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
The frequency with which ewe lambs lay on wooden surfaces at two levels, called ``double bunks,"" was documented by video recording at 6, 11 and 18 months of age: the number in each of 4 pens (n = 4) lying either on double bunks (DBs) or on the expanded metal floor (EMF) was recorded. At 6 months, lambs were sheared half way through the research period and DBs of two different heights (50/60 cm) and depths (60/75 cm) were tested. At other ages the lambs were sheared before testing and all DBs were the 60 cm 60 cm design. Fully fleeced lambs aged 6 months preferred to lie on EMF rather than DB (P < 0.001). After shearing, the use of EMF for resting declined (P < 0.05) and no significant preference between EMF and DB was found. The lambs tended to lie less when newly sheared (P = 0.06). At 11 months, sheared lambs used DB just as much as EMF, whereas 18 month old sheared ewe lambs tended to choose DB to lie on (P = 0.09). At 6 months, there was a tendency for more lambs to rest at ground level in the DB when headroom was higher at 60 cm (P = 0.1). No other preferences between DB designs were found. The results are discussed according to the regulations for organic sheep farming in Norway. The lambs showed little preference for resting on a DB compared to EMF, so there is insufficient evidence to recommend a two-level, wooden lying area for sheep.
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Øystein Johnsen Igor A. Yakovlev Daniel Kwaku A. Asante Anne Eskild Nilsen Harald Kvaalen Carl Gunnar FossdalAbstract
In forest trees, environmental conditions during the reproduction can greatly influence progeny performance. We here suggest that temperature during zygotic embryogenesis and seed maturation regulates an “epigenetic memory” in the progeny, involving differential expression of genes that may regulate bud phenology, cold acclimation and embryogenesis in Norway spruce. Conditions colder than normal advance the timing whilst temperatures above normal delay the onset of these processes. The altered performance lasts for many years. The seedlings actually remember the temperatures and photoperiod prevailing during zygotic embryogenesis and seed maturation. We show for the first time that regenerated plants, cloned through somatic embryogenesis, express a memory of the temperatures applied during embryo development whilst growing in a common greenhouse environment. The warmer the in vitro temperature applied, the later the regenerated plants formed terminal buds in the common environment the second growth season. The differences were very large, and similar in size to a provenance separation of 4 – 6 degrees of latitude. To study a molecular mechanisms of a memory from embryo development identical crosses were performed, seed were produced in different temperature regimes (cold and warm embryonic history) and seedling were grown under long day (LD = continuous light) and short day (SD = 12 h night) conditions. We have prepared two subtracted cDNA libraries, forward and revers, representing genes predominantly expressed in plants growing from seeds obtained after embryogenesis in cold environment (CE) and warm environment (WE) after short day treatment (going to bud set). Annotation reveals considerable differences in studied transcriptomes. More than 50% of contigs were unknown. So obtained subtracted libraries is a good source of candidate genes. We used quantitative RT–PCR to study the expression patterns of 34 chosen candidate genes. Just two putative genes among them with no matching in the Database and one reverse transcriptase show constitutively differential expression in progeny from CE and WE
Authors
Rastislav Solár Miroslav Mamo Janka Dibdiakova Ladislav Reinprecht Milo Pánek Jozef HudecAbstract
A series of comparable specimens of hornbeam wood were submitted to pre-treatments by white-rot fungi and by alkali, or alkali followed by oxidation agents. The pre-treatments caused weight loss of wood and modified its physical properties and chemical composition.All pre-treatments reduced axial permeability of the test specimens in wet state (w FSP). The pre-treatments of the test specimens by diluted sodium hydroxide, or sodium hydroxide followed by hydrogen peroxide, however increased rate of diffusion in direction parallel to grain. The pre-treatments also made the kinetics of wood/water interactions in its initial phase much higher, especially when the white-rot fungi were used.The chemical pre-treatments of hornbeam wood caused its extreme final swelling, and on the other hand, a careful drying to initial moisture content resulted in its deep collapse. An increased rate of wood/water interactions, higher uptake of water and higher diffusion coefficients of wood pre-treated by alkali may play a positive role in the pulping processes.
Authors
Rastislav Solár Frantiek Kaík Ladislav Reinprecht Marta Laurová Jarmila Geffertová Janka DibdiakovaAbstract
A series of comparable specimens of hornbeam wood were submitted to fungal and chemical pretreatments. Two strains of erosive white-rot fungi (P. chrysosporium and T. versicolor) and a lignin-selective fungus C. subvermispora were used. Chemical pretreatments were carried out with diluted sodium hydroxide, or sodium hydroxide and then by hydrogen peroxide, or per-acetic acid. Both biotic and abiotic pre-treatments modified the chemical composition of wood and were accompanied by its weight loss. The applied fungi apparently delignified the specimens, however at the expense of cellulose, especially when the erosive strains of fungi were used. The chemical pretreatments caused deep deacetylation, and milder delignification of wood and did not cause an apparent loss of cellulose. Biotic pretreatments of hornbeam wood, despite their marked delignification effect, led to unexpected increase in the contents of residual lignin in the resulting kraft pulps. On the other hand, pulping of the chemically pre-treated chips yielded pulps with low contents of residual lignin and much higher brightness.
Authors
Harald Kvaalen Øystein JohnsenAbstract
It has been shown previously that height growth and bud phenology are influenced by the temperature during zygotic embryogenesis in Picea abies.To test whether this phenomenon operates within individual plants, clones produced through somatic embryogenesis were used. Seeds were from a full-sib family produced in both a cold (outdoor) and a warm (inside a glasshouse) environment. Embryogenic clones derived from mature zygotic embryos from both crossing environments were cultured at 18, 23 and 28 during the proliferation and embryo maturation steps.After the second growing season in a glasshouse, plants from the warm seed production environment were taller and had significantly later bud set. For the first time, it is also shown that plants are influenced by the in vitro temperature during somatic embryo development. The warmer the temperature, the later the plants formed terminal buds. The differences were similar to those produced by a provenance separation of 4-6 degrees of latitude.The results indicate that there exists a mechanism in P. abies that operates during embryo development and adjusts the timing of bud set in accordance with the temperature conditions in which the mother tree lives. This in turn counteracts negative effects of gene flow among populations located along altitudinal and latitudinal gradients.
Abstract
Insect-induced damages in forests are a major concern for timber production, landscape conservation and ecosystem research. Early detection methods based on remote sensing data can document the severity and spatial extent of ongoing attacks and might aid in designing mitigation measures or even prevention where necessary. In southeastern Norway, a large-scale insect defoliation of pine trees is ongoing. The larvae of the Pine sawfly Neodiprion sertifer reate it with its mass attacks during their feeding on needles in June and July. In the winter before the attack, egg galleries are evident in the needles. This provides a test case for early detection methods and remote sensing techniques for monitoring forest health....
Abstract
In European forests, standings stocks are currently increasing and are higher than ever during the last decades. This is due to a multitude of reasons; human impacts such as reduced logging or the abandonment of agricultural land are clearly among them. However, data from intensive monitoring plots reveal an increased growth even in the absence of direct human intervention. For this study, we used a set of 363 such plots from 16 European countries, which are a subset of the ICP-Forests Level II plots, and are typically rectangular areas with a size of 0.25 ha. We investigated the influence of environmental factors on forest growth. In particular, the role of nitrogen, sulphur and acid deposition, temperature, precipitation and drought was elucidated. The study focussed on the tree species Norway spruce, Scots pine, common beech and European as well as sessile oak. We used existing information on site productivity, stand age and stand density to estimate expected growth. Relative tree growth was then calculated as the ratio between actual growth, obtained within a five years observation period, and expected growth. The site productivity incorporates past environmental conditions and was either computed from site index curves, where we distinguished Northern, Central and Southern Europe variants, or was taken from expert estimates. The models explained between 18% and 39% of the variance. Site productivity and stand age were positively and negatively related to actual growth, respectively. The results indicated consistently a fertilizing effect from nitrogen deposition, with roughly one percent increase in site productivity per kg of nitrogen deposition per ha and year, most pronounced for plots having soil C/N ratios above 25. We also found a positive albeit less clear relationship between relative growth and summer temperatures. Other influences were uncertain. In particular, we cannot conclude on detrimental effects on growth from sulphur and acid deposition or from drought periods.
Abstract
We investigated whether the stand age affects the life span of tree and understory fine roots (<1mm) in three Norway spruce (Picea abies) stands: 30, 60 and 120-yr-old. In each stand 9 minirhizotrons were installed and images were collected once in a month throughout the growing season during the three years. Norway spruce fine roots in the 30-yr old stand had a life span 401 ± 27 and 341 ± 68 days, and understory 409 ± 162 and 349 ± 142 days, estimated by using the Kaplan Meier survival analysis (KM) and Weibull distribution, respectively...