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.
2020
Abstract
Forest structural properties largely govern surface fluxes of moisture, energy, and momentum that strongly affect regional climate and hydrology. Forest structural properties are greatly shaped by forest management activities, especially in the Fennoscandia (Norway, Sweden, and Finland). Insight into transient developments in forest structure in response to management intervention is therefore essential to understanding the role of forest management in mitigating regional climate change. The aim of this study is to present a simple grid-based framework – the Fennoscandic Forest State Simulator (F2S2) -- for predicting time-dependent forest structural trajectories in a manner compatible with land models employed in offline or asynchronously coupled climate and hydrological research. F2S2 enables the prescription of future regional forest structure as a function of: i) exogenously defined scenarios of forest harvest intensity; ii) forest management intensity; iii) climate forcing. We demonstrate its application when applied as a stand-alone tool for forecasting three alternative future forest states in Norway that differ with respect to background climate forcing, forest harvest intensity (linked to two Shared Socio-economic Pathways (SSPs)), and forest management intensity. F2S2 captures impacts of climate forcing and forest management on general trends in forest structural development over time, and while climate is the main driver of longer-term forest structural dynamics, the role of harvests and other management-driven effects cannot be overlooked. To our knowledge this is the first paper presenting a method to map forest structure in space and time in a way that is compatible with land surface or hydrological models employing sub-grid tiling.
Abstract
A new stand-level growth and yield model, consisting of component equations for stand volume, basal area, survival, and dominant stand height, was developed from a dataset of long-term trials for managed thinned and unthinned even-aged Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) forests in Norway. The developed models predict considerably faster growth rates than the existing Norwegian models. Further, it was found that the existing Norwegian stand-level models do not match the data from the thinning trails. The significance of thinning response functions indicated that thinning increases basal area growth while reducing competition related mortality. No significant effects of thinning were found in the dominant stand height growth. Model examination by means of cross-validation indicated that the models were unbiased and performed well within the data range. An application of the developed stand-level model highlights the potential use for these models in comparing different management scenarios.
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Gry Alfredsen Erik Larnøy Greeley Beck Johan Bjørnstad Lone Ross Callum Aidan Stephen Hill Andreas TreuAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Bianca CavicchiAbstract
This study investigates the governance of bioenergy systems (BESs) and how it influences the bioenergy policy process and local sustainable development. The study compares the BES in Emilia Romagna and Hedmark. At first, bioenergy was expected to mitigate climate change and to tackle the crisis of the primary sectors and related industries. However, bioenergy policies were not equipped to address cross‐sectoral and multilevel issues. Therefore, they failed to secure the local, sustainable development. Critical weaknesses lie in BES governance. Actors' discourses, rules, and power issues form a complex structure that influences the bioenergy policy process and its outcomes. The study relies on systems thinking and system dynamics, and the pathways approach. It uses the system archetypes to investigate the bioenergy policy feedback dynamics and how to leverage local, sustainable development. Results show that power relations and social opposition are critical to a policy change that best secures local, sustainable development.
Authors
Stefano Puliti Johannes Breidenbach Johannes Schumacher Marius Hauglin Torgeir Ferdinand KlingenbergAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Siri Vatsø Haugum Liv Guri Velle Pål Thorvaldsen Alexander Vågenes Casper Tai Christiansen Vigdis VandvikAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
Understanding the factors that determine species’ resistance to environmental change is of utmost importance for biodiversity conservation. Here we investigated how the abundances of marshland species are determined by niche properties and functional traits. We re-surveyed 150 vegetation plots that were first surveyed in 1973 in order to explore species abundance changes over time. We found that the mean water level in the habitats of most studied species decreased significantly from 1973 to 2012. Nine of 17 target species were identified as abundance decreasing species and the other eight as abundance increasing species. The comparisons of seven plant characteristics (niche position water level, plant height, and five leaf traits) showed that the decreasing species had a significantly higher value of optimum water level and marginally significantly lower leaf N contents and specific leaf area (SLA) than those in increasing species. The stepwise regression analysis showed that optimum water level and leaf N were the best predictors of abundance changes of marsh plant species, as well as that the effect of optimum water level was stronger than that of leaf N. Our findings demonstrated that niche properties may be important for forecasting changes in wetland plant communities over time.
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
No abstract has been registered