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.
2017
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Anne Gobin Kurt Christian Kersebaum Josef Eitzinger Miroslav Trnka Petr Hlavinka Jozef Takác Joop Kroes Domenico Ventrella Anna Dalla Marta Johannes Deelstra Branislava Lalic Pavol Nejedlik Simone Orlandini Pirjo Peltonen-Sainio Ari Rajala Triin Saue Levent Saylan Ruzica Stricevic Visnja Vucetic Christos ZoumidesAbstract
Crop growth and yield are affected by water use during the season: the green water footprint (WF) accounts for rain water, the blue WF for irrigation and the grey WF for diluting agri-chemicals. We calibrated crop yield for FAO’s water balance model “Aquacrop” at field level. We collected weather, soil and crop inputs for 45 locations for the period 1992–2012. Calibrated model runs were conducted for wheat, barley, grain maize, oilseed rape, potato and sugar beet. The WF of cereals could be up to 20 times larger than the WF of tuber and root crops; the largest share was attributed to the green WF. The green and blue WF compared favourably with global benchmark values (R2 = 0.64–0.80; d = 0.91–0.95). The variability in the WF of arable crops across different regions in Europe is mainly due to variability in crop yield (cv = 45%) and to a lesser extent to variability in crop water use (cv = 21%). The WF variability between countries (cv = 14%) is lower than the variability between seasons (cv = 22%) and between crops (cv = 46%). Though modelled yields increased up to 50% under sprinkler irrigation, the water footprint still increased between 1% and 25%. Confronted with drainage and runoff, the grey WF tended to overestimate the contribution of nitrogen to the surface and groundwater. The results showed that the water footprint provides a measurable indicator that may support European water governance.
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
Denne rapporten oppsummerer resultatene fra er treårig forskningsprosjekt vedrørende den unike ærfuglduna. Dunprøver fra 19 kolonier i fire ulike land ble renset på en standardisert måte og ulike parametere ble målt og testet som fill power, sammenhengskraft og resiliens. Det ble dokumentert variasjon i ulike parametere både mellom kolonier og mellom individer. Dette er den største og mest dyptgående studien av ærfugldun som har blitt utført. This report sums up the result from a three-year lasting study regarding the unique eider down. Eider down from 19 colonies was collected and we measured various parameters such as fill power,cohesion and resilience. Overall, this is the largest and most in-depth study of eider down ever performed.
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
Reduced N-surpluses in dairy farming is a strategy to reduce the environmental pollution from this production. This study was designed to analyse the important variables influencing nitrogen (N) surplus per hectare and per unit of N in produce for dairy farms and dairy systems across 10 certified organic and 10 conventional commercial dairy farms in Møre og Romsdal County, Norway, between 2010 and 2012. The N-surplus per hectare was calculated as N-input (net N-purchase and inputs from biological N-fixation, atmospheric deposition and free rangeland) minus N in produce (sold milk and meat gain), and the N-surplus per unit of N-produce as net Ninput divided by N in produce. On average, the organic farms produced milk and meat with lower N-surplus per hectare (88 ± 25 kg N·ha−1) than did conventional farms (220 ± 56 kg N·ha−1). Also, the N-surplus per unit of N-produce was on average lower on organic than on conventional farms, 4.2 ± 1.2 kg N·kg N−1 and 6.3 ± 0.9 kg N·kg N−1, respectively. All farms included both fully-cultivated land and native grassland. Nsurplus was found to be higher on the fully cultivated land than on native grassland. N-fertilizers (43%) and concentrates (30%) accounted for most of the N input on conventional farms. On organic farms, biological Nfixation and concentrates contributed to 32% and 36% of the N-input (43 ± 18 N·kg N−1 and 48 ± 11 N·kg N−1), respectively. An increase in N-input per hectare increased the amount of N-produce in milk and meat per hectare, but, on average for all farms, only 11% of the N-input was utilised as N-output; however, the N-surplus per unit of N in produce (delivered milk and meat gain) was not correlated to total N-input. This surplus was calculated for the dairy system, which also included the N-surplus on the off-farm area. Only 16% and 18% of this surplus on conventional and organic farms, respectively, was attributed to surplus derived from off-farm production of purchased feed and animals. Since the dairy farm area of conventional and organic farms comprised 52% and 60% of the dairy system area, respectively, it is crucial to relate production not only to dairy farm area but also to the dairy system area. On conventional dairy farms, the N-surplus per unit of N in produce decreased with increasing milk yield per cow. Organic farms tended to have lower N-surpluses than conventional farms with no correlation between the milk yield and the N-surplus. For both dairy farm and dairy system area, N-surpluses increased with increasing use of fertilizer N per hectare, biological N-fixation, imported concentrates and roughages and decreased with higher production per area. This highlights the importance of good agronomy that well utilize available nitrogen.
Abstract
Due to the limited resources of fossil fuels and the need to mitigate climate change, energy utilisation for all human activity has to be improved. The objective of this study was to analyse the correlation between energy intensity on dairy farms and production mode, to examine the influence of machinery and buildings on energy intensity, and to find production related solutions for conventional and organic dairy farms to reduce energy intensity. Data from ten conventional and ten organic commercial dairy farms in Norway from 2010 to 2012 were used to calculate the amount of embodied energy as the sum of primary energy used for production of inputs from cradle-to-farm gates using a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach. Energy intensities of dairy farms were used to show the amount of embodied energy needed to produce the inputs per metabolizable energy in the output. Energy intensities allow to easily point out the contribution of different inputs. The results showed that organic farms produced milk and meat with lower energy intensities on average than the conventional ones. On conventional farms, the energy intensity on all inputs was 2.6 ± 0.4 (MJMJ?1) and on organic farms it was significantly lower at 2.1 ± 0.3 (MJ MJ?1). On conventional farms, machinery and buildings contributed 18% ± 4%, on organic farms 29% ± 4% to the overall energy use. The high relative contribution of machinery and buildings to the overall energy consumption underlines the importance of considering them when developing solutions to reduce energy consumption in dairy production. For conventional and organic dairy farms, different strategies are recommend to reduce the energy intensity on all inputs. Conventional farms can reduce energy intensity by reducing the tractor weight and on most of them, it should be possible to reduce the use of nitrogen fertilisers without reducing yields. On organic dairy farms, energy intensity can be reduced by reducing embodied energy in barns and increasing yields. The embodied energy in existing barns can be reduced by a higher milk production per cow and by a longer use of the barns than the estimated lifetime. In the long run, new barns should be built with a lower amount of embodied energy. The high variation of energy intensity on all inputs from 1.6 to 3.3 (MJ MJ?1) (corresponding to the energy use of 4.5e9.3 MJ kg-1 milk) found on the 20 farms shows a potential for producing milk and meat with lower energy intensity on many farms. Based on the results, separate recommendations were provided for conventional and organic farms for reducing energy intensity.
Authors
Unni AbrahamsenAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Wendy Marie WaalenAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
Vitality of pollen, in vitro pollen germination and pollen tube growth (pollen tube length and pollen tube growth rate) were investigated in Oblačinska sour cherry in order to determine the differences between clones which have divergent yielding potential. For this purpose two ‘Oblačinska’ sour cherry clones with high fruit set and high yields (II/2, III/9) and two with low fruit set and low-yielding (XI/3 and XIII/1) were used in this study. Pollen germination was done on artificial medium containing 14% sucrose and 0.3% agar-agar at room temperature (23°C). Pollen tube growth was stopped with a drop of 40% formaldehyde, 1, 3, 6, 12 and 24 h after contact with the medium. The maximum percentage of germination ranged from 13.01% (clone II/2, after 1 h) to 54.19% (clone III/9, after 24 h). Pollen tube length varied from 64.84 μm (clone XIII/1, after 1 h) to >1,100 μm (clones II/2 and III/9, after 24 h). Pollen growth rate was quite high (up to 1.71 μm min-1) after 6 h of germination, but rather decreasing until 24 h of germination (0.560.83 μm min-1). The dynamics of in vitro pollen tubes growth among the clones were quite different, especially after 12 h and 24 h of germination. Clones that are singled out as fruitful (II/2 and III/9) gave much better results regarding pollen germination and pollen tube growth in comparison to clones which were characterized by low fruit set and yields (XI/3 and XIII/1).