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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.

2021

Abstract

There is an increasing use of carcass detection dogs to find remains of dead livestock in Norwegian rangelands. But how effective are these dogs actually? • We compared the efficiency of approved carcass detection dog equipages (CDEs, i.e., dog and man) with people searching for sheep carcasses without dogs. • CDEs found significantly more carcasses than people without dogs, and kilometers traveled and minutes spent per carcass detection indicated that dogs were >3x as effective in their search. However, CDEs found only 1 in 4 of the carcasses laid out experimentally. • The training program for CDEs in Norway is now adjusted to improve the quality of the equipages. • The effort of sheep CDEs is important to Norwegian sheep farmers applying for compensation because of the increase in percentage of proven losses caused by protected carnivores. • In the future carcass detection dogs in Norway could be used for wildlife conservation and management tasks.

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Abstract

Nursery-grown Norway spruce Picea abies seedlings are often heavily attacked by the pine weevil Hylobius abietis on clear-cuts the first years after planting. Because the seedlings are not resource-limited during the growing phase in the nursery they are expected to invest less in defence than naturally regenerated seedlings already present on the clear-cuts. The latter have had to cope with various environmental stressors that could make them invest more in defence. We tested if naturally regenerated plants have stronger chemical defences than nursery-grown plants. Nursery-grown plants were planted in-between naturally regenerated plants on fresh clear cuts, and phenolic and terpene compounds in the stem bark were measured after one growing season. To test both constitutive and inducible defences, plants were either wounded, painted with methyl jasmonate (MeJA) to induce defences, or given a combination of both treatments. Growth and pine weevil attacks of the plants were registered. Nursery-grown plants had higher total concentrations of phenolic compounds and lower concentrations of terpenes than naturally regenerated plants. These opposite responses were reflected in very different compound profiles in the two plant types. We suggest the differences between plant types to be results of differences in plant age, stress level, genetic origin or possibly a combination of these factors. Most compounds showed no response to wounding, MeJA-treatment or wounding and MeJA-treatment combined, but the terpenes 3-carene, eucalyptol, limonene and para-cymene had higher concentrations in MeJA-treated nursery-grown plants than in control plants. These compounds are known to be effective in conifer resistance against weevils and bark beetles. Overall, 27% of our 400 study plants had signs of pine weevil damage after 3 ½ months in the field. However, treatment or plant type had no significant effect on whether plants were attacked or not and this might have been a result of the relatively low overall level of attacks in this study. Further studies are needed to disentangle the importance of plant age, stress level, genetic origin and resource availability for chemical defence mechanisms of young Norway spruce plants, as strengthening the natural resistance of nursery plants may be increasingly important in a future with less pesticide use.

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Abstract

This paper presents some of the ethical challenges that current care robots raise in home- and healthcare services for senior adults (≥65 years). The paper is grounded in some of the state-of-the-art projects within the area of care robotics.Further, the paper identifies and discusses several central challenges raised by using robots as part of care services for the elderly people. The paper contributes to the ethical debate on the implications care robots may have for the practical context of healthcare. In addition, the paper summarizes the main lines of the EU legal approach to AI robotic technology, offering a comprehensive picture of the existing regulatory, theoretical and research gaps, compelling the need of an interdisciplinary ethical reflection on care robots. Finally, the discussion is then balanced by some of the opportunities the care robots may provide for the care services.

Abstract

Denne publikasjonen presenterer en ny metodikk for estimering av endringer i lageret av jordkarbon som følge av arealbruksendringer på mineraljord. Metodikken er utviklet for bruk i den nasjonale rapporteringen av arealbrukssektoren under FNs klimakonvensjon. Metodikken baserer seg på den enkleste tilnærming i følge IPCC sine retningslinjer, en såkaldt Tier 1. Tier 1 metodikken baseres i stor grad på standardverdier fra retningslinjene (IPCC default), men trenger en kopling mot nasjonal arealinformasjon. Denne koplingen beskrives i rapporten. Metodikken tar utgangspunkt i standardverdier for lageret av jordkarbon (SOCREF). Disse er basert på jordtype-grupperinger og klimasone som stammer fra en verdensdekkende jorddatabase. Endringer i jordkarbon etter arealbruksendring estimeres ved hjelp av SOCREF i kombinasjon med et sett faktorer (også standardverdier) som er arealbruksavhengige. Metodikken legger til grunn at endringer i jordkarbon skjer lineært over 20 år (ifølge 2006 IPCC Guidelines). Grunnleggende informasjon for å kunne kople standardverdier mot arealer på en konsistent måte er stort sett manglende for Norge på nasjonal skala. Rapporten gir derfor detaljert informasjon om de datakildene som har vært brukt til å kunne definere hvilke standariserte verdier som tilhører et bestemt areal i overgang....

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Abstract

For non-native tree species with an origin outside of Europe a detailed compilation of enemy species including the severity of their attack is lacking up to now. We collected information on native and non-native species attacking non-native trees, i.e. type, extent and time of first observation of damage for 23 important non-native trees in 27 European countries. Our database includes about 2300 synthesised attack records (synthesised per biotic threat, tree and country) from over 800 species. Insects (49%) and fungi (45%) are the main observed biotic threats, but also arachnids, bacteria including phytoplasmas, mammals, nematodes, plants and viruses have been recorded. This information will be valuable to identify patterns and drivers of attacks, and trees with a lower current health risk to be considered for planting. In addition, our database will provide a baseline to which future impacts on non-native tree species could be compared with and thus will allow to analyse temporal trends of impacts.

Abstract

Understanding the quality of new raw material sources will be of great importance to ensure the development of a circular bioeconomy. Building up quality understanding of wood waste is an important step in this development. In this paper we probe two main questions, one substantial and one theoretical: What different understandings of wood waste quality exist and what significance do they have for the recycling and re-use of this waste fraction? And, what is the evolution of knowledge and sustainable practices of wood waste qualities a case of? The analysis is based on diverse perspectives and forms of methods and empirical material. Studies of policy documents, regulations, standards, etc. have been reviewed to uncover what kind of measures and concepts that have been important for governing and regulating wood waste handling. Interviews concerning wood and wood waste qualities have been conducted with key informants and people visiting recycling and waste management stations in Oslo and Akershus in Norway. By studying quality conceptions through the social birth, production, life, end-of-life and re-birth of wood products, we analyse socio-cultural conditions for sustainability. Furthermore we show how the evolution of knowledge and sustainable practices of wood waste qualities, in the meeting with standards and regulations, is a case of adaptation work in the evolution of Norwegian bioeconomy.

Abstract

Forests have climate change mitigation potential since they sequester carbon. However, their carbon sink strength might depend on management. As a result of the balance between CO2 uptake and emission, forest net ecosystem exchange (NEE) reaches optimal values (maximum sink strength) at young stand ages, followed by a gradual NEE decline over many years. Traditionally, this peak of NEE is believed to be concurrent with the peak of primary production (e.g., gross primary production, GPP); however, in theory, this concurrence may potentially vary depending on tree species, site conditions and the patterns of ecosystem respiration (Reco). In this study, we used eddy-covariance (EC)-based CO2 flux measurements from 8 forest sites that are dominated by Norway spruce (Picea abies L.) and built machine learning models to find the optimal age of ecosystem productivity and that of CO2 sequestration. We found that the net CO2 uptake of Norway spruce forests peaked at ages of 30-40 yrs. Surprisingly, this NEE peak did not overlap with the peak of GPP, which appeared later at ages of 60-90 yrs. The mismatch between NEE and GPP was a result of the Reco increase that lagged behind the GPP increase associated with the tree growth at early age. Moreover, we also found that newly planted Norway spruce stands had a high probability (up to 90%) of being a C source in the first year, while, at an age as young as 5 yrs, they were likely to be a sink already. Further, using common climate change scenarios, our model results suggest that net CO2 uptake of Norway spruce forests will increase under the future climate with young stands in the high latitude areas being more beneficial. Overall, the results suggest that forest management practices should consider NEE and forest productivity separately and harvests should be performed only after the optimal ages of both the CO2 sequestration and productivity to gain full ecological and economic benefits. How to cite: Zhao, J., Lange, H., and Meissner, H.: Mismatch between the optimal ages for ecosystem productivity and net CO2 sequestration in Norway spruce forests, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-4257, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-4257, 2021.