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.
2010
Authors
May Sæthre Arnstein Staverløkk Eline HågvarAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
This study focused on a suite of vascular plant species (six herbs and two grasses) common to traditionally managed, species-rich grasslands in Western Norway. We assessed the suitability of two species transfer methods (seed sowing and soil seed bank) for restoration of species-rich grassland on a newly established road verge. We compared the species\" frequencies one and three years after they were sown on a naked, newly created road verge with their frequencies in aboveground vegetation and soil seed banks of comparable, local grasslands. Species frequencies in the aboveground vegetation differed significantly from those in the seed banks. Moreover, the frequencies in the seed banks differed from those recorded one year after sowing, and the frequencies in the aboveground vegetation differed from those recorded three years after sowing. Avenula pubescens and Knautia arvensis, found in more than 25% of the aboveground grassland plots, did not germinate from any of the seed bank samples. Festuca rubra, Galium verum, Pimpinella saxifraga and Silene vulgaris were more frequent in the aboveground plots than in the seed bank samples. Pimpinella saxifraga, Galium verum and Lychnis viscaria emerged quite well both from sown seeds and from the seed bank. Avenula pubescens was frequent in the aboveground vegetation, but did not germinate from sown seeds. Six species established well from seeds, and most increased in frequency in the sown plots from the first to the third year. No species was found in the sown plots only, but three years after sowing, three species were more frequent in the sown plots than in the aboveground vegetation of donor grassland plots. Our fine-scale, point-to-point study demonstrates that different restoration methods produce widely differing species composition even when the donor material is identical. We propose that different substrates and a combination of establishment methods (sowing and hay transfer) are needed as supplements to seed banks to re-establish species-rich grassland.
Authors
Hanne Gro Wallin Tom Joar KristiansenAbstract
Our primary mission is to create an office in Juba with the necessary knowledge, computer equipment, GIS-software and the necessary satellite images. The office and its employees are going to be the independent land cover mapping authority in Southern Sudan. 4 persons from Norwegian Forest and Landscape institute had totally 11 stays in Juba in 2008. Our main task this year was to establish the office with equipment and expertise. The competence of the employees proved to vary a lot and in many cases to be inadequate. We started the transfer of knowledge on a very basic and simple level. The first year was celebrated by making a simple map showing the location of the known Forest Reserves in Southern Sudan at that time. The office had produced their first official map.
Authors
Hanne Gro Wallin Tom Joar KristiansenAbstract
The primary mission of the project is to create a Land Resource Survey and Information Centre in Juba with the necessary knowledge, computer equipment, GIS-software and the satellite images to map and monitor land resources. The office and its employees will be the independent land cover mapping authority in Southern Sudan. The Norwegian role is to support capacity building in the institution. The actual survey, mapping and monitoring activities should be carried out by the institution itself. The project was a continuation of work started in 2008. In 2009, more advanced training in GPS, digital mapping, remote sensing and production was carried out and a forest inventory was started. The office was upgraded with an installation of a battery backup system witch provide power enough to run the office for 3-5 hours in case of no electricity. A network of contacts with other relevant activities in South-Sudan was also established. The first land cover map produced by the office, covering the area between Yei and Juba, was produced based on interpretation in satellite images and verification in the field. The map “Forest reserves in Sothern Sudan” was upgraded to show the known forest reserves included as polygons with their actual shape and size.
Authors
Adam ParuchAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Tore SkrøppaAbstract
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault provides facilities for the safety deposit of samples of seed of distinct genetic resources of importance to humanity, under black box arrangements and in permafrost conditions supplemented by refrigeration in accordance with internationally agreed standards. The Seed Vault was established by the Norwegian Government in 2008 at 78 degrees North in the Norwegian village of Longyearbyen, on Svalbard, the farthest north you can travel in the world on regularly scheduled commercial jet flight. It is managed in a tripartite arrangement between the Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture and Food, the Global Crop Diversity Trust and the Nordic Genetic Resource Center. The last organisation is responsible for the day to day operation and management and organises deposits in the Seed Vault. The Seed Vault offers the most secure back-up possible for a worldwide network of genebanks that together conserve and make available the biological foundation of agriculture. It contains duplicates of collections of all the world’s major seed crops and a huge range of minor crops. The Seed Vault has a capacity of 4.5 million distinct samples. The seeds are stored in “black-box conditions”, meaning that seed storage boxes remain the property of the institution that sent them, and are not even opened by any party other than the depositor. The storage is provided free of charge. At present, there are more than half a million seed samples in the Vault, origination from 212 countries of the world.
Authors
Tore SkrøppaAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Venche Talgø G. Chastagner I. M. Thomsen T. Cech K. Riley K. Lange Sonja Klemsdal Arne StensvandAbstract
Current season needle necrosis (CSNN) has been a serious foliage disorder on true fir Christmas trees and bough material in Europe and North America for more than 25 y. Approximately 2-4 weeks after bud break, needles develop chlorotic spots or bands that later turn necrotic. The symptoms have been observed on noble fir (Abies procera), Nordmann fir (A. nordmanniana) and grand fir (A. grandis) on both continents. CSNN was reported as a physiological disorder with unknown aetiology from USA, Denmark, and Ireland, but was associated with the fungus Kabatina abietis in Germany, Austria and Norway. In 2007, a fungus that morphologically resembled K. abietis was isolated from symptomatic needle samples from Nordmann fir from Austria, Denmark, Germany, Norway, and USA. Sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of ribosomal DNA of these cultures, plus a K. abietis reference culture from Germany (CBS 248.93), resulted in Hormonema dematioides, the imperfect stage of Sydowia polyspora, and thus the taxonomy is further discussed. Inoculation tests on Nordmann fir seedlings and transplants with isolates of S. polyspora from all five countries resulted in the development of CSNN symptoms. In 2009, S. polyspora was also isolated from symptomatic needles from Nordmann fir collected in Slovakia. (c) 2010 The British Mycological Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Abstract
Tomato plants (Solanum lycopersicum, cv. Suzanne) were subjected to complete nutrient solution or a solution without nitrogen (N), and placed at different temperatures and light conditions to test the effects of environment on flavonoids and caffeoyl derivatives and related gene expression. N depletion during 4-8 days resulted in enhanced levels of flavonoids and caffeoyl derivatives. Anthocyanins showed pronounced increased levels when lowering the growth temperature from 24 degrees C to 18 degrees C or 12 degrees C. Flavonol levels increased when the light intensity was increased from 100 mu mol m(-2) s(-1) to 200 mu mol m(-2) s(-1) PAR. Synergistic effects of the various environmental factors were observed. The increase in content of quercetin derivatives in response to low temperatures was only found under conditions of N depletion, and especially at the higher light intensity. Expression of structural genes in the phenylpropanoid and flavonoid pathways, PAL (phenylalanine ammonia lyase), CHS (chalcone synthase), F3H (flavanone 3-hydroxylase), and FLS (flavonol synthase) increased in response to N depletion, in agreement with a corresponding increase in flavonoid and caffeoyl content. Expression of these structural genes generally also increased in response to lower temperatures. As indicated through expression studies and correlation analysis, effects of N depletion were apparently mediated through the overall regulators of the pathway the MYB transcription factor ANT1 (ANTHOCYANIN 1) and SlJAF13 (a bHLH transcription factor orthologue of petunia JAF13 and maize RED genes). A PAL gene (PAL6) was identified, and correlation analysis was compatible with PAL6 being an actively expressed gene with function in flavonoid synthesis. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Abstract
No abstract has been registered