simple first- or second order kinetics in such models, using mostly empirical functions for temperature and moisture controls, and without considering microbial interactions. We use the Dual Michaelis-Menten (DAMM) model (Davidson et al. 2012) to simulate simultaneous temperature and moisture controls on decomposition rates. Microbial controls on decomposition in relation to changes in soil moisture and temperature are implicitly simulated with DAMM: Soil moisture affects the available substrate (SOC) and oxygen available for decomposition and reduces the maximal, temperature driven decomposition rate (Vmax). We apply the DAMM model on vertically resolved data from the most recent coupled model intercomparison project (CMIP5) and gridded global SOC values (SoilGrids). We study the potential decomposition rates for a historic period (1976 - 2006) and a period under the RCP8.5 climate change scenario (2070-2099) for 5 soil layers up to 1m depth. Our key finding is that the inclusion of soil moisture controls has diverging effects on both the speed and direction of projected decomposition rates, compared to a temperature-only approach. The majority of these changes are driven by soil moisture through substrate limitation, rather than oxygen diffusion limitation. In deeper soil layers, oxygen diffusion limitation plays a stronger role. Our study highlights the need for inclusion of soil moisture interactions in coupled global climate models. Our findings could be particularly important for boreal soils, which store a major fraction of Earth’s SOC stocks and where temperature increases and soil moisture changes are expected to be largest.

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Sammendrag

Laboratory screening tests are commonly used to indicate wood materials’ resistance or susceptibility to surface mould growth, but the results can deviate from what happens during outdoor exposure. In this study, the aim was to investigate how well agar plate screening tests and water uptake tests can predict mould growth on exterior wooden claddings. The tested wood materials included Norway spruce heartwood (Picea abies), sapwood and heartwood of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), aspen (Populus tremula), acetylated Radiata pine (Pinus radiata) and DMDHEU-modifed Scots pine sapwood. The agar plate test included four inoculation methods (two monoculture spore suspensions of Aureobasidium species, one mixed-culture spore suspension, and inoculation from outdoor air) and three incubation temperatures (5, 16 and 27 °C). Inoculation method and incubation temperature had signifcant efects on the mould rating in the agar plate screening test, but none of the agar plate test combinations gave good indications of outdoor performance. Results from the agar plate test gave signifcantly negative correlations or no signifcant correlation with results from the outdoor test. However, the water uptake test gave signifcantly positive correlations with outdoor mould rating, and could be a useful indicator of susceptibility of uncoated wooden claddings to surface mould growth.

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Sammendrag

Timber structures in marine applications are often exposed to severe degradation conditions caused by mechanical loads and wood-degrading organisms. This paper presents the use of timber in marine environments in Europe from a wood protection perspective. It discusses the use of wood in coastline protection and archeological marine wood, reviews the marine borer taxa in European waters, and gives an overview of potential solutions for protection of timber in marine environments. Information was compiled from the most relevant literature sources with an emphasis on new wood protection methods; the need for research and potential solutions are discussed. Traditionally, timber has been extensively utilized in a variety of marine applications. Although there is a strong need for developing new protection systems for timber in marine applications, the research in this field has been scarce for many years. New attempts to protect timber used in marine environments in Europe have mainly focused on wood modification and the use of mechanical barriers to prevent colonization of marine wood borers. The importance of understanding the mechanisms of settlement, migration, boring, and digestion of the degrading organisms is key for developing effective systems for protecting timber in marine environments.

Sammendrag

The genus Scapania comprises a group of leafy liverworts distributed throughout many bryophytic assemblages. While many Scapania species grow widely, some are assessed as endangered and appear to be specialists with distinct niche environments. Several are found only in alpine forest communities, inhabiting decaying logs in streams, typical of an environment that is threatened by both logging activity and changes to watercourses. Another species, S. nimbosa, has an unusual Oceanic-Montane distribution across Ireland, Scotland, Norway, China and Nepal. Since gemmae and sexual reproduction are absent the species is hypothesized to be primarily dispersed by fragmentation. In Norway S. nimbosa occupies an area of only 13 x 20 km, at altitudes between 300-980 m, and is frequently found with another more abundant asexual species, S. ornithopodioides. This makes S. nimbosa susceptible to local extinction through climate change or perhaps interspecific competition. Genomics is being increasingly used to infer demography and the evolutionary history of a species. Ascertaining levels of genetic variation can also contribute towards an effective conservation management plan. Besides, very little is known about the genomic organization and sexual determination in leafy liverworts. To generate new knowledge about the genus Scapania we sequenced the genomes of the sexual species S. nemorea (both male and female isolates), S. undulata (a single isolate), and several asexual S. ornithopodiodes and S. nimbosa isolates. Illumina paired-end (2x 300 bp) and Oxford Nanopore long reads were used to create genomic references. Initially organellar genomes were assembled, annotated and genetic variation was discovered. This revealed that variation is indeed present even for S. nimbosa and S. ornithopodioides at Norwegian sites. Next we focussed on creating a high quality nuclear reference genome for S. nemorea using the SPAdes assembler (v3.13). Qualities of each assembly and isolate were assessed with QUAST and BUSCO. While one assembly spans 202.6 Mb (10930 scaffolds; N50 of 66 Kb), other isolates of S. nemorea show larger assembled genome sizes and different Kmer distributions, consistent with the expected alternative sexual chromosome complement. We further analyse genomic synteny and diversity, but emphasize that difficulties in extracting DNA from herbarium specimens really hamper analysis.

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Sammendrag

Nematodes of the genera Elaphostrongylus and Dictyocaulus are associated with disease in semi-domesticated tundra reindeer and farmed red deer whereas less knowledge exists in the wild. Their first stage larvae (L1) develop to the infective third stage (L3) in the environment; Elaphostrongylus spp. within intermediate gastropod hosts and Dictyocaulus spp. as free-living larvae. Larval development of Elaphostrongylus is highly temperature dependent with a developmental minimum of 9–10 °C. Larval development of Dictyocaulus spp. may occur at low temperatures (5 °C) but the larvae are sensitive to desiccation. We examined the prevalence and intensity of Elaphostrongylus spp. and Dictyocaulus spp. infections in six wild reindeer and two wild red deer populations in relation to altitude, temperature and rainfall in their respective main summer pasture area over the 5 summers prior to sampling. The parasitological examination was based upon morphological identification of L1 in the faeces of hunted animals. Altitude was calculated from animal position data and temperature and precipitation by means of a nationwide gridded data set. Temperature decreased with increasing altitude, from 13.3 °C for the lowest located red deer population (300 m) to 6.1 °C for the highest located reindeer population (1400 m). No significant relationship between altitude and rainfall was identified. Elaphostrongylus spp. infection decreased in prevalence with increasing altitude, being identified in 89% of investigated samples from the lowest located population and in 3% of samples from the highest. The prevalence of Dictyocaulus spp. infection varied between 28 and 80% and no relationship with altitude was found. The intensity of Elaphostrongylus spp. infection was low in reindeer and moderate in red deer whereas the intensity of Dictyocaulus spp. infection was moderate in both species. Our results indicated that the climatic conditions in all areas studied were suitable for Dictyocaulus spp., whereas summer temperature was a restrictive factor for Elaphostrongylus sp. in reindeer.