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.
2018
Authors
Aaron M. Shew L. Lanier Nalley Heather A. Snell Rodolfo M. Jr. Nayga Bruce L. DixonAbstract
CRISPR gene-editing has major implications for agriculture and food security. However, no studies have evaluated the public acceptance and valuation of CRISPR-produced food. As such, we conducted a multi-country assessment of consumers’ willingness-to-consume (WTC) and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for CRISPR-produced food compared to conventional and genetically modified (GM) foods, respectively. In the USA, Canada, Belgium, France, and Australia, 56, 47, 46, 30, and 51% of respondents, respectively, indicated they would consume both GM and CRISPR food. We also found that biotechnology familiarity and perceptions of safety were the primary drivers for WTC CRISPR and GM food. Moreover, respondents valued CRISPR and GM food similarly – substantially less than conventional food – which could be detrimental for meeting future food demand.
Authors
Gregory Taff Anniken Førde Marit Aure Tone Magnussen Torill Nyseth Yang ShaoAbstract
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Authors
Zhibo Hamborg Minrui Wang Sissel Haugslien Astrid Sivertsen Morten Rasmussen Qiaochun* Wang Dag-Ragnar BlystadAbstract
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Virus diseases have been a great threat to production of economically important crops. In practice, the use of virus-free planting material is an effective strategy to control viral diseases. Cryotherapy, developed based on cryopreservation, is a novel plant biotechnology tool for virus eradication. Comparing to the traditional meristem culture for virus elimination, cryotherapy resulted in high efficiency of pathogen eradication. In general, cryotherapy includes seven major steps: (1) introduction of infected plant materials into in vitro cultures, (2) shoot tip excision, (3) tolerance induction of explants to dehydration and subsequent freezing in liquid nitrogen (LN), (4) a short-time treatment of explants in LN, (5) warming and post-culture for regeneration, (6) re-establishment of regenerated plants in greenhouse conditions, and (7) virus indexing.
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Authors
Thomas Dirnböck Gisela Pröll Kari Austnes Jelena Beloica Burkhard Beudert Roberto Canullo Alessandra De Marco Maria Francesca Fornasier Martyn Futter Klaus Goergen Ulf Grandin Maria Holmberg Antti-Jussi Lindroos Michael Mirtl Johan Neirynck Tomasz Pecka Tiina Maileena Nieminen Jørn-Frode Nordbakken Maximilian Posch Gert-Jan Reinds Edwin C. Rowe Maija Salemaa Thomas Scheuschner Franz Starlinger Aldona Katarzyna Uzieblo Salar Valinia James Weldon Wieger G W Wamelink Martin ForsiusAbstract
Atmospheric nitrogen (N) pollution is considered responsible for a substantial decline in plant species richness and for altered community structures in terrestrial habitats worldwide. Nitrogen affects habitats through direct toxicity, soil acidification, and in particular by favoring fast-growing species. Pressure from N pollution is decreasing in some areas. In Europe (EU28), overall emissions of NO x declined by more than 50% while NH3 declined by less than 30% between the years 1990 and 2015, and further decreases may be achieved. The timescale over which these improvements will affect ecosystems is uncertain. Here we use 23 European forest research sites with high quality long-term data on deposition, climate, soil recovery, and understory vegetation to assess benefits of currently legislated N deposition reductions in forest understory vegetation. A dynamic soil model coupled to a statistical plant species niche model was applied with site-based climate and deposition. We use indicators of N deposition and climate warming effects such as the change in the occurrence of oligophilic, acidophilic, and cold-tolerant plant species to compare the present with projections for 2030 and 2050. The decrease in N deposition under current legislation emission (CLE) reduction targets until 2030 is not expected to result in a release from eutrophication. Albeit the model predictions show considerable uncertainty when compared with observations, they indicate that oligophilic forest understory plant species will further decrease. This result is partially due to confounding processes related to climate effects and to major decreases in sulphur deposition and consequent recovery from soil acidification, but shows that decreases in N deposition under CLE will most likely be insufficient to allow recovery from eutrophication.
Abstract
Small mammals, especially microtine rodents, play an important role in the dynamics of boreal forest ecosystems. Even-aged forest management, in which old, semi-natural forests are converted to clear-cuts and culturally regenerated stands, is expected to have pronounced impact on the abundance and composition of this group of animals due to changes in the understory vegetation. During a 39 year-period we sampled autumn numbers of small mammals in uncut, semi-natural old forest and in recent clearcuts, supplemented by a 7-year sample from middle-aged plantations. Field voles Microtus agrestis were almost exclusively trapped in clearcuts. Bank voles Myodes glareolus dominated in the old forest, but reached equal or higher densities than field voles in clearcuts. Here, their combined abundance exceeded that of bank voles in old forest. Some years, wood lemmings Myopus schisticolor contributed significantly to vole abundance in old forest. Other rodents Apodemus spp. were rarely captured, mainly in clearcuts, and shrews Sorex spp. numbered < 15 percent of the total number of captured animals. Throughout the whole period we discerned 11 vole cycles, with highest peaks in bank voles in old forest. After high numbers during the 1980s, abundances of all species fell markedly during the 1990s, most distinctively in clearcuts, where the field vole almost totally disappeared. From the late 2000s, abundances of all species returned to pre-1990 levels and beyond. In the early and late periods, combined vole numbers were 26% higher in clearcuts compared to old forest, whereas the opposite was true in the middle period. In middle-aged plantations, bank voles numbered only one third of what it was in clearcuts and old forest, and other voles were rarely trapped. The results support the general notion that bank voles thrive in bilberry-rich, older forest and field voles in grass-dominated habitat. Contrary to general assertions, bank vole was abundant also in clearcuts, possibly due to invasion from surrounding old forest, but peak densities were lower than in old forest, possibly due to suppression by field voles. The variation of small mammals in forest age classes concurred closely with recent results reported from Finland. On a landscape scale, the results from these two and other studies predict that the total biomass of small rodents will be reduced by even-aged forest management, not because of conversion of older, semi-natural forest to clearcuts, but because of a decline in numbers in middle-aged and older, secondary forests.