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
Authors
Geir Wæhler Gustavsen Helge Berglann Elisabeth Jenssen Signe Kårstad Divina Gracia P. RodriguezAbstract
Urban agriculture is increasingly recognized as an important sustainable pathway for climate change adaptation and mitigation, for building more resilient cities, and for citizens’ health. Urban agriculture systems appear in many forms – both commercial and non-commercial. The value of the services derived from urban agriculture, e.g. enhanced food security, air quality, water regulation, and high level of biodiversity, is often difficult to quantify to inform policymakers and the general public in their decision making. We perform a contingent valuation survey regarding four different types of urban agriculture in Oslo. The citizens of Oslo are asked about their attitudes and willingness to pay for non-commercial and commercial urban agriculture. The non-commercial agriculture consists of urban community gardens for the citizens and urban gardens for work training, education and kindergartens. On the other hand, the commercial urban agriculture consists of aquaponics and vertical production. Results show that the citizens of Oslo are willing to increase their tax payments to contribute to further development of urban farming in Oslo. Keywords: Willingness to pay; community garden; aquaponics; vertical farming; Oslo
Authors
Tor Myking Jade Phillips Enrico Sturaro Kjersti Bakkebø Fjellstad Nina Svartedal Hojka Kraigher Marjana Westergren Nigel Maxted Magda Bou Dagher Kharrat Silvia Perez-EsponaAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
To increase the annual uptake of CO2 as well as the long-term storage of carbon (C) in forests, the Norwegian government consider large-scale replacements of native, deciduous forests with faster-growing species like Norway spruce. To assess the effects of tree species change on ecosystem C and nitrogen (N) stocks and soil chemistry, we used a paired plot approach including stands of native downy birch and planted 45 – 60-year-old Norway spruce. The birch stands were used as reference for the assessment of differences following the tree species change. We found significantly higher C and N stocks in living tree biomass in the spruce stands, whereas no significant differences were found for dead wood. The cover of understory species groups, and the C and N stocks of the aboveground understory vegetation was significantly higher in the birch stands. The tree species change did not affect the soil organic carbon (SOC) stock down to 1 m soil depth; however, the significantly higher stock in the forest floor of the spruce stands suggested a re-distribution of SOC within the profile. There was a significant positive correlation between the SOC stock down to 30 cm soil depth and the total ecosystem C stock for the birch stands, and a negative correlation for the spruce stands. Significant effects of tree species change were found for C and N concentrations, C/N, exchangeable acidity, base saturation, and exchangeable Ca, K, Mg, Na, S, and Fe in the organic horizon or the upper mineral soil layer. The total ecosystem C stock ranged between 197 and 277 Mg ha-1 for the birch stands, and 297 and 387 Mg ha-1 for the spruce stands. The ecosystem C accumulation varied between 32 and 142 Mg ha-1 over the past 45-60 years, whereas the net ecosystem C capture was considerably lower and potentially negative. Our results suggest that the potential to meet the governments’ targets to increase C sequestration depend on the C debt incurred from the removed birch stands, the rotation length, and potentially also the susceptibility of the different stand types to future risk factors related to climate change.
Authors
Nicholas Clarke Lars Pødenphant Kiær O. Janne Kjønaas Teresa Gómez de la Bárcena Lars Vesterdal Inge Stupak Leena Finér Staffan Jacobson Kestutis Armolaitis Dagnija Lazdina Helena Marta Stefánsdóttir Bjarni D. SigurdssonAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Nicholas Clarke Lars Pødenphant Kiær O. Janne Kjønaas Teresa Gómez de la Bárcena Lars Vesterdal Inge Stupak Leena Finér Staffan Jacobson Kestutis Armolaitis Dagnija Lazdina Helena Marta Stefánsdóttir Bjarni D. SigurdssonAbstract
The use of biomass from forest harvesting residues or stumps for bioenergy has been increasing in the northern European region in the last decade. The present analysis is a regional review from Nordic and UK coniferous forests, focusing on the effects of whole-tree harvesting (WTH) or whole-tree thinning (WTT) and of WTH followed by stump removal (WTH + S) on the forest floor and mineral soil, and includes a wider array of chemistry data than other existing meta-analyses. All intensified treaments led to significant decreases of soil organic carbon (SOC) stock and total N stock in the forest floor (FF), but relative responses compared with stem-only harvesting were less consistent in the topsoil (TS) and no effects were detected in the subsoil (SS). Exchangeable P was reduced in the FF and TS both after WTT and WTH, but significant changes in exchangeable Ca, K, Mg and Zn depended on soil layer and treatment. WTH significantly lowered pH and base saturation (BS) in the FF, but without apparent changes in cation exchange capacity (CEC). The only significant WTH-effects in the SS were reductions in CEC and BS. Spruce- and pine-dominated stands had comparable negative relative responses in the FF for most elements measured except Mg and for pH. Relative responses to intensified harvesting scaled positively with growing season temperature and precipitation for most variables, most strongly in FF, less in the TS, but almost never in the SS, but were negative for P and Al. The greater reduction in FF and TS for soil organic carbon after intensive harvesting decreased with time and meta-regression models predicted an average duration of 20–30 years, while many other chemical parameters generally showed linear effects for 30–45 years after intensified harvesting. Exchangeable acidity (EA), BS and pH all showed the reversed effect with time, i.e. an initial increase and then gradual decrease over 24–45 years. The subsoil never showed a significant temporal effect. Our results generally support greater reductions in nutrient concentrations, SOC and total N in forest soil after WTH compared with SOH in northern temperate and boreal forest ecosystems.
Authors
Miro Jacob Peter Maenhout Simone Verzandvoort Greet Ruysschaert Sigbert Huber Bettina Schwarzl Bruno Huygebaert Martin Hvarregaard Thorsøe Eloïse Mason Anna Jacobs Stella Sonnenburg Axel Don Lilian O’Sullivan David Wall Raimonds Kasparinskis Oļģerts Nikodemus Imants Kukuļs Ivo Vinogradovs Baiba Dirnēna Kristīne Afanasjeva Kristaps Auziņš Žydrė Kadžiulienė Frederik Bøe Jannes Stolte Kamilla Skaalsveen Teresa Gómez de la Bárcena Daniel Rasse Grzegorz Siebielec Fátima Calouro Ana Marta Paz Cristina Sempiterno Maria da Encarnação Marcelo Pedro Jordão Michal Sviček Kristína Buchová Vladimír Hutár Rok Mihelič Sara Mavsar Borut Vrščaj Klara Rekič Helena Grčman Benjamin Sanchez Lena Engström Noemi Peter Olivier Heller Gina Garland Peter Weisskopf Wieke Vervuurt Janjo de Haan Sevinc Madenoglu Hesna Ozcan Dario Fornara Elaine Groom Jill Mellon Suzanne Higgins Rachael Ramsey Alex Higgins Lisa BlackAbstract
Deliverable 2.5. This report contributes to the EJP SOIL roadmap for climate-smart sustainable agricultural soil management and research by identifying current policy targets and realizations and setting soil service aspirational goals by 2050 at the regional/national (Chapter 2) and European scale (Chapter 3). At both scales, the report is based on a desk study of current agricultural soil related policies, followed by a stakeholder consultation. Twenty countries/regions have contributed to the regional/national analyses and 347 different stakeholders have provided their views on soil policy. The policy analysis demonstrates that large differences exist between the number of policy targets per soil challenge. In general, the soil challenge ‘Maintaining/increasing soil organic carbon’ can be considered as the most important soil challenge taking into account both the policies of the participating countries and of the EU level. This soil challenge not only has (one of) the largest share(s) of quantitative and qualitative targets, but also has a large share of the targets for which an indicator and monitoring is in progress or existing. At the EU level, ‘Avoiding contamination’ is also particularly high addressed in policy documents. In the participating countries, other very important soil challenges in policy are ‘Enhance nutrient retention/use efficiency’, ‘Avoid soil erosion’ and ‘Avoid soil contamination’. These soil challenges comprise a large share of soil- and agricultural soil specific targets. However, despite the large number of policy targets, identified by the participating EJP SOIL countries, there is still a shared need for appropriate clear (quantified) policy targets with a specific time horizon, well-defined indicators and a monitoring systems. Similar results are found at the EU level. Policy targets addressing soil challenges are mostly not expressed in quantitative terms and indicators for monitoring policy targets with references to soil challenges were identified for less than half of the cases. From the stakeholder consultations, it becomes clear that for all soil challenges there is still a way to go before future aspirational goals will be met. Generally, when averaging between all countries, the gap between current policy targets and realizations is for most soil challenges considered between large and halfway in reaching the current policy targets and for most soil challenges current policy targets are regarded almost- to- far from being futureproof. In the prioritization of soil challenges, stakeholders at the regional/country and European level, clearly marked maintaining/increasing SOC as the most relevant soil challenge in the upcoming decades. The stakeholders explain the key role of maintaining/increasing soil organic carbon through the multiple interactions with other soil challenges and for climate change mitigation. At the EU level, the second highest ranked prioritization is soil sealing, due to its irreversible nature. This is, however, not reflected at the country level, potentially due to a misinterpretation of soil sealing as compaction by part of the stakeholders. At the country level, enhancing soil nutrient retention/use efficiency was ranked 2nd in the prioritization exercise. Generally, there is an urgency for policy updates, because the current policy is considered unable to tackle the prominent soil challenges. In the report, also the soil related management practices to achieve the aspirational goals have been identified, both in the policy analysis and in the stakeholder consultation. The most prominent differences between policy and stakeholders, is in the emphasis on the use of buffer strips and small landscape elements in policy, while measures in this category are less highly ranked by the stakeholders. On the other hand, conservation agriculture, agro-ecological farming, precision agriculture, incorporation ........
Authors
Sophie Zechmeister-Boltenstern Arezoo Taghizadeh-toosi Maria Knadel, Trine Nørgaard Emmanuel Arthur Johannes Lund Jensen Mansonia Pulido-Moncada Chiara de Notaris Lars J. Munkholm Julia Fohrafellner Julia Miloczki Erich Inselsbacher Martina Kasper Maarten De Boever Peter Maenhout Brieuc Hardy Lenka Pavlů Mansonia Pulido-Moncada Arezoo TaghizadehToosi Mika Tutunen Nils Borchard Eloïse Mason Daria Seitz Axel Don Peter Laszlo Béla Pirkó Eszter Tóth Lilian O’Sullivan David Wall Sergio Pellegrini Raimonds Kasparinskis Žydrė Kadžiulienė Wieke Vervuurt Frederik Bøe Kamilla Skaalsveen Teresa Gómez de la Bárcena Jannes Stolte Grzegorz Siebielec Nádia Castanheira Corina Carranca Maria Gonçalves Michal Sviček Rok Mihelič Sara Mavsar Benjamin Sanchez Diego Intrigliolo Katharina Meurer Olivier Heller Sevinc Madenoglu Dario Fornara Alex Higgins Suzanne Higgins Jill MellonEditors
Lars J. MunkholmAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Leonor Rodrigues Julia Fohrafellner Brieuc Hardy Bruno Huyghebaert Jens Leifeld Alberto Sanz Cobeña Alice Budai Andis Lazdiņš Arezoo Taghizadeh Axel Don Bartosz Adamczyk Benjamin Gimeno Benjamin Sanchez Bo Stenberg Claudia Di Bene Corina Carranca Dalia Feiziene Daniel Rasse Daria Seitz Dario Fornara Eduardo Aguilera Elena Rodriguez Eloïse Mason Erich Inselsbacher Gabriela Barančíková Grzegorz Siebielec Heide Spiegel Imants Kukuļs Jacek Niedźwiecki Jan P. Lesschen Karin Kauer Kestutis Armolaitis Lilian OSullivan Lenka Pavlu Maarten De Boever Nils Kauer Peter Kuikman Peter Laszlo Raquel Mano Raimonds Kasparinskis Rok Mihelič Sevinc Madenoglu Sophie Cornu Sophie Zechmeister-Boltenstern Stephan Glatzel Sylvain Pellerin Teresa Gómez de la Bárcena Thalisa Slier Thomas Kätterer Martin A. Bolinder Kerstin Berglund Toth Toth GergelyAbstract
Deliverable 2.3. This synthesis identifies the available knowledge of achievable carbon sequestration in mineral soils and GHGs mitigation in organic soils in agricultural land, including pasture/grassland across Europe. The inventory of past and current studies on carbon sequestration and GHGs mitigation measures in agricultural soils and the methodology used for the assessment were considered from 25 Member states (MS) across Europe. The stocktake shows that availability of datasets concerning soil carbon sequestration (SCS) is variable among Europe. While northern Europe and central Europe is relatively well studied, there is a lack of studies comprising parts of Southern, Southeaster and Western Europe. Further, it can be concluded that at present country based knowledge and engagement is still poor; very few countries have an idea on their national-wide achievable carbon sequestration potential. The presented national SCS potentials (MS n=13) do however point towards important contributions to mitigate climate change by covering considerable shares of national greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector in the range of 0.1-27 %, underpinning the importance of further investigations. In contrast to mineral soils, effective mitigation measures for organic soils while maintaining industrial agricultural production are still in its infancy. Very few mitigation options exist to mitigate GHG emissions without compromising agricultural production. Most GHG mitigation practices reported by the MS involve the restoration of organic soils, which means a complete abandonment of land from any agricultural use. Only one contribution (NL) reports possible mitigation potentials, which are based on specific water management measures (water level fixation). Nevertheless, there is an increasing awareness of the need of mitigation measures reflected by the several ongoing research projects on peatland management.
2020
Abstract
This report describes the development of a novel model & digital map system for visualising diverse ecosystem services at national scale in Norway. Denne rapporten beskriver utviklingen av en ny metode og en digital kartløsning for å visualisere ulike økosystemtjenester på nasjonal skala i Norge.
Abstract
Efficiency in agricultural food production has long been in focus and this has affected the spatial structure of agricultural land use. One outcome has been extensive criticism based on a wide range of negative consequences, such as for biodiversity, accessibility, cultural heritage, and aesthetics. In line with the European Landscape Convention (ELC), management of people’s everyday landscapes is important. In Norway, agricultural landscapes are the ‘everyday landscape’ for a large proportion of the population. The aim of the article is to contribute to the understanding of landscape changes perceived as positive or negative by the inhabitants. The authors focused on grain-crop dominated landscapes and the impact of smaller non-crop elements on people’s landscape preferences. They administered a photo-based questionnaire using manipulated photos to assess preferences for different agricultural landscapes. Additionally, people’s perceived objectives for the agricultural sector and agriculture’s primary functions were assessed. The results documented positive perceptions of added landscape elements and that people were both aware of and agreed on the multifunctional role of agriculture. The authors conclude that if the public’s preferences are to be taken into consideration, such as during policymaking, it is important to maintain various landscape elements in the large-scale grain field landscapes of Norway.