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.
2026
Authors
L. Llonch M. Ruiz-Colmenero Matthias Koesling M. Terré J. Cucurull M. Verdú C. Medinyà J. Riera S. Martí M DevantAbstract
Palm oil is a commonly used dietary fat source in European dairy beef production, but concerns about deforestation associated with its cultivation have stimulated interest in alternative fat sources with the potential to mitigate enteric methane emissions and reduce the carbon footprint of beef production. Oils richer in polyunsaturated fatty acids have been suggested as promising alternatives due to their potential to modify rumen fermentation. The present study aimed to evaluate the dietary substitution of palm oil with sunflower oil, which is rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, on animal performance, enteric methane emissions, and environmental footprint. Ninety-four crossbred bulls (399 ± 9.3 kg BW and 271 ± 4.0 days of age) were allocated into six pens and fed concentrate and straw separately, both ad libitum. Treatments were based on the fat source of the concentrates: (1) CTR (n = 46), with 3.50% palm oil on a weight basis as control; and (2) SUN (n = 48), with 3.50% sunflower oil. The study lasted 42 days. Individual feed intake was recorded daily. Bulls were weighed every two weeks. Enteric emissions (CH4, CO2, and O2) were recorded daily with a “sniffer” measurement system installed in each concentrate feeder per pen. Daily CH4 production (L/day) was estimated based on Madsen et al. (2010). Data were analysed using a mixed-effects model. The environmental impact of the two diets was evaluated with the life cycle assessment methodology. No differences in average daily weight gain were observed between dietary oil sources (1.83 vs 1.85 ± 0.141 kg/day, P = 0.87; CTR vs SUN, respectively) and concentrate intake (7.48 vs 7.48 ± 0.420 kg DM/day, P = 1.00; CTR vs SUN). A treatment × period interaction (P < 0.05) with no clear pattern was observed in most of the enteric CH4 emissions data. Nevertheless, in the first 14 days of the study, enteric CH4 emission expressed relative to concentrate intake was lower (P < 0.01) in SUN bulls than in CTR bulls. Carbon footprint was lower in SUN concentrate (0.75 kg CO2 eq/kg concentrate feed) compared with the CTR concentrate (0.89 kg CO2 eq/kg concentrate feed). Thus, the substitution of palm oil with sunflower oil reduces enteric methane emissions expressed relative to concentrate intake during the first days after dietary substitution without detrimental effects on animal performance and reduces the carbon footprint of the dietary concentrate, which is the main contributor to meat’s carbon footprint.
Authors
Giovanna Ottaviani AalmoAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
María Bustamante Liria Concetta Maria Messina Simona Manuguerra Andrea Santulli Giovanna Ottaviani AalmoAbstract
Despite significant progress in understanding the complexity of food systems’ challenges, there remains a lack of clarity around how these systems can undergo transformative change and what is required to enable such shifts. This paper focuses on social innovation as a promising mechanism for addressing structural challenges and reconfiguring food systems toward sustainability, equity, justice, and resilience. Our main contribution is the design of an actionable guidance that helps practitioners and researchers explore and leverage the transformative potential of social innovations. This guidance emerges from a dialogue between a key framework for analyzing social-ecological transformations and recent advancements in Transformative Social Innovation (TSI) theory. By incorporating insights on adaptive, bottom-linked governance and relational dynamics into the SES processual framework, we strengthen its applicability to TSI analysis and make it more adaptable for real-world contexts. We apply this guidance to a case study in Western Sicily’s aquatic food systems, where a long-standing social innovation – rooted in Living Lab methodologies and collaborative governance – demonstrates the potential to challenge dominant values by reconfiguring dominant social relations, empower local actors, and engage with both deep and shallow leverage points, contributing to systemic transformations. By combining cross-field dialogue with empirical application, this paper offers both practical tools for analyzing and designing transformative social innovation processes and practical insights into how social innovations can contribute to more sustainable, resilient, and equitable futures. It directly speaks to practitioners, scholars, and policy makers interested in enabling systemic transformation through socially embedded innovation processes.
Authors
A. Terskaia R. Oucheikh Junxiang Peng J. Oliveira D. Parsons J. Morel A.M. Abdi Z. Cai S. Thapa N. Boke-Olen P. Olsson H.G. Smith J. Ekroos L. EklundhAbstract
Grassland management practices are critical both for maintaining resilient food production and for preserving biodiversity, yet spatially explicit information on them is often limited. Recent advances in freely available, remotely sensed land surface phenology and productivity datasets raise the question of whether phenological metrics provide additional, biologically interpretable information for characterising and mapping grassland management beyond conventional spectral features. In this study, we evaluated the information content and added value of freely available, ready-to-use Sentinel-2–derived High-Resolution Vegetation Phenology and Productivity (HR-VPP) data for distinguishing broad grassland management types (conventional leys, organic leys, and semi-natural grasslands) across multiple spatial scales. We analyzed 1455 grasslands across the intensively farmed Skåne province (southern Sweden) over 2018–2022 at provincial and local scales. We further tested whether phenological variables improve grassland management classification when combined with multi-temporal Sentinel-2 spectral data using state-of-the-art machine learning (ML) methods, and applied a conformal prediction framework to manage classification uncertainty. Relationships between HR-VPP metrics and field-measured biomass were additionally assessed using independent field data from northern Sweden. Field-level analyses showed weak (R2 = 0.28) to moderate (R2 = 0.47) relationships between HR-VPP productivity metrics and measured biomass. HR-VPP metrics captured statistically significant but subtle differences among management types, with strong overlap between categories, particularly at the provincial scale. Differences were more pronounced at local scales. Consequently, HR-VPP variables alone had limited predictive power and ML model accuracy was low (0.53). However, combining HR-VPP with Sentinel-2 spectral time-series data substantially improved classification performance, achieving an accuracy of 0.70. Feature importance analysis indicated that spectral indices dominated classification, with limited direct contribution from phenological parameters. These findings highlight both the potential and current limitations of continental-scale phenology and productivity products for grassland management monitoring and point to the need for improved models and complementary data sources to better capture management practices.
Abstract
Background Faba bean cultivation in northern Europe is challenged by high variability in yield performance due to strong genotype × environment interaction (GEI). Appropriate GEI modeling and interpretation is essential for both cultivar recommendation and breeding for Nordic conditions. Methods Grain yield data from fifteen spring faba bean cultivars evaluated in eleven Norwegian environments during four growing seasons (2022–2025) were analyzed using the Additive Main Effects and Multiplicative Interaction (AMMI) model. Climatic drivers of GEI were investigated using factorial regression, while genome-wide SNP markers were used to assess the relationship between molecular diversity and adaptive differentiation. Results Environment, genotype, and GEI significantly influenced grain yield. The AMMI model with three GEI principal components (AMMI3) represented the biologically meaningful GEI signal and explained 83.4% of the GEI variation. The predictive accuracy of this model closely approached that of BLUP and GBLUP. Factorial regression showed that maximum and mean September temperatures explained 38.5% of the GEI variation, indicating that late-season thermal conditions are the principal environmental drivers of cultivar adaptation. We identified three top-yielding genotypes (Ketu, Birgit, and Vire) that can be object of site-specific recommendation. Two sub-regions emerged as possibly distinct breeding targets, namely, a major one, and a smaller one featuring cooler late-cycle temperatures and specific adaptation of very early material. A significant Mantel correlation between genomic and adaptive dissimilarity (r = 0.40, P = 0.029) suggested that differences in environmental adaptation have a measurable genetic basis. Conclusions This study identified elite cultivars for recommendation and generated crucial information for future crop breeding and variety testing in Norway. Breeding for wide adaptation across climatically diversified environments is justified by the modest size of the smaller sub-region and its expected decreasing importance due to climate change. The relationship between genomic and adaptive dissimilarity, if confirmed for a larger genotype set, could be exploited for a preliminary screening of regional breeding material and novel plant introductions.
Abstract
In this paper, we propose a fishery control scheme that happens to be first best in the context of a Gordon‐Schaefer model with asymmetric information about effort/harvesting costs. It is widely acknowledged that in the absence of regulations, competition between vessels leads to a competitive game wherein the outcome is inefficient. We introduce a management scheme that regulates the fishing industry through an individual convex tax on effort or on catches. The shares of this tax can be traded in a market, thus solving problems related to asymmetric information. This can be achieved since heterogeneous fishing firms are individually stimulated to solve the same optimality problem as a social planner would. We apply this model to the Northwest Mediterranean demersal fishery as a case study.
Authors
Daniel Henn Carmen Girón Domínguez Andrés Martínez-Arce George Bishop Colm Duffy Vibeke Lind David StylesAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
Introduction In echinoculture, commercial success is often measured by gonad yield and gross biomass. However, these parameters may overlook the critical physiological transitions occurring during nutritional recovery. Green sea urchins (Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis) frequently face long periods of food scarcity in the wild, which leads to major metabolic shifts. This study explores the “quality of recovery” by investigating how starved individuals allocate resources from a macroalgal diet (Saccharina latissima). The hypothesis was tested that sea urchins prioritize structural stabilization and biochemical “priming” over immediate biomass accumulation. Materials and Methods Green sea urchins harvested by hand from Tromsø, Norway, were shipped to Bodø, Norway, and maintained under controlled conditions (7±1 °C) in the laboratory. The animals were divided into two groups: one subjected to long-term starvation and the other fed to satiation with S. latissima. Morphological indices, including fresh weight (FW), test diameter, and gonad index (GI), were recorded (n=10). Biochemical analyses of minerals using ICP-OES focused on the tests (shells) and a combined visceral fraction (intestines and coelomic fluid). “True protein” content was determined by summing proteinogenic amino acid residues using HPLC, excluding the non-proteinogenic amino acid taurine to ensure analytical precision. Statistical differences were assessed using independent samples t-tests or Wilcoxon rank-sum tests at a 5% significance level (P = 0.05) in the statistical software package R (v 4.5.1). Results and Discussion This study revealed a sophisticated hierarchy in resource allocation. While the starved group demonstrated remarkable structural resilience by maintaining basic body dimensions without significant skeletal degradation, the kelp-fed group exhibited a profound “biochemical reset”. The fed urchins showed a highly significant increase in the Gonad Index (10.75 ± 2.33% vs. 5.70 ± 2.68%; P < 0.001; Figure 1A). Interestingly, although the total fresh weight did not differ significantly between groups, the internal quality of the tissues underwent a dramatic transformation. In the tests, ash content increased significantly in fed individuals (82.21 ± 3.87 g vs. 79.04 ± 2.70 g; P < 0.05), indicating a strategic investment in skeletal mineralization (Figure 1B). This was accompanied by higher concentrations of matrix-stabilizing amino acids such as glycine and arginine. In the visceral fraction, a “priming” effect was observed. While the increase in total protein content (141.18 ± 27.50 mg g-1 DW vs. 118.23 ± 23.66 mg g-1 DW) narrowly missed the significance threshold (P = 0.061), specific essential amino acids like phenylalanine, leucine, and methionine increased significantly. This suggests that before significant gross growth occurs, the organism optimizes its metabolic machinery and amino acid pools to support future physiological demands. Conclusion Our findings demonstrated that green sea urchins employ a strategic rebuilding process during nutritional recovery. Investment is prioritized toward reinforcing the structural integrity of the test and priming the biochemical capacity of the viscera. For the aquaculture industry, these results suggest that traditional morphological indices should be supplemented with biochemical profiling to fully evaluate the efficacy of “roe enhancement” diets and the physiological health of the animals.
Authors
Jakob GeipelAbstract
This report evaluates the practical guidance accuracy of a John Deere 6130R tractor equipped with a John Deere AutoTrac autosteering system and a StarFire 6000 GNSS receiver. The experiment was conducted at NIBIO Apelsvoll, Norway, using a Trimble S3 robotic total station as an independent reference measurement system. Tractor trajectories were measured while driving along predefined guidance lines at travel speeds of 7, 10 and 13 km h-1. A total of 1097 position measurements were analysed. Mean cross-track deviations ranged from 4.2 to 5.2 cm, while standard deviations ranged from 3.3 to 4.0 cm. 95% of all observations remained within approximately 10 to 13 cm of the intended trajectory. Pass-to-pass deviations ranged from 0.7 to 2.9 cm, indicating good consistency between neighbouring guidance passes. The results indicate stable centimetre-level guidance performance throughout the tested operating range. Differences between travel speeds were small and are unlikely to be operationally important for most agricultural field operations. The measured guidance performance is compatible with the requirements of modern precision-agriculture applications such as tillage, sowing, fertiliser spreading and crop protection.
Abstract
Total DNA quantification in seaweeds is paramount important and it enables selective breeding and physiological understanding. Measuring DNA content identifies genetic quality and potential in candidate organisms for aquaculture development, supporting the selection of strains with faster growth, higher nutrient profiles, or enhanced stress tolerance. Since DNA content reflects cell ploidy levels the number of chromosome sets quantification reveals how ploidy influences seaweed growth rates, stress responses, metabolic efficiency, and environmental adaptation. Seaweed of the genus Ulva widely known as sea lettuce, is a high protein content and fast-growing plant and can grow in wide range of climate. Ulva fenestrata stands out as a premier candidate for sustainable aquaculture, notable for offering exceptionally high levels of bioactive vitamin B12, balanced essential amino acids, and efficient nutrient bioremediation and serves as a versatile feedstock for functional foods, animal feed additives, and eco-friendly biomaterials.