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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

Wood-decay fungi are adapted to growth under different climate conditions and on various host tree species, but little is known about intraspecific variation in growth, substrate specificity and decay rates under different climatic conditions. Such knowledge is relevant to understand how wood-decay fungi will respond to climate change. Here, we investigate whether populations of the widespread brown-rot fungus Fomitopsis pinicola grow at different rates under different temperatures and water availabilities and whether the decay rate of the two wood substrates, Alnus incana and Picea abies, differs across populations. We isolated 72 cultures from fruit bodies collected in nine geographic localities across Norway, representing different climate conditions and substrates. We conducted in vitro growth experiments to assess the level of intraspecific phenotypic variability in temperature-dependent growth. All populations showed a strong but similar response in mycelial growth rates to different temperatures and water potentials. There were no consistent differences between populations in growth rates across temperatures, but larger variation between populations at the higher temperatures. Similarly, we observed no significant differences in wood decay rates across the nine populations and no signs of substrate specific adaptation to P. abies and A. incana. Our results indicate that local adaptation to different climates or substrates, as revealed by in vitro growth experiments, has to a limited extent, taken place during the few thousand years Fomitopsis pinicola has been present in this area.

Abstract

Species-rich natural and semi-natural ecosystems are under threat owing to land use change. To conserve the biodiversity associated with these ecosystems, we must identify and target conservation efforts towards functionally important species and supporting habitats that create connections between remnant patches in the landscape. Here, we use a multi-layer network approach to identify species that connect a metanetwork of plant–bee interactions in remnant semi-natural grasslands which are biodiversity hotspots in European landscapes. We investigate how these landscape connecting species, and their interactions, persist in their proposed supporting habitat, road verges, across a landscape with high human impact. We identify 11 plant taxa and nine bee species that connect semi-natural grassland patches. We find the beta diversity of these connector species to be low across road verges, indicating a poor contribution of these habitats to the landscape-scale diversity in semi-natural grasslands. We also find a significant influence of the surrounding landscape on the beta diversity of connector species and their interactions with implications for landscape-scale management. Conservation actions targeted toward species with key functional roles as connectors of fragmented ecosystems can provide cost-effective management of the diversity and functioning of threatened ecosystems.

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Abstract

Acetylation is a commercialised chemical wood modification technology that increases the durability of wood against microbial attack. However, the details of how acetylation protects the wood structure from fungal degradation are still unclear. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that the resistance against microbial attack depends on the localisation of acetylation within the cell wall. The methodology involved two types of acetylation (uniform and lumen interface modification), which were analysed by lab-scale degradation with Rhodonia placenta, chitin quantification, infrared spectroscopy, and Raman microspectroscopy. The location of the acetylation did not affect overall mass loss during degradation experiments. Instead, the mass loss was related to the intensity of the treatment. However, chemical imaging of the interface acetylated specimens showed that degradation primarily took place in cell wall regions that were less acetylated. It was also observed that the fungus required more fungal biomass (i.e., fungal mycelia) to degrade acetylated wood than untreated wood. Based on dimensions and comparison to a reference spectrum, several cross-sections of hyphae located within lumina were discovered in the Raman images. These hyphae showed presence of chitin, water and chelated metals within their walls, and could be separated into an inner and an outer part based on their chemistry as seen in the spectra. The outer part was distinguished by a relatively higher amount of water and less chelated iron than the inner part.

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Abstract

The history of forestry in Fennoscandia spans five centuries, with clear-cutting being the dominant practice since the mid-20th century. This has led to a significant transformation of the forest landscape. In this study we investigated long-term effects of clear-cutting on forest structure and dead wood volumes. We established twelve pairs of spruce forest sites in southeastern Norway, each pair constituting of a mature, previously clear-cut stand and its near-natural counterpart with similar edaphic factors. The near-natural stands had 2.8 times higher volumes of dead wood and a larger proportion of dead wood in late stages of decay. The near-natural stands had on average 36.8 ± 9.1 m3 ha−1 of downed dead wood and 24.1 ± 6.2 m3 ha−1 of standing dead wood. Corresponding numbers for the previously clear-cut stands were 10.2 ± 2.8 m3 ha−1 and 11.9 ± 3.7 m3 ha−1. Forests with lower volumes of dead wood often also had lower connectivity of old spruce forests, which potentially have further negative effects on biodiversity. Furthermore, near-natural stands displayed greater tree size heterogeneity, resulting in a wider variation in light conditions. While no difference was observed in living tree volume, we found only weak evidence for higher basal area in the previously clear-cut stands, which had a higher stem density with more slender stems and shorter crowns. Our findings suggest that managed forests do not develop structures typical of near-natural forests before they become mature for logging. We stress the importance of a thorough site selection for studies of management effects, as forest management history may be confounded with productivity and other edaphic factors. Experimental designs like ours are vital for testing how differences in structure and deadwood volumes, driven by forest management, translate into variations in biodiversity, carbon sequestration and ecosystem functioning in future studies.