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
Marte Meland Celine ReboursAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Marte Meland Celine ReboursAbstract
The algae industry in Norway has long tradition in exploiting natural resources. The seaweed constitute an important part of the ecosystem and are of important commercial value. This article describes the established seaweed industry in Norway.
Authors
Carl Gunnar Fossdal Nadeem Yaqoob Benedicte Riber Albrectsen Halvor SolheimAbstract
Aspen trees are exposed to a range of attackers and employ varied strategies to reduce their impact. The diversity of responses may have importance for resistance properties at the stand level, and justifies the search for varied defensive strategies in natural populations. We used transcriptomic tools to evaluate diverse responses at the gene activity level in Populus tremula in response to wounding, and to inoculation with two pathogenic fungi (Melampsora magnusiana vs Ceratocystis sp.) that differ in life style (biotroph vs necrotroph) and host tissue requirement (live leaf vs dead wood tissues). Two aspen genotypes from the SwAsp collection with differences in growth and phenolic composition were used to study differences in resistance properties. High defence gene induction, high growth and elevated defence properties toward the biotroph appeared to support each other in this study exemplified in the more resistant SwAsp clone, whereas the more susceptible SwAsp clone was much less responsive to infections, and displayed more symptoms when infected with M. magnusiana. Interestingly, in the more resistant clone wounding gave greater systemic activity of selected candidate genes than when combined with the necrotroph, suggesting that this pathogen has some ability to suppress the induction or translocation of the systemic defence signal in this particular clone.
Authors
Ragnhild NærstadAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
Climate and weather variability affect agricultural crop production. The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is the variation in air pressure difference in the northern Atlantic Ocean. A positive NAO index with higher than normal air pressure near the Azores and lower than normal near Iceland results in warm and wet winters in northwestern Europe. A negative NAO index gives opposite climatic effects in this region. We determined the effect of the NAO on the risk of frost injury in winter wheat for conditions that represent northwestern Europe by applying the FROSTOL model to dynamically simulate hardening, de-hardening and other physiological processes determining frost tolerance and frost injury in winter wheat. This model uses soil surface temperature and snow cover as driving variables. In total, 53 winter seasons from 1957-58 to 2009-10 were simulated to account for historical trends and variations in the NAO. Monthly and seasonal mean NAO indices for all years within this period were categorised into positive, neutral or negative phases. The winter wheat simulations included 3 locations in Norway (Apelsvoll, ås and Kvithamar), 2 wheat frost tolerance types and 3 planting dates. The results showed that negative NAO phases, especially in February and March, increased the risk of frost injury in winter wheat. The risk of frost injury was higher at Apelsvoll and ås than at Kvithamar, especially in negative NAO phases or after early planting. The results obtained can be used to design crop management practices and systems with higher production security.
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Jihong Liu ClarkeAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
The Norwegian National Forest Inventory (NNFI) provides estimates of forest parameters on national and regional scales by means of a systematic network of permanent sample plots. One of the biggest challenges for the NNFI is the interest in forest attribute information for small sub-populations such as municipalities or protected areas. Frequently, too few sampled observations are available for such small areas to allow estimates with acceptable precision. However, if an auxiliary variable exists that is correlated with the variable of interest, small area estimation (SAE) techniques may provide means to improve the precision of estimates. The study aimed at estimating the mean above-ground forest biomass for small areas with high precision and accuracy, using SAE techniques. For this purpose, the simple random sampling (SRS) estimator, the generalized regression (GREG) estimator, and the unit-level empirical best linear unbiased prediction (EBLUP) estimator were compared. Mean canopy height obtained from a photogrammetric canopy height model (CHM) was the auxiliary variable available for every population element. The small areas were 14 municipalities within a 2,184 km2 study area for which an estimate of the mean forest biomass was sought. The municipalities were between 31 and 527 km2 and contained 1–35 NNFI sample plots located within forest. The mean canopy height obtained from the CHM was found to have a strong linear correlation with forest biomass. Both the SRS estimator and the GREG estimator result in unstable estimates if they are based on too few observations. Although this is not the case for the EBLUP estimator, the estimators were only compared for municipalities with more than five sample plots. The SRS resulted in the highest standard errors in all municipalities. Whereas the GREG and EBLUP standard errors were similar for small areas with many sample plots, the EBLUP standard error was usually smaller than the GREG standard error. The difference between the EBLUP and GREG standard error increased with a decreasing number of sample plots within the small area. The EBLUP estimates of mean forest biomass within the municipalities ranged between 95.01 and 153.76 Mg ha−1, with standard errors between 8.20 and 12.84 Mg ha−1.