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.
2007
Authors
Charles A. Francis Andrea Lawseth Alexandra English Paula Hesje A. McCann J. Wagner Wendy Marie Waalen Geir Lieblein Tor Arvid BrelandAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Charles A. Francis Andrea Lawseth Alexandra English Paula Hesje A. McCann J. Wagner Wendy Marie Waalen Geir Lieblein Tor Arvid BrelandAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Trond Henriksen Audun Korsæth Tor Arvid Breland Bo Stenberg Lars Stoumann Jensen Sander Bruun Jon Gudmundsson Fridrik Palmason Anders Pedersen Tapio SaloAbstract
Mechanistic, multi-compartment decomposition models require that carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) in plant material be distributed among pools of different degradability. For this purpose, measured concentrations of C and N in fractions obtained through stepwise chemical digestion (SCD) and values predicted from near-infrared (NIR) spectra or total plant N concentration were compared. Seventysix cash, forage, green manure and cover crop plant materials representing a wide range in biological origin and chemical quality were incubated in a sandy soil at 15 degrees C and -10 kPa water potential for 217 d. A mechanistic decomposition model was calibrated with data from soil without plant material and initialised by data on amounts of C and N in fractions obtained from SCD directly or C and N in SCD fractions as predicted from NIR spectroscopy or plant N concentration. All model parameters describing C and N flows from plant material were kept at default values as defined in previous, independent works with the same model. When results from SCD were used directly to initialise the decomposition model, C and N mineralisation dynamics were predicted well (r(2) = 0.76 and 0.70 for C mineralisation rates and accumulation of inorganic N, respectively). When a NIR calibration was used to predict the SCD data, this resulted in nearly equally good model performance (r(2) = 0.76 and 0.69 for C and N mineralisation, respectively). This was also the case when SCD data were predicted from plant material N concentration (r(2) = 0.76 and 0.69 for C and N). We conclude that the combined use of a mechanistic decomposition model and quality data from SCD is a highly adequate basis for an a priori description of the mineralisation of both C and N from common agricultural plant materials, and that both NIR spectroscopy and measurement of total N concentration offer good and cost-effective alternatives if they are calibrated with SCD data. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
Lars T. HavstadAbstract
Different methods of straw residue management were evaluated in field trials with seed crops of timothy (Phleum pratense L.) and meadow fescue (Festuca pratensis Huds.) in SE Norway during 2000-2005. Compared to straw removal, which up to now has been the most common straw management practice in seed production of the two species, straw chopping and spreading at the back of the combiner during seed harvest did not reduce seed yield in the following year when stubble height was kept at a low level (preferably less than 10 cm). However, in order for newly developed tillers to rapidly penetrate the straw layer in autumn, the chopped straw had to be spread uniformly in the field. The experiments did not provide any support for an extra input of nitrogen in autumn, either in timothy or meadow fescue, when the straw was chopped rather than removed. In both species, also burning of straw and stubble soon after seed harvest was an efficient and fast clean-up method in the field after harvest. However, due to problems with smoke emission, especially near traffic roads and populated areas, field burning is not recommended as a preferable straw management method.
Abstract
Norwegian agriculture is totally dependent on a safe supply of seed of winter-hardy timothy varieties. The annual seed consumption varies depending on the extent of winter damages, particularly in northern Norway, and the average seed yield varies with weather and harvest conditions in the seed-producing districts in the southeastern and central part of the country. To buffer these variations, seed companies always keep stocks corresponding to 50-100 % of the average annual seed consumption. Such large stocks are risky to maintain as seed lots will loose germination over time. Our objective was to elucidate the effect of seed harvest time and seed storage location on the longevity of timothy seed. In 2003, timothy ‘Grindstad’ was combined directly on 2, 5 or 8 August corresponding to a seed moisture content (SMC) of 34, 27 and 20 %, respectively. After harvest the seed was dried to 10-11 % SMC. Germination analyses were accomplished 3, 15, 26 and 38 months after seed harvest; the three latter after splitting each seed lot into four sub-lots that were stored either in a conditioned seed store (4ºC, 30% RH), or in unconditioned warehouses at there climatically different locations. While seed harvest time had no effect on germination three months after harvest, differences became increasingly evident as time went by. After 38 months’ storage, seed stored in the conditioned store or in the warehouse at the continental location Tynset germinated, on average for harvest times, 15-16 units better than seed stored in the warehouse at the coastal location Vaksdal; and seed lots harvested at 20 % SMC germinated, on average for storage locations, 24 units better than seed harvested at 37 % SMC. While it has long been documented that direct combining at high SMC may damage seed germination, there has been less awareness that this damage may not manifest itself until after a certain storage period.
Abstract
Tiller demography and contribution to seed yield were studied in first year seed crops of smooth bromegrass (SB, Bromus inermis ‘Lofar’) and meadow fescue (MF, Festuca pratensis ‘Salten’) planted on different dates and with increasing plant densities (A: 15 Jun. / 11 plants m-2, B: 15 or 30 July / 44 plants m-2, C: 15 August or 10 September /178 plants m-2) in field trials at Landvik, SE Norway. While the total tiller population in most crops increased until seed harvest, it decreased during panicle elongation in crops of SB and MF that had reached 2000 and 3500 tillers m-2 in early spring, respectively. Except for the fact that many of the primary tillers of SB died after producing barren stems, tillers formed in August and September had the greatest chance of becoming reproductive and produced the heaviest inflorescences in both species. Most tillers produced in winter or early spring either remained vegetative or died, but spring-emerging tillers contributed up to 30% of the total seed yield in early-established, low-density crops of MF. It is concluded that spring-emerged tillers contribute more to seed yield in MF than in SB and more in seed crops established early at low plant density than in crops established late at higher density.
2006
Authors
Ievina Sturite Marianne Vileid Uleberg Marit Jørgensen Trond Henriksen Anne Kjersti Bakken Tor Arvid BrelandAbstract
In order to improve the basis for utilising nitrogen (N) fixed by white clover (Trifolium repens L.) in northern agriculture, we studied how defoliation stress affected the N contents of major plant organs in late autumn, N losses during the winter and N accumulation in the following spring. Plants were established from stolon cuttings and transplanted to pots that were dug into the field at Apelsvoll Research Centre (60 degrees 42'N, 10 degrees 51' E) and at Holt Research Centre (69 degrees 40' N, 18 degrees 56' E) in spring 2001 and 2002. During the first growing season, the plants were totally stripped of leaves down to the stolon basis, cut at 4 cm height or left undisturbed. The plants were sampled destructively in late autumn, early spring the second year and after 6 weeks of new spring growth. The plant material was sorted into leaves, stolons and roots. Defoliation regime did not influence the total amount of leaf N harvested during and at the end of the first growing season. However, for intensively defoliated plants, the repeated leaf removal and subsequent regrowth occurred at the expense of stolon and root development and resulted in a 61-85% reduction in the total plant N present in late autumn and a 21-59% reduction in total accumulation of plant N (plant N present in autumn + previously harvested leaf N). During the winter, the net N loss from leaf tissue (N not recovered in living nor dead leaves in the spring) ranged from 57% to 74% of the N present in living leaves in the autumn, while N stored in stolons and roots was much better conserved. However, the winter loss of stolon N from severely defoliated plants (19%) was significantly larger than from leniently defoliated (12%) and non-defoliated plants (6%). Moreover, the fraction of stolon N determined as dead in the spring was 63% for severely defoliated as compared to 14% for non-defoliated plants. Accumulation in absolute terms of new leaf N during the spring was highly correlated to total plant N in early spring (R-2 = 0.86), but the growth rates relative to plant N present in early spring were not and, consequently, were similar for all treatments. The amount of inorganic N in the soil after snowmelt and the N uptake in plant root simulator probes (PRS (TM)) during the spring were small, suggesting that microbial immobilisation, leaching and gas emissions may have been important pathways for N lost from plant tissue.
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
2004
Abstract
No abstract has been registered