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
Editors
Camilla BaumannAbstract
Foreword The United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) form an important framework for social development nationally and globally. However, it can sometimes feel as if the concept of ‘sustainability’ is simply being bandied about with no thought for what it actually involves. To NIBIO, the concept means a lot, and we are committed to making it tangible by using the knowledge we develop and manage, both in Norway and through our activities abroad. Our diverse and specialized activities have made it possible for NIBIO to meet many of the 17 SDGs. The wide range and huge diversity of our specialist expertise, projects, types of assignments, relationships, people, presence and geography make NIBIO unique. Our focus is on ensuring that our knowledge will be of benefit and can be used to meet the needs of public administration and industry. In an institute with over 1,000 ongoing specialist projects, it is impossible to present a comprehensive and complete picture. Yet we can convey representative aspects. This is the purpose of this edition of Green Knowledge. It provides a selection of 37 individual issues, which represent a cross section of the varied activities at our institute. We hope that it sparks your interest and spurs you to find out more about NIBIO and our specialized activities.
Abstract
Purpose Biogas residues, digestates, contain valuable nutrients and are therefore suitable as agricultural fertilizers. However, the application of fertilizers, including digestates, can enhance greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In this study different processes and post-treatments of digestates were analyzed with respect to triggered GHG emissions in soil. Methods In an incubation experiment, GHG emissions from two contrasting soils (chernozem and sandy soil) were compared after the application of digestate products sampled from the process chain of a food waste biogas plant: raw substrate, digestate (with and without bentonite addition), digestates after separation of liquid and solid phase and composted solid digestate. In addition, the solid digestate was sampled at another plant. Results The plant, where the solid digestate originated from, and the soil type influenced nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions significantly over the 38-day experiment. Composting lowered N2O emissions after soil application, whereas bentonite addition did not have a significant effect. High peaks of N2O emissions were observed during the first days after application of acidified, liquid fraction of digestate. N2O emissions were strongly correlated to initial ammonium (NH4+) content. Conclusion Fertilization with dewatered digestate (both fractions) increased N2O emission, especially when applied to soils high in nutrients and organic matter.
Authors
Klaus MittenzweiAbstract
This paper studies the hypothesis that farm structure and the regional distribution of agricultural activity themselves have a significant impact on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture. Applying a dynamic model for the Norwegian agricultural sector covering the entire farm population, the model results support the hypothesis. Even without mitigation options, GHG emissions decline by 1.4 per cent if agriculture becomes regionally concentrated and increase by 1.5 per cent if a policy that favors a small-scale farm structure is put in place. Adding a carbon tax to a policy that leads to regional concentration, may help to reconcile competing policy objectives. A switch from animal production to crop production, and an extensification of animal production keeps a large resource base across the country while cutting GHG emissions.
Authors
Michel VerheulAbstract
No abstract has been registered
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No abstract has been registered
Authors
Shane Frank Fanie Pelletier Alexander Kopatz Audrey Bourret Dany Garant Jon Swenson Hans Geir Eiken Snorre Hagen Andreas ZedrosserAbstract
Harvest can disrupt wildlife populations by removing adults with naturally high survival. This can reshape sociospatial structure, genetic composition, fitness, and potentially affect evolution. Genetic tools can detect changes in local, fine-scale genetic structure (FGS) and assess the interplay between harvest-caused social and FGS in populations. We used data on 1614 brown bears, Ursus arctos, genotyped with 16 microsatellites, to investigate whether harvest intensity (mean low: 0.13 from 1990 to 2005, mean high: 0.28 from 2006 to 2011) caused changes in FGS among matrilines (8 matrilines; 109 females ≥4 years of age), sex-specific survival and putative dispersal distances, female spatial genetic autocorrelation, matriline persistence, and male mating patterns. Increased harvest decreased FGS of matrilines. Female dispersal distances decreased, and male reproductive success was redistributed more evenly. Adult males had lower survival during high harvest, suggesting that higher male turnover caused this redistribution and helped explain decreased structure among matrilines, despite shorter female dispersal distances. Adult female survival and survival probability of both mother and daughter were lower during high harvest, indicating that matriline persistence was also lower. Our findings indicate a crucial role of regulated harvest in shaping populations, decreasing differences among “groups,” even for solitary-living species, and potentially altering the evolutionary trajectory of wild populations. anthropogenic, dispersal, hunting, male mating, maternal, predator, survival
Authors
Geir Wæhler GustavsenAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Academic – Health Attitudes, Environmental Attitudes and Vegetable Consumption
Geir Wæhler Gustavsen
Authors
Geir Wæhler GustavsenAbstract
According to World Health Organization a diet high in vegetables may reduce the risk of coronary heart diseases, stroke, and certain types of cancer. In addition, vegetables have lower carbon footprints than most other foods. But what is the most important motivation to consume vegetables? Is it health or is it climate and the environment? The main objective in this paper is to find drivers behind vegetable consumption, with emphasis on health and environmental motivation. To analyze the connection between individual's attitudes towards the climate, environment and health and the frequency of vegetable consumption we used survey data from 2015. The individual attitudes are hidden but through questions regarding perceptions and behavior the attitudes may be retrieved. We constructed latent variables to represent measures of environment and health attitudes. These latent variables were included in an econometric model linking attitudes with frequency of vegetable consumption. We applied the model to test for differences in frequencies of vegetable consumption for individuals with little and high degree of environmental and health consciousness. The main results show that health is a stronger motivator for vegetable consumption than environmental consciousness.
Authors
Daniel Liesner Louise Fouqueau Myriam Valero Michael Roleda Gareth A. Pearson Kai Bischof Klaus Valentin Inka BartschAbstract
To understand the thermal plasticity of a coastal foundation species across its latitudinal distribution, we assess physiological responses to high temperature stress in the kelp Laminaria digitata in combination with population genetic characteristics and relate heat resilience to genetic features and phylogeography. We hypothesize that populations from Arctic and cold-temperate locations are less heat resilient than populations from warm distributional edges. Using meristems of natural L. digitata populations from six locations ranging between Kongsfjorden, Spitsbergen (79°N), and Quiberon, France (47°N), we performed a common-garden heat stress experiment applying 15°C to 23°C over eight days. We assessed growth, photosynthetic quantum yield, carbon and nitrogen storage, and xanthophyll pigment contents as response traits. Population connectivity and genetic diversity were analyzed with microsatellite markers. Results from the heat stress experiment suggest that the upper temperature limit of L. digitata is nearly identical across its distribution range, but subtle differences in growth and stress responses were revealed for three populations from the species’ ecological range margins. Two populations at the species’ warm distribution limit showed higher temperature tolerance compared to other populations in growth at 19°C and recovery from 21°C (Quiberon, France), and photosynthetic quantum yield and xanthophyll pigment responses at 23°C (Helgoland, Germany). In L. digitata from the northernmost population (Spitsbergen, Norway), quantum yield indicated the highest heat sensitivity. Microsatellite genotyping revealed all sampled populations to be genetically distinct, with a strong hierarchical structure between southern and northern clades. Genetic diversity was lowest in the isolated population of the North Sea island of Helgoland and highest in Roscoff in the English Channel. All together, these results support the hypothesis of moderate local differentiation across L. digitata's European distribution, whereas effects are likely too weak to ameliorate the species’ capacity to withstand ocean warming and marine heatwaves at the southern range edge.
Authors
Anna Filipiak Solveig Haukeland Kamila S. Zając Dorota Lachowska-Cierlik Bjørn Arild HattelandAbstract
A survey of helminths associated with terrestrial slugs focusing on the invasive Arion vulgaris and the native A. ater was conducted on populations from France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway and Poland. In total, 648 terrestrial slugs were collected from 18 sample sites, and identified by means of morphological examination, dissection of genitalia and molecular analysis using mitochondrial DNA. In addition to A. vulgaris and A. ater, also A. vulgaris/A. rufus hybrids and A. ater/A. rufus hybrids were collected. Helminth species were identified based on morphological features and sequencing of the 18S and ITS rDNA regions. The parasites included four nematode species: Alloionema appendiculatum, Angiostoma sp., Phasmarhabditis hermaphrodita, Entomelas sp., two trematode species: Brachylaima mesostoma, Eurytrema sp., and one cestode (tapeworm) species: Skrjabinia sp. Alloionema appendiculatum was the most common helminth in the investigated slug populations. Furthermore, we found higher prevalence of trematodes in the invasive A. vulgaris compared with the native A. ater, while differences in the prevalence for nematodes were not as clear.