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.
2020
Abstract
Questions Which environmental variables are most important in determining plant species composition in subarctic springs? Do observed patterns differ between typical wetland and general matrix‐derived species? Location Helocrenic (seepage) springs, Northern Norway. Methods We sampled 49 helocrenic spring sites, measuring environmental variables (water temperature, water pH, electrical conductivity, discharge volume, geographic position) and recording all species present. We performed a partial canonical correspondence analysis (pCCA) to determine the relative importance of water quality, spatial, and climatic variables for patterns in species composition and to compare the differences in these patterns between wetland and matrix‐derived species. Results We found that climatic and water quality variables were almost equally important in determining species composition in subarctic springs, with climatic variables explaining 26.62% of variation in species composition and water quality variables explaining 26.14%. Spatial variables explained the least variation (21.53%). When looking at the variables individually, altitude (10.93%) and mean summer temperature (9.25%) explained the most variation. The trend was the same for matrix‐derived species and wetland species, with climatic variables explaining the most variation (matrix‐derived: 27.26%; wetland: 24.42%), followed by water quality (matrix‐derived: 26.40%; wetland: 24.13%) and spatial variables (matrix‐derived: 24.87%; wetland: 16.27%). The main difference between matrix‐derived species and typical wetland species was that the spatial variables explained less variation for wetland species. Conclusions The close relationship of species composition (total vegetation as well as separated into wetland and matrix‐derived species) with climatic and water quality conditions indicates a sensitivity of subarctic springs to future climate change. In combination with altitude, which was found to be the most important individual variable, it is likely that the future distribution of spring species tracking climate change will be limited by the occurrence of suitable spring habitats, especially at high altitudes.
Authors
Andreas TreuAbstract
Research activities in the field of wood protection in the marine environment in Europe have been limited and do not yet satisfy the need for new approaches to the problem of biodegradation of Wood in seawater. Alternatives to creosote treatment were tested in the marine environment in Moss harbour. Most of the treated products showed high potential as a successful treatment in this use class in the short-term, such as acetylation of wood, treatment with sorbitol and citric acid and encapsulation of wood poles with a plastic envelope. Long-term studies need to determine the service life of these products.
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Lecture – ESS SURVEY UPDATE AND NEXT STEPS
Cornelya Klutsch, Paul Eric Aspholm, Hallvard Jensen, ...
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Abstract
Laser scanning data from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV-LS) offer new opportunities to estimate forest growing stock volume ( V ) exclusively based on the UAV-LS data. We propose a method to measure tree attributes and using these measurements to estimate V without the use of field data for calibration. The method consists of five steps: i) Using UAV-LS data, tree crowns are automatically identified and segmented wall-to-wall. ii) From all detected tree crowns, a sample is taken where diameter at breast height (DBH) can be recorded reliably as determined by visual assessment in the UAV-LS data. iii) Another sample of crowns is taken where tree species were identifiable from UAV image data. iv) DBH and tree species models are fit using the samples and applied to all detected tree crowns. v) Single tree volumes are predicted with existing allometric models using predicted species and DBH, and height directly obtained from UAV-LS. The method was applied to a Riegl-VUX data set with an average density of 1130 points m−2 and 3 cm orthomosaic acquired over an 8.8 ha managed boreal forest. The volumes of the identified trees were aggregated to estimate plot-, stand-, and forest-level volumes which were validated using 58 independently measured field plots. The root-mean-square deviance ( RMSD% ) decreased when increasing the spatial scale from the plot (32.2%) to stand (27.1%) and forest level (3.5%). The accuracy of the UAV-LS estimates varied given forest structure and was highest in open pine stands and lowest in dense birch or spruce stands. On the forest level, the estimates based on UAV-LS data were well within the 95% confidence interval of the intense field survey estimate, and both estimates had a similar precision. While the results are encouraging for further use of UAV-LS in the context of fully airborne forest inventories, future studies should confirm our findings in a variety of forest types and conditions.
Abstract
Immigration has changed the United States from having a predominantly white to a more ethnically diverse population. People who move to the U.S. may initially have diets unlike native-born Americans but gradually adopt eating patterns more like them. Using NHANES data and a censored gamma regression model, this study estimated the daily consumption of major food products among groups of immigrants and the corresponding groups born in the U.S. Results show that immigrants had lower consumption of meat and higher consumption of fruits and vegetables, and immigrants’ consumption converged towards a less healthy American diet after five years in the U.S.
Authors
Hyung Sik Choi Torbjörn Jansson Alan Matthews Klaus MittenzweiAbstract
The UK exited the EU on 31 January 2020, with a transition period agreed as part of the Withdrawal Agreement. During this transition period the UK and the EU will decide on their future trading relationship. No matter what form this relationship takes, there will be disturbances to agri‐food markets. This study analyses four different scenarios with increasing barriers to trade, ranging from a very close relationship similar to the European Economic Area to a distant relationship in which the UK and EU trade on Most Favoured Nation terms, using the EU focused global agricultural sector model CAPRI. In the UK, food prices will increase in all scenarios, making consumers in the UK the biggest losers. Only in a free trade agreement scenario does the UK show an unambiguous positive net welfare gain in just the agri‐food sector. In the case of the European Economic Area scenario, which assumes continued access to the single market, the net welfare impact would depend on the size of the UK’s continued contribution to the EU. In the EU, declining food prices would benefit consumers but the sum of the loss in farmers’ incomes and the UK’s EU CAP contribution would be much greater than the consumer’s gain. These impacts in agricultural markets under different future trade arrangements will also be influenced by the UK’s agricultural policy changes in direct payments as well as by possible further UK trade liberalisation after the end of the transition period.
Authors
Anni Jašková Tatyana Yu. Braslavskaya Elena Tikhonova Jaanus Paal Solvita Rūsiņa Māris Laiviņš Ilya B. Kucherov Nadezhda V. Genikova Ilona Knollová Tatiana V. Chernenkova Elena Yu. Churakova Martin Diekmann Rune Halvorsen Elena I. Kirichok Vladimir N. Korotkov Alexander M. Kryshen Daria L. Lugovaya Olga V. Morozova Petr V. Potapov Tatiana S. Prokazina Fride Høistad Schei Yury A. Semenishchenkov Nikolai E. Shevchenko Oksana V. Sidorova Nikolai S. Smirnov Olga V. Smirnova Ruslan Tsvirko Svetlana A. Turubanova Milan ChytrýAbstract
The European Boreal Forest Vegetation Database (EBFVD, GIVD ID: EU-00-027) is a repository for vegetation-plot data from the forests of the boreal and hemiboreal zones of Europe. In this report, we describe its structure, current content and future perspectives opened up by the database. In February 2019, the database contained 13 037 vegetation-plot records from Belarus, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Norway, Russia and Sweden that are not yet stored in the databases of the European Vegetation Archive (EVA). Consequently, this database significantly improves the availability of forest plant community data from Northern Europe. The database is managed by the Vegetation Science Group, Department of Botany and Zoology, Masaryk University, Brno (Czech Republic), in the TURBOVEG 2 program. It is registered in the Global Index of Vegetation Plot Databases (GIVD) and included in EVA. The whole database, or a subset of it, can be requested via EVA, or directly from the database custodian.
Abstract
As a carbon dioxide removal measure, the Norwegian government is currently considering a policy of large-scale planting of spruce (Picea abies (L) H. Karst) on lands in various states of natural transition to a forest dominated by deciduous broadleaved tree species. Given the aspiration to bring emissions on balance with removals in the latter half of the 21st century in effort to limit the global mean temperature rise to “well below” 2°C, the effectiveness of such a policy is unclear given relatively low spruce growth rates in the region. Further convoluting the picture is the magnitude and relevance of surface albedo changes linked to such projects, which typically counteract the benefits of an enhanced forest CO2 sink in high-latitude regions. Here, we carry out a rigorous empirically based assessment of the terrestrial carbon dioxide removal (tCDR) potential of large-scale spruce planting in Norway, taking into account transient developments in both terrestrial carbon sinks and surface albedo over the 21st century and beyond. We find that surface albedo changes would likely play a negligible role in counteracting tCDR, yet given low forest growth rates in the region, notable tCDR benefits from such projects would not be realized until the second half of the 21st century, with maximum benefits occurring even later around 2150. We estimate Norway's total accumulated tCDR potential at 2100 and 2150 (including surface albedo changes) to be 447 (±240) and 852 (±295) Mt CO2-eq. at mean net present values of US$ 12 (±3) and US$ 13 (±2) per ton CDR, respectively. For perspective, the accumulated tCDR potential at 2100 represents around 8 years of Norway's total current annual production-based (i.e., territorial) CO2-eq. emissions.