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.
2024
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Abstract
The birth process in animals, much like in humans, can encounter complications that pose significant risks to both offspring and mothers. Monitoring these events can provide essential nursing support, but human monitoring is expensive. Although there are commercial monitoring systems for large ruminants, there are no effective solutions for small ruminants, despite various attempts documented in the literature. Inertial sensors are very convenient given their low cost, low impact on animal life, and their flexibility for monitoring animal behavior. This study offers a systematic review of the literature on detecting parturition in small ruminants using inertial sensors. The review analyzed the specifics of published research, including data management and monitoring processes, behaviors indicative of parturition, processing techniques, detection algorithms, and the main results achieved in each study. The results indicated that some methods for detecting birth concentrate on classifying unique animal behaviors, employing diverse processing techniques, and developing detection algorithms. Furthermore, this study emphasized that employing techniques that include analyzing animal activity peaks, specifically recurrent lying down and getting up occurrences, could result in improved detection precision. Although none of the studies provided a completely valid detection algorithm, most results were promising, showing significant behavioral changes in the hours preceding delivery.
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No abstract has been registered
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Manures are potentially both a source of nutrients for plants and a source of pollution. Manure produced depends on animal densities and type rather than plants need. Over time, this has enriched soils with P and organic N. The challenge is maximal nutrient recycling and minimal pollution from the manure used for plant production. To investigate the optimal seasonal distribution of manure, field experiments were carried out in 2022 and 2023 on grassland in three agricultural regions in Norway. Three distributions of cattle slurry at 30 kg P ha–1 were tested, with or without additional N fertilizer. These were compared with control treatments without slurry: no fertilizer, and compound NPK and NK fertilizers. Different distributions had little effect on grass yield and uptake of P and N. Applying a larger proportion of manure in spring increased grass yield, while additional mineral N fertilizer significantly increased yield but reduced N use efficiency. Slurry alone gave a P surplus, while added mineral N fertilizer allowed a net mining of P. There seems therefore to be a trade-off regarding whether the efficient use of N or P is to be prioritized. The decision should likely depend on required yields as well as local pollution risks.
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The chilling requirements of ‘Junifer’, ‘Rovada’ and ‘Red Dutch’ red currants and ‘Mucurines’ and ‘Pax’ gooseberries were studied under controlled environment conditions. Field grown single-stem potted plants were chilled at 0°C from October 15 for 0 to 20 weeks and forced in a lighted greenhouse at 20°C and 18 h photoperiod for 60 days for recording of budbreak and flowering. None of the red currant plants were able to break without chilling, while the number of breaking buds increased linearly with more than four weeks of chilling, and fastest so in ‘Junifer’. ‘Red Dutch’ proved to have a particularly deep and stable dormancy. Comparable but markedly lower chilling requirements were found in the two gooseberry cultivars. While more than 20 weeks of chilling were required for full dormancy release in the red currant cultivars, 16 to 20 weeks were adequate for the ‘Mucurines’ and ‘Pax’ gooseberries, respectively. This compares with a chilling need of 14 weeks at 0°C previously found for most commercial black currant cultivars under the same conditions. The results also confirm that, as previously demonstrated for black currants, flower development requires more chilling than bud break itself also in red currants and gooseberries. This highlights the need for extended chilling of the plants before the plants are set to forcing in modern tunnel production. We also conclude that the red currant cultivar ‘Rovada’ with its large berry trusses seems particularly well suited for tunnel production.
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We studied the environmental control of shoot growth and floral initiation in annual shoot plants of four red currant cultivars under phytotron conditions. Under natural day length conditions at Ås, Norway (69°40’N), the cultivars ‘Junifer’, ‘Red Dutch’, and ‘Rosetta’ ceased growing and initiated irregular flower formation at 24 and 18°C in late August, indicating a critical photoperiod of approximately 15 h. At 12°C and under outdoor conditions, the processes were delayed by 3-6 weeks depending on the cultivar, indicating a critical photoperiod of approximately 14 h under Nordic field conditions. In 10-h short day (SD), the cultivars ‘Junifer’, ‘Red Dutch’ and ‘Rovada’ ceased growing within 2-3 weeks at 18 and 24°C and within 2-4 weeks at 12°C, followed by irregular floral initiation. However, in 20-h long day (LD), flower initiation was generally scarce, and with contrasting temperature responses among the cultivars, flower initiation was advanced by low temperature in ‘Red Dutch’ and by high temperature in ‘Rovada’ and ‘Junifer’. Flowering performance in the following spring confirmed these results, which demonstrate that red currants are quantitative SD plants with diverse temperature and photoperiod interactions.
Abstract
Growth and flower bud initiation (FBI) were studied in single-stem plants of four biennial-fruiting cultivars in a controlled environment and under field conditions at 60°40′ N. Shoot growth varied widely among the cultivars but was significantly enhanced by high temperature (20 °C) in all cultivars, whereas photoperiod had a subordinate growth effect. FBI data from bud dissection after 6 weeks of cultivation in the phytotron were used to calculate FBI indices for the various cultivars and environment conditions. The indices also varied much among the cultivars but were enhanced by elevated temperature, being highest in ‘Natchez’ and ‘Sweet Royalla’, while ‘Natchez’ was the only cultivar in which FBI was significantly enhanced by short days. The non-vigorous and erect growing ‘Ouachita’ remained vegetative at both temperatures but flowered in spring after overwintering at 0.5 °C. The field experiment confirmed the superior growth vigor of ‘Loch Ness’ and ‘Sweet Royalla’ as well as the photoperiodic sensitivity of ‘Natchez’. The results also confirmed that floral initiation starts in lateral buds located 10–20 nodes below the apex, and from there it progresses in both acropetal and basipetal direction. We conclude that temperature is at least as important as the photoperiod for the control of FBI in biennial-fruiting blackberries.
Abstract
Almost 10,000 of apple cultivars are described worldwide but only a few of them are dominating in commercial apple orchards. The decline in genetic diversity could lead to negative consequences in terms of adaptability, resistance and even consumption. Apple genetic resources in Norway are conserved in several local clonal archives. The aim of this study was to evaluate Norwegian heritage apple cultivars from a pomological, agronomical, and chemical point of view, identify the most important quality parameters, and select cultivars with desirable traits for modern markets and breeding purposes. In total 75 heritage and 4 standard apple cultivars were evaluated at the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research – NIBIO Ullensvang, during 2018–2020. Based on individual investigations of various fruit quality characters, cultivar groups with special properties were selected for the industry, for making concentrate and fresh juice, and for medical properties. According to the soluble solid content, sweetness index, fruit size, acid, dry matter, and phenolic content, several groups of cultivars have high potential value for modern breeding programmes. Based on overall fruit quality, heritage cultivars Løeeple, Raud Gravenstein, and Rondestveit were selected for fresh consumption.
Abstract
Pollarding in agroforestry systems was traditionally an important practice for fodder acquisition in Western Norway, as well as in many other parts of the world. The practice has long been in decline, but to maintain cultural landscapes and biodiversity enhancement from pollarding, farmers now receive a public grant for each tree they pollard. In this interdisciplinary study we investigate which ecosystem services modern pollarding practices provide, under the influence of the current pollarding policy. We have performed both in-depth interviews and a quantitative survey targeting all pollarding farmers in the county of Vestland in Western Norway. We find that bioresources obtained from the branches from pollarding are to some extent still taken into use, mainly in the form of tree fodder for farm animals and firewood, but a lot of the branches remain unused. Biodiversity benefits are obtained from preserving old trees that often are located on agricultural land as solitary trees, as these trees provide important habitats, particularly for species growing on the bark, such as lichens and mosses, or within the decaying wood, such as, for example, fungi and insects. The modern practice of letting branches rot in the field provide habitats for insects and hence additional benefits to biodiversity. For the farmers, the main motivations to pollard are the cultural, aesthetic and historical values of pollarded trees. They see few disadvantages with pollarding, and most of them plan to continue in the future. The grant provides an incentive for pollarding, but our results indicate that the practice would continue without it, although less than now, especially with the establishment of new pollards.