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.
2026
Authors
Dafni Foti Stephen Amiandamhen Eleni Voulgaridou Elias Voulgaridis Costas Passialis Stergios AdamopoulosAbstract
Abstract This study investigated the incorporation of various waste materials including wastepaper, Tetra Pak, wood chips and scrap tire fluff into flue gas desulfurization (FGD) gypsum and cement mortar matrices to produce sustainable composite materials. Four distinct composite types based on the waste materials were developed and evaluated for selected properties including thermal and acoustic insulation. The proportion of the waste materials was varied between 10 and 40 vol% of the base matrix. The compressive strength of the filled gypsum composites was in the range of 4.17–10.39 N/mm² while the pure gypsum was 11.38 N/mm². The addition of the wastes in gypsum composites reduced compressive strength by about 10% for the best recipe and as large as 60% for the worst combination. However, the measured strength still exceeds the strength of typical gypsum wallboard with a compressive strength of about 3–4 N/mm² for whole-board crushing tests and it is much lower for point loads. The normal-incidence sound absorption coefficient indicated that the waste-filled samples absorbed around 80% of the incident sound energy between 2000 and 3000 Hz, comparable to some commercial acoustic foams. The results highlight the potential of utilising these waste-based composites in environmentally friendly construction applications. Depending on the waste type and matrix used, the results revealed trade-offs between multi-functional performance and sustainability benefits.
Abstract
Potato field management in Europe is already optimized for high production and tuber quality; however, numerous environmental challenges remain if the industry is to achieve “green economy” targets, such as less resources utilized, and less nitrate leached to the environment. Strategic co-scheduling irrigation and nitrogen (N) fertilization might increase resource use efficiency while minimizing reactive losses such as nitrate leaching. This study aimed to quantify the combined effect of irrigation and N fertilization on potato production, growth, and resource use efficiencies. A field experiment was conducted from 2017 to 2019 on a coarse sandy soil in Denmark, with a drought event occurring in 2018. Full (Ifull, maximized), deficit (Idef, 70–80 % of Ifull) and low irrigation treatments (Ilow, minimized amount to keep crop survival), each under full (Nfull, maximized) and variable (Nvar, variable amount according to the crops’ needs) N fertilization were applied. The analyses results show that Ilow limited potato growth under a drought-heat event; otherwise, potato growth was comparable between Ifull and Idef treatments, with 31–32 % higher irrigation efficiency (IE) under Idef than under Ifull. Nitrate leaching was variable and not significantly different among the treatments, being in general 9–13 % lower under Idef in absolute terms than under Ifull. Unexpectedly, outcomes from Nvar were statistically lower compared to those from Nfull. Radiation use efficiencies (RUEs) from Ilow and Nvar were significantly lower than from Ifull and Idef (14–19 %), and from Nfull (9–11 %). N use efficiencies (NUE) were comparable between N fertilization treatments but significantly different among different irrigation treatments. Overall, this study confirms that Idef is the best irrigation strategy. Future efforts should focus on developing improved approaches for detecting in-season crop N status and further quantifying N requirements, as well as promoting the co-scheduled management of irrigation and N fertilization. Remote sensing approaches have great potential to assist with this.
2025
Abstract
Climate change and human activities are prone to cause the shrinkage of lakes and soil salinization in arid areas, thereby affecting regional ecological security. Biodiversity conservation and ecological restoration in shrinking lake areas have attracted more attention. We have investigated the changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) content and microbial community diversity under different vegetation restoration measures, such as the species of Carex, Salicornia, Tamarisk, reed, and grass restoration in the lakeshore of Dalinor lake in Inner Mongolia. Results showed that the soil pH and water-soluble salt content are relatively high in the Carex and Salicornia restoration areas compared to the bare land, and the changes in SOC and TN content are not significant. Still, the contents of AP (available phosphorus) and AK (available potassium) are significantly increased. For the Tamarisk, reed, and grass restoration areas, the level of soil salinization has significantly decreased. At the same time, the contents of SOC and TN are increased by 23.1% and 116.2% compared with the bare land, respectively. With the different vegetation restoration measures, soil microbial biomass carbon (MBC) content was, on average, 62.4% higher than that of bare land. The high-throughput sequencing data showed that different vegetation restoration measures have significantly changed the composition of soil bacterial communities, the alpha diversity indices of Chao1 and Shannon increased by 73.6% and 19.7%, respectively, and the abundance of microbial species related to soil carbon and nitrogen cycling also showed an enrichment trend. Taken together, our study, built on the joint efforts of Chinese and Norwegian partners, has provided valuable information for the future adaptive management of climate change risks and biodiversity conservation related to the shrinkage of lakes in arid areas.
Authors
Fride Høistad ScheiAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Alexandro B. Leverkus María Medina Alba Lazaro-Gonzalez Laura Levy Olivia Lorente-Casalini Marino P. Reyes Martín Enrique Andivia Alessandro Bizzarri Henrik Böhlenius Vito E. Cambria Claudia Cocozza Branislav Cvjetkovic Giovanbattista de Dato Lenka Ehrenbergerova Peter Ferus Lorena Gomez-Aparicio Arndt Hampe Kjersti Holt Hanssen Marcin Jakubowski Ivona Kerkez Jankovic Marcin Klisz Wojciech Kowalkowski Klaus Kremer Jelena Lazarevic Dagnija Lazdina Emanuele Lingua Magnus Löf Manuel E. Lucas-Borja Adrian Łukowski Paula Maia Paola Mairota Alberto Maltoni Barbara Mariotti Raffaella Marzano Lucia Mondanelli Antonio Montagnoli Maria Cristina Monteverdi Francisco B. Navarro Reyes Juan A. Oliet Maria S. Patrício Zoran Poduska Vladan Popovic Radosław Puchałka Piotr Robakowski Piotr Sewerniak Carmen Urena-Lara Pedro Villar-Salvador Johanna Witzell Nicolo Anselmetto Inger Sundheim FløistadAbstract
Seedling emergence constitutes a critical recruitment step, and early growth relates to plant competitive ability. Understanding their drivers has implications for forestry and forest ecosystem conservation, restoration, and adaptation to climate change. We seeded 6984 acorns in an experiment with 97 cases at 45 sites in 15 European countries, encompassing 12 oak species. We tested whether the quality of the acorn batch, site-level weather and soil characteristics, year of seeding, and species’ mean specific leaf area (SLA) affected the emergence and early growth of seedlings after the first summer. Germination potential and acorn dry weight, measured under controlled conditions, were positively associated with emergence and early growth. Seedling emergence was negatively associated with the mean monthly temperature and cumulative winter precipitation, and it was higher in the seedling cohort that was spared from the 2021 drought. Additionally, seedling emergence was positively related to soil nutrient concentration and negatively to increasing soil pH, but not to water-holding capacity, and growth was unrelated to soils. Species-level SLA was not related to either response. The four main study species –Quercus cerris, Q. ilex, Q. petraea, and Q. robur– responded similarly to weather but not to soil conditions. We conclude that, at a continental scale, and assuming that species establish within their current distributions, (a) oak seedling emergence and early growth are associated with acorn quality rather than species identity or SLA, (b) they are highest at sites with low winter precipitation and temperature, (c) emergence is reduced in dry years, and d) soil properties play a secondary role at this early recruitment stage.
Authors
Paulina Jedynak Mariona Bustamante Matthieu Rolland Vicente Mustieles Cathrine Thomsen Amrit Kaur Sakhi Azemira Sabaredzovic Maria Foraster Mireia Gascon Maria Dolores Gómez-Roig Elisa Llurba Ioar Rivas Isabelle Ouellet-Morin Sam Bayat Sarah Lyon-Caen Oscar J. Pozo Martine Vrijheid Jordi Sunyer Rémy Slama Payam Dadvand Claire PhilippatAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
Methyl jasmonate (MeJA) is known to effectively protect Norway spruce (Picea abies) against pests and pathogens. However, MeJA application to spruce saplings can significantly reduce growth and is not feasible to use in protecting older trees due to cost. Seed treatment with MeJA or other priming stimulants with fewer negatives could be a practical solution to enhance Norway spruce resistance. Therefore, we assessed the potential of Norway spruce seed treatment with MeJA, pipecolic acid (PipA), lignan (Li), and chitosan (Chi) in enhancing the resistance of the emerged seedlings against Botrytis cinerea. For the first time, MeJA seed treatment was shown to reduce the mortality of the seedlings effectively after B. cinerea infection, with a growth reduction as a side effect. To understand the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon, we quantified phenolics, defense hormones, and differential transcript expressions. MeJA seed treatment increased the concentration of the flavan-3-ols catechin and proanthocyanidin B1. Transcriptomic data suggested an increase in oxidative stress protection, cell wall reinforcement, and pathogenesis-related protein production. Our data also suggested an antagonistic relationship in hormonal signaling between abscisic acid (ABA) and jasmonic acid (JA)/ethylene (ET). Overall, our findings indicated MeJA seed treatment enhanced resistance of young seedlings against B. cinerea via a multitude of defense responses, modulated by complex regulatory systems.
Abstract
Abstract Turfgrass winter kill due to freeze/thaw cycles and ice encasement (IE) is a problem on putting greens the Nordic countries. Our objectives were (1) to investigate how green coverage with impermeable plastic before IE affects soil temperature, O 2 and CO 2 concentrations, winter survival and spring recovery of creeping bentgrass (CRB), red fescue (RF), and annual bluegrass (AB) and (2) to explore how these turfgrasses are affected by snow and ice removal during the entire winter or parts of it. Six treatments were imposed on 5‐month‐old turf of the three species during the winters 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 at NIBIO Apelsvoll, Norway (60°42′ N). With an average soil temperature at 2‐cm depth of −0.9°C and the lowest O 2 concentrations around 5%, conditions under IE or plastic + IE treatments never became anoxic. On average for six treatments and 2 years, CRB and RF had significantly better winter survival (both 52%) than AB (25%). Turfgrass winter survival, spring color, and spring growth were significantly better (62% survival on average for species) with plastic between the grass and 10‐cm IE than with 10‐cm IE directly on the grass (23% survival). Snow and ice removal throughout the winter or before IE in early January improved turfgrass freezing tolerance in January but did not improve winter survival, green color, or spring growth compared with the control treatment with natural winter conditions. We conclude that putting greens in areas with unstable winters and risk for prolonged IE ought to be protected by impermeable plastic. Ventilation under the plastic may be necessary on old greens with more organic matter than in this experiment. On frozen uncovered greens, it is better to avoid prolonged IE by snow removal before rain or warm spell in December/early January than by mechanical ice removal in March.
Authors
Robert Jankowiak Halvor Solheim Piotr Bilański Filip KawaAbstract
The order Ophiostomatales includes many species important for forestry, causing plant diseases. They are common associates of bark- and wood-dwelling beetles. Two new ophiostomatalean fungi viz. Ophiostoma babimostense sp. nov. and Sporothrix europaea sp. nov. are proposed, based on morphological characters and multigene phylogenies. Ophiostoma babimostense belongs to the Ophiostoma ulmi species complex and was isolated from fallen shoots of Scots pine pruned by Tomicus species in Poland. The fungus is characterised by the production of a typical pesotum-like and sporothrix-like asexual morphs. Sporothrix europaea belongs to the Sporothrix gossypina complex and was isolated from hardwood-infested by ambrosia and bark beetles in Poland and Norway. It is characterised by the occurrence of both a sexual and asexual morphs, with long necked ascomata bearing ostiolar hyphae and a sporothrix-like asexual morph.
Authors
Fride Høistad ScheiAbstract
No abstract has been registered