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.
2019
Authors
Hermine Mitter Anja-K. Techen Franz Sinabell Katharina Helming Kasper Kok Jörg A. Priess Erwin Schmid Benjamin L. Bodirsky Ian Holman Heikki Lehtonen Adrian Leip Chantal Le Mouel Erik Mathijs Bano Mehdi Melania Michetti Klaus Mittenzwei Olivier Mora Lillian Øygarden Pytrik Reidsma Rudiger Schaldach Martin SchönhartAbstract
Moving towards a more sustainable future requires concerted actions, particularly in the context of global climate change. Integrated assessments of agricultural systems (IAAS) are considered valuable tools to provide sound information for policy and decision-making. IAAS use storylines to define socio-economic and environmental framework assumptions. While a set of qualitative global storylines, known as the Shared Socio-economic Pathways (SSPs), is available to inform integrated assessments at large scales, their spatial resolution and scope is insufficient for regional studies in agriculture. We present a protocol to operationalize the development of Shared Socio-economic Pathways for European agriculture – Eur-Agri-SSPs – to support IAAS. The proposed design of the storyline development process is based on six quality criteria: plausibility, vertical and horizontal consistency, salience, legitimacy, richness and creativity. Trade-offs between these criteria may occur. The process is science-driven and iterative to enhance plausibility and horizontal consistency. A nested approach is suggested to link storylines across scales while maintaining vertical consistency. Plausibility, legitimacy, salience, richness and creativity shall be stimulated in a participatory and interdisciplinary storyline development process. The quality criteria and process design requirements are combined in the protocol to increase conceptual and methodological transparency. The protocol specifies nine working steps. For each step, suitable methods are proposed and the intended level and format of stakeholder engagement are discussed. A key methodological challenge is to link global SSPs with regional perspectives provided by the stakeholders, while maintaining vertical consistency and stakeholder buy-in. We conclude that the protocol facilitates systematic development and evaluation of storylines, which can be transferred to other regions, sectors and scales and supports inter-comparisons of IAAS.
Authors
Heli Fitzgerald Anna Palmé Åsmund Asdal Dag Terje Filip Endresen Elina Kiviharju Birgitte Lund Morten Rasmussen Hjörtur Thorbjörnsson Jens WeibullAbstract
Crop wild relatives (CWR) can provide one solution to future challenges on food security, sustainable agriculture and adaptation to climate change. Diversity found in CWR can be essential for adapting crops to these new demands. Since the need to improve in situ conservation of CWR has been recognized by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) (2010) and the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (2011–2020), it is important to develop ways to safeguard these important genetic resources. The Nordic flora includes many species related to food, forage and other crop groups, but little has been done to systematically secure these important wild resources. A Nordic regional approach to CWR conservation planning provided opportunities to network, find synergies, share knowledge, plan the conservation and give policy inputs on a regional level. A comprehensive CWR checklist for the Nordic region was generated and then prioritized by socio-economic value and utilization potential. Nordic CWR checklist was formed of 2553 taxa related to crop plants. Out of these, 114 taxa including 83 species were prioritized representing vegetable, cereal, fruit, berry, nut and forage crop groups. The in situ conservation planning of the priority CWR included ecogeographic and complementarity analyses to identify a potential network of genetic reserve sites in the region. Altogether 971,633 occurrence records of the priority species were analysed. A minimum number of sites within and outside existing conservation areas were identified that had the potential to support a maximum number of target species of maximum intraspecific diversity.
Authors
Md Zia Uddin Weria Khaksar Jim TørresenAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Anna Maria Vettraino Alberto Santini Christo Nikolov Jean-Claude Grégoire Rumen Tomov Andrei Orlinski Tiit Maaten Halldor Sverrisson Bjørn Økland René EschenAbstract
Sentinel plants, plants in exporting countries that are inspected at regular intervals for signs and symptoms of invertebrate pests and microbial pathogens, are a promising tool for detecting and identifying harmful organisms of woody plants prior to their introduction into importing countries. Monitoring of sentinel plants reveals crucial information for pest risk analyses and the development of mitigation measures. The establishment of sentinel plants requires the import and plantation of non-native plants, which may be affected by the laws, regulations and administrative procedures in the individual countries. To evaluate the feasibility of sentinel plants as a global approach, this study aimed to summarise regulations and administrative procedures that affect the establishment of sentinel plants using non-native plants in countries worldwide. Information about national regulations of import and planting of non-native plant species was collected through a questionnaire survey, conducted among national representatives to the International Plant Protection Convention. Over 40 countries responded. The results show that legislations and regulations should not be major obstacles for a global use of the sentinel plants approach. However, the few existing experiences show that it can be complicated in practice. Here we describe the current state of art of the procedures that should be adopted to establish sentinel plants and we propose a strategy to circumvent the shortcomings resulting from the lack of a specific regulation.
Authors
Sofie Hellsten Tommy Dalgaard Katri Rankinen Kjetil Tørseth Lars Bakken Marianne Bechmann Airi Kulmala Filip Moldan Stina Olofsson Kristoffer Piil Kajsa Pira Eila TurtolaAbstract
During the past twenty years, the Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway) have introduced a range of measures to reduce losses of nitrogen (N) to air and to aquatic environment by leaching and runoff. However, the agricultural sector is still an important N source to the environment, and projections indicate relatively small emission reductions in the coming years. The four Nordic countries have different priorities and strategies regarding agricultural N flows and mitigation measures, and therefore they are facing different challenges and barriers. In Norway farm subsidies are used to encourage measures, but these are mainly focused on phosphorus (P). In contrast, Denmark targets N and uses control regulations to reduce losses. In Sweden and Finland, both voluntary actions combined with subsidies help to mitigate both N and P. The aim of this study was to compare the present situation pertaining to agricultural N in the Nordic countries as well as to provide recommendations for policy instruments to achieve cost effective abatement of reactive N from agriculture in the Nordic countries, and to provide guidance to other countries. To further reduce N losses from agriculture, the four countries will have to continue to take different routes. In particular, some countries will need new actions if 2020 and 2030 National Emissions Ceilings Directive (NECD) targets are to be met. Many options are possible, including voluntary action, regulation, taxation and subsidies, but the difficulty is finding the right balance between these policy options for each country. The governments in the Nordic countries should put more attention to the NECD and consult with relevant stakeholders, researchers and farmer's associations on which measures to prioritize to achieve these goals on time. It is important to pick remaining low hanging fruits through use of the most cost effective mitigation measures. We suggest that N application rate and its timing should be in accordance with the crop need and carrying capacity of environmental recipients. Also, the choice of application technology can further reduce the risk of N losses into air and waters. This may require more region-specific solutions and knowledge-based support with tailored information in combination with further targeted subsidies or regulations.
Abstract
Rhodiola rosea is a highly valued herbal medicinal plant. It is growing wild in most parts of Norway and mountainous areas around the world. The marker compounds are salidroside, cinnamyl alcohol, glycosides (rosine, rosavine, rosarine), flavonoids (rhodionin, rhodiosin, rhodiolin) and terpens (Galambosi 1999), where the rosavins are unique to R. rosea. In Norway, germplasm collections of R. rosea are maintained by NIBIO; at Apelsvoll in Southern Norway, consisting of 97 different clones. The ranges in content of secondary metabolites in the collection are for rosavin 2.90-85.95 mg g-1, salidroside 0.03-12.85 mg g-1, rosin 0.08-4.75 mg g-1, tyrosol 0.04-2.15 mg g-1 and cinnamyl alcohol 0.02-1.18 mg g-1. A number of different studies have been performed on how biotic and abiotic factors affects the yield of the roots as well the content in metabolites. We find that the flowering of the plant is dependent on cool temperatures during dormancy and thus climatic changes may affect the plant development as well as the production of metabolites. Studies performed in Norway as well as between European countries shows that geographical location affects the content of metabolites and here also variation in clones are a player. In the present presentation results from these and more studies will be presented. Also comprising results on the effect of white-, blue- and red light on the growth and chemical composition of greenhouse grown plants.
Authors
Siri Vatsø Haugum Casper Tai Christiansen Alexander Vågenes Pål Thorvaldsen Liv Guri Velle Vigdis VandvikAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Krishna Reddy Kakumanu Gurava Reddy Kotapati Sekhar Udaya Nagothu Palanisami Kuppanan Suresh Reddy KallamAbstract
Farmers, researchers and policy-makers are increasingly concerned about the potential impacts of climate change. Researchers are using various climate models to assess the impacts and identifying relevant alternative adaptation strategies to mitigate climate change. In India, rice is the major cereal crop grown and is influenced due to climate change and variability, inadequate water supply, labour shortage and methane emissions from rice ecosystems. This necessitates adoption action and upscaling of key adaption strategies like direct seeded rice (DSR) using validated data from rice growing areas in India. The study used experimental data of 2010–2014 and field survey data of DSR and non-DSR farmers collected during 2014. Results show that DSR method has incurred less tillage and labour costs by eluding puddling and transplantation by labour. Large-scale adoption of DSR was observed during 2012–2015 in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh. This was mainly due to the delayed monsoon and water supply, reduction in cost of cultivation, capacity building of stakeholders and their active involvement in awareness and training programmes. The study has demonstrated that integrated extension approach in technology dissemination and scaling-out through stakeholder integration is crucial. However, a mission mode framework is needed for technology upscaling at system level.