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.
2012
Authors
Hanne Gro Wallin Gunnar EnganAbstract
An overall societal aim is to ensure a sustainable use and management of agricultural landscapes. This requires continuous delivery of reliable and up-to-date information to decision-makers. To be able to deliver this information, a monitoring program for agricultural landscapes was initiated in Norway 13 years ago. The program documents and reports on land use / land cover changes from data captured through interpretation of true colour aerial photos using stereo instruments. The monitoring programme is based on a sample of 1000 squares of 1 x 1 km and the entire sample of squares is photographed over a five-year period. Each square is then mapped repeatedly every fifth year to record changes. Aerial photo interpretation is based on a custom classification system which is built up hierarchically, with three levels. The first level comprises seven land type classes: Agricultural land, Bare ground, Semi-natural open vegetation, Unforested wetland vegetation, Forest, Urban areas and Water. These land classes are further divided into 24 land types at level two, and approximately 100 land types at level 3. In addition to land type units we map both line elements like stone fences and point elements like buildings and solitary threes. By use of indicators that describe status and change focusing on themes of particular policy interest, we can report on whether policy aims are being fulfilled or not. Four indicator themes have been in focus hitherto: landscape spatial structure, biological diversity, cultural heritage and accessibility. Our data is stored in databases and most of the data quality check/structure process and analyses are now being made in open source software like PostGIS and PostSQL. To assess the accuracy of the photo-interpretation, ground truthing is carried out on 10 % of the squares. The results of this operation document the benefits of having access to photos of the same area from two different years. The program is designed first and foremost to provide reliable statistics at a national level but the aim is also to report at regional levels – for example for counties or for agricultural landscape regions. The national coverage and application of standardized methods enable frequent updating. This method is cost effective and enables us to quantify changes in landscape qualities as well as adapting the programme to take account of e.g. new findings on relevant indicators.
Abstract
The use of wood in outdoor constructions has long traditions in Norway. In the last decade, the environmentally demands for wood protective systems has become stricter. At the same time, new design solutions are arising that will challenge the decay protection in outdoor constructions. In this article, the potential for antioxidants as a wood protective agent was tested. Both natural and synthetic antioxidants have been used. All samples achieved a sufficient uptake of impregnation agent, and all the tested products showed a reduction in wood decay rate compared to the control. The protections by the antioxidants are more effective against brown rot fungi, than white rot fungi. The synthetic antioxidants stop the fungal degradation of the brown rot fungi, and should be considered as an additive in future and existing wood protective systems.
Abstract
A crucial process of the terrestrial carbon cycle is photosynthetic uptake through plants. This may be quantified by calculating the fraction of absorbed photosynthetic active radiation (fapar), based on multispectral reflectance properties of the earth surface. The fapar index is available with global coverage from satellite sensors.Here, we combine two satellite missions, SeaWifs on board OrbView2 and MERIS on board Envisat, to produce time series with 10 days resolution for a period of 14 years (19982011) at a spatial resolution of 0.5 latitude x 0.5 longitude. These more than 50000 individual time series represent a huge range of dynamical behavior with respect to variability, periodicities and correlation structure.To characterize differences as a function of spatial location or distance, we employ Recurrence Quantification Analysis (RQA) and Recurrence Network Analysis (RNA). Two strategies are followed. On one hand, RQA and network variables are calculated for individual time series using identical recurrence parameters, and compared to see whether differences between them resemble different climate regimes, biomes, plant functional types or landuse classes. On the other hand, a multivariate extension of RNA will be exploited to see whether networks within networks occur, i.e. whether RNA provides sufficient contrasts to discern different clusters of pixels on the globe.Taken together, the recurrence analysis might lead to a new classification of the terrestrial biosphere which in turn can be compared to existing partitioning based on climate and/or vegetation properties. A number of technical issues will be addressed as well, such as the impact of the finite length of the series (504 values each), the necessity to gapfill parts of the data, the stability of network variables against changes in the recurrence parameters, or the computational challenges involved in the multinetwork analysis of many series. http://dames.pik-potsdam.de/Abstracts.pdf
Authors
Isabella Børja Jan Svtlík Toril Drabløs Eldhuset Holger Lange Frank Newell Kidder Douglas Lawrence GodboldAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
Damage by cone and seed insects is a severe impediment to those producing conifer seeds in seed orchards. The SNS-supported network `Nordic cone and seed insects` has been cooperating to address this problem since 2007. One of the outcomes is the coordinated monitoring of the most important insect species. The data collected form a basis for establishing strategies for pest management.
Authors
Andreas TreuAbstract
Improving wood preservation techniques can contribute substantially to reducing waste and avoiding negative environmental impacts. Dr Andreas Treu outlines a promising technique to dramatically reduce or even stop wood degradation altogether by using electro-osmosis. International Innovation is the leading global dissemination resource for the wider scientific, technology and research communities, dedicated to disseminating the latest science, research and technological innovations on a global level. More information and a complimentary subscription offer to the publication can be found at: www.researchmedia.eu
Authors
Severin WoxholttAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Lone Ross Gobakken Mats WestinAbstract
Environmentally sound wooden facades with long service lives and acceptable appearance are desired. Several types of modified wood are used in building applications to fulfil those requirements, but there is a potential for using more modified wood material. In facades modified wood are often used without any surface treatment or coating, but some sort of coating are desired and requested in a segment of the potential marked. Finding suitable coating systems for modified wood can be a challenge, and the objective of this study was to evaluate the long time performance of modified wood substrates in combinations with different coating systems after 8 years of outdoors exposure. Furthermore, evaluations at 4 and 8 years were compared to study the quantitative mould growth in a very late stage of the test period to capture any deviant behaviour from the traditional growth curve. Three coating systems were applied on furfurylated Scots pine, acetylated Scots pine, thermally modified Scots pine, oil/thermally modified Scots pine, thermally modified Norway spruce, and three reference wood substrates, and exposed outdoors for 8 years to evaluate their ability to resist surface moulds and blue stain fungi, cracking and flaking. The test was carried out according to EN 927-3. After 8 years mould growth, cracking and flaking mainly varied with type of coating where the tendency was that a waterborne system had the lowest rating for both mould growth, cracking and flaking. Oil/thermally modified treated pine had the lowest mould rating of the modified substrates. Acetylated pine had a decrease in mould rating from year 4 to year 8 when coated with the best coating system and a very small increase when coated with the second best system. Acetylated pine tended to have less flaking than the other modified substrates. Furthermore, acetylated pine, thermally modified pine and thermally modified spruce tended to have the least cracking of the modified wood substrates.
Authors
Marie L. Davey Einar Heegaard Rune Halvorsen Mikael Ohlson Håvard KauserudAbstract
Bryophytes are a dominant vegetation component of the boreal forest, but little is known about their associated fungal communities, including seasonal variation within them.Seasonal variation in the fungal biomass and composition of fungal communities associated with three widespread boreal bryophytes was investigated using HPLC assays of ergosterol and amplicon pyrosequencing of the internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) region of rDNA.The bryophyte phyllosphere community was dominated by Ascomycota. Fungal biomass did not decline appreciably in winter (P = 0.272). Significant host-specific patterns in seasonal variation of biomass were detected (P = 0.003). Although seasonal effects were not the primary factors structuring community composition, collection date significantly explained (P = 0.001) variation not attributed to locality, host, and tissue. Community homogenization and a reduction in turnover occurred with the onset of frost events and subzero air and soil temperatures. Fluctuations in the relative abundance of particular fungal groups seem to reflect the nature of their association with mosses, although conclusions are drawn with caution because of potential methodological bias.The moss-associated fungal community is dynamic, exhibiting seasonal turnover in composition and relative abundance of different fungal groups, and significant fungal biomass is present year-round, suggesting a winter-active fungal community.
Authors
Casper Claudi Rasmussen Erlend NybakkAbstract
This study examines the relationship between customer orientation, innovativeness, autonomy, risk taking, growth willingness and growth in low technology micro-firms. A survey was sent to 3000 CEOs in the Norwegian wood industry and resulted in 514 usable respondents. Customer orientation, innovativeness, risk taking, autonomy and growth were conceptualized and analyzed as first order constructs using confirmatory factor analysis and OLS regression. The findings showed that customer orientation, innovativeness and autonomy have a significant impact on growth in micro-firms. The study found no support for interaction effects between innovativeness, autonomy, risk taking and customer orientation, however the interaction effect between customer orientation and autonomy was significant at the 10% level.