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
Belachew Gizachew ZelekeAbstract
Tropical forests, despite their critical environmental and socio-economic roles, remain highly vulnerable to deforestation, forest degradation, and climate-related disturbances. There is a growing demand for robust and transparent forest monitoring systems, particularly under REDD+, the Paris Agreement’s Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF), and emerging climate-finance mechanisms. Conventional approaches based on field inventories and traditional remote sensing are often constrained by limited or uneven field data, persistent cloud cover, complex forest conditions, and limited institutional and technical capacity. This review examines how artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are being integrated into remote sensing–based tropical forest monitoring to address these structural constraints. Using a semi-systematic synthesis of peer-reviewed studies, complemented by operational platforms and grey literature, the review assesses AI/ML approaches, remote sensing datasets, and applications relevant to national and large-scale monitoring. Evidence is synthesized across five analytical dimensions: AI/ML model families and workflows, multi-sensor datasets and training resources, operational monitoring platforms, application domains (including deforestation, degradation, and biomass/carbon estimation), and cross-cutting technical, institutional, and governance barriers. The review finds that AI/ML-enabled remote sensing, particularly those combining optical, radar, and LiDAR time series within cloud-based platforms, has substantially improved the automation, scalability, and speed of tropical forest monitoring. However, effective and equitable adoption remains constrained by limitations in training and validation data, dependence on proprietary platforms and data, uneven technical capacity, and unresolved governance and ethical challenges. Emerging solutions, including open and representative training datasets, platform-agnostic processing infrastructures, long-term capacity building, and inclusive data-governance frameworks, are identified as critical enablers of credible and nationally owned AI/ML-enabled forest-monitoring systems. The review highlights that AI/ML can play a transformative role in supporting climate mitigation, biodiversity conservation, and informed decision-making. This potential, however, depends on transparent data governance arrangements, long-term capacity building, and platform-agnostic infrastructures that support national ownership.
2025
Abstract
Presentasjon av kartbasert klimagasskalkulator.
Authors
Lise DalsgaardAbstract
Poster
Abstract
Yasso07 simuleringer av jordkarbon i Hurdal
Authors
Junbin Zhao Holger Lange Christian Wilhelm Mohr Cornelya Klutsch Simon Weldon Jonathan Rizzi Gunnhild Søgaard Hanna Marika Silvennoinen Teresa Gómez de la BárcenaAbstract
Jordrespirasjonsmålinger på Svanhovd og dens modellering
Abstract
ire has the immediate effect that roughly half of carbon and nitrogen is emitted and lost from forest floors, that the remaining ashes fertilize the ground and pools of dead organic matter and stable black carbon is produced. Depending on the intensity of the fire it will potentially have long lasting physical, chemical and biological effects. Fire as a disturbance agent to the forest floor has acted on the forest landscapes in Scandinavia since the last glaciation as a natural phenomenon and as a result of human activities. Fires have likely occurred in all forests in Norway even though sampling and dating of charcoal in selected landscapes indicate a lower frequency along the west coast than in the southeastern forest region and in neighboring Sweden. Where the availability of synthetic fertilizers in agriculture (ca. 1900) and the significance of timber value and -trade (ca. 1700) mark important shifts in fire occurrence and avoidance, forest fires have been successfully suppressed with documented effects since the 1970’s likely leading to an accumulation of forest floor organic matter. Using a one-time survey of >8000 registrations of the thickness of the forest floor, its sub-layers, humus form and the occurrence of charcoal in upland forests of the Norwegian National Forest Inventory, we investigate the regional distribution of charcoal occurrence in upland forests indicating earlier fire activity and look for legacies on carbon stocks or forest floor characteristics using available national soil survey data. Forest floors in boreal and cold temperate forests hold 30-60% of total forest soil carbon stocks equivalent in magnitude to that held by the living biomass of trees. Thus, we further estimate the areas and forest floor carbon stocks most likely to gain increased vulnerability to fire under future climate conditions.
Authors
Brita Bye Taran Fæhn Lars Harald Gulbrandsen Kevin R. Kaushal Christian Wilhelm Mohr Gunnhild Søgaard Asbjørn Torvanger Jørgen Wettestad Knut ØistadAbstract
Norway has positioned itself as a climate policy forerunner by aiming to reach net-zero emissions already by 2030. However, the net-zero ambition is not well-defined, not legally binding, nor substantiated by action plans. In a first, interdisciplinary, analysis we scrutinise the net-zero concept and discuss unilateral options. Second, we provide an economic analysis with a global computable model, SNOW, of the costs and macroeconomic impacts of various policy scenarios. It explores how the net-zero ambition interacts with other 2030 goals and quantifies the impacts of emphasising domestic abatement and carbon removal measures vs. paying for emission mitigation abroad. Finally, the 2030 results are revisited to assess how well they align with Norwegian and global climate targets for 2050. The main findings are that pursuing the net-zero ambition, on top of other binding 2030 goals Norway is already committed to, will increase costs by 25–100% depending on the use of domestic measures. On the margin, domestic measures are found to have only small, uncertain, and costly mitigation potential, thus, buying international carbon credits will be inevitable. Besides being significantly cheaper, carbon trading can have the potential benefits of developing the credit markets and the individual projects’ qualities. Even if domestic measures can play but a modest part in the net-zero strategy towards 2030, we identify several steps governments unilaterally can take today to expand abatement opportunities towards mid-century. We also find measures that seem cost-effective in pursuing 2030 goals but look less attractive against a global 2050 backdrop.
Abstract
Soil disturbance following forestry operations is influenced by multiple factors. Reducing disturbance requires placing strip and base roads in locations with minimal risk of disturbance. However, identifying these areas is a complex task. To address this, we have begun developing a forwarding risk index ranging from 1 to 100 that integrates several geographical information sources in the area around Oslo. This forwarding index seems to provide good estimates of areas with a higher risk of ground disturbance during forwarding operations at the sites used for development. With further development of geographical inputs, their combination into a risk index, and later on nationwide validation, the forwarding risk raster combined with a terrain map could improve the identification of suitable areas for forwarding trails. The risk raster was tested for path planning and performed well in areas with a low to moderate frequency of high-risk pixels but was less effective in areas with a high concentration of high-risk pixels. In these areas, an assessment of the potential ecological impact (erosion, sedimentation of streams, mobilisation of mercury, soil carbon impact, changes in hydrology, soil compaction) of ground disturbance is needed alongside the risk index to determine the least unsuitable trail locations.
Authors
Shun Hasegawa Inge Stupak Kristin Baldursdóttir Hannu Ilvesniemi Carl-Fredrik Johannesson O. Janne Kjønaas Andis Lazdins Aleksi Lehtonen Jenni Nordén Ivika Ostonen David Paré Helena Marta Stefánsdóttir Johan Stendahl Iveta Varnagiryté-Kabasinskiene Lars Vesterdal Lise DalsgaardAbstract
Bakgrunn: Overvåking av karbon i skogjord gjennomføres i mange land, noe som har resultert i omfattende nasjonale datasett, også i tilfelle hvor landene har felles grenser og i stor utstrekning lignende eller tilsvarende skogs- og jordtyper. Mulighet: Internasjonalt samarbeid om data og feltmetoder kan legge til rette for integrasjon av datasett og sammenligning av overvåkingsdata til støtte for utvikling av internasjonal politikk i et multinasjonalt fremfor et nasjonalt perspektiv. Utfordring: Variasjoner i overvåkingsmetodikk mellom land må håndteres for å kunne gjennomføre en effektiv syntese av data om karbon i skogjord. Tilnærming: Hvert land har utviklet sitt eget overvåkingsprogram for å møte spesifikke og nasjonale miljømessige og institusjonelle behov, noe som har ført til omfattende datasett på nasjonalt nivå. Harmonisering kan bidra til å realisere det fulle potensialet i disse nasjonale datasettene gjennom utvikling av internasjonale referansedefinisjoner. En tilnærming med utgangspunkt i harmonisering tillater nasjonal tilpasning, samtidig med at data kan brukes i en internasjonal kontekst, i kontrast til standardisering og en «én størrelse passer alle»-tilnærming.
Authors
Shun Hasegawa Kjetil Schanke Aas Ulrika Jansson Asplund Lise Dalsgaard Heleen de Wit Andreas Hagenbo Carl-Fredrik Johannesson Jenni NordénAbstract
Norwegian forests cover 12 million hectares and are vital for carbon uptake and biodiversity, yet CO2 absorption has declined since 2010 due to increased harvesting, mortality and reduced growth as more forests surpass harvest maturity. With 45% now economically mature and 20% older than 120 years, the future carbon uptake of these stands is uncertain, particularly if they develop towards old-growth. Old-growth forests form without stand-replacing disturbances and have diverse structures and deadwood. Norwegian mature forests mostly originate from clear-cutting, so insights from primary old-growth must be applied with caution. After maturity, forests continue to sequester carbon but more slowly, with increasing storage in deadwood and soil. Soil carbon trajectories remain uncertain: disturbance often causes short-term losses followed by decades of accumulation. Microbial communities, especially fungi, influence long-term soil carbon, but data are limited. Norway uses the Yasso soil carbon model, which predicts continued soil carbon increases with age though at slowing rates; however, it simplifies key processes, and more advanced models are in development. Biodiversity supports carbon cycling, resilience and soil health, yet knowledge gaps persist. Climate change is expected to increase disturbances, raising long-term risks for older stands. The report highlights the need for improved monitoring, research and modelling to better understand carbon dynamics and resilience as forests age.