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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.

2025

Abstract

Intensification of forest management is seen as one important measure to increase carbon sequestration and contribute to balance CO2 emissions and mitigate climate change. Potential measures for forest management intensification include increasing the percentage of the area that is actively reforested after felling, planting at higher densities and with genetically improved material, nitrogen fertilization, and pre-commercial thinning. Here we assessed the mitigation potential of these practices in Norwegian forests from 2018 until the end of the 21st century. As a result, when these management practices were intensified, separately and simultaneously, carbon sequestration over the 80-year simulation period was larger than under current practices. Pre-commercial thinning gave the largest additional 80-year carbon dioxide removal increment and fertilization the smallest. The largest accumulated carbon dioxide removal potential occurred when intensifying all the proposed measures in one scenario and was estimated to be around 329.9 Tg CO2 by the end of the century, corresponding to offset more than six times Norway's total GHG emissions in 2022. If the intensification of these practices is considered separately, our results suggested that pre-commercial thinning and active reforestation after felling, in that order, should be prioritized as climate change mitigation measures, followed by genetic improvement, planting density and fertilization.

Abstract

Since the 1950s, the use of plastics in agriculture has helped solving many challenges related to food production, while its persistence and mismanagement has led to the plastic pollution we face today. A variety of biodegradable plastic products have thus been marketed, with the aim to solve plastic pollution through complete degradation after use. But the environmental conditions for rapid and complete degradation are not necessarily fulfilled, and the possibility that biodegradable plastics may also contribute to plastic pollution must be evaluated. A two-year field experiment with biodegradable mulches (BDMs) based on polybutylene adipate terephthalate (PBAT/starch and PBAT/polylactic acid) buried in several agricultural soils in mesh bags showed that also under colder climatic conditions does degradation occur, involving fragmentation after two months and depolymerization by hydrolysis, as shown by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. The phytopathogenic fungus Rhizoctonia solani was found to be associated with BDM degradation, and the formation of biodegradable microplastics was observed throughout the experimental period. Between 52 and 93 % of the original BDM mass was recovered after two years, suggesting that accumulation is likely to happen in cold climatic regions when BDM is repeatedly used every year. Mass loss followed negative quadratic functions, implying increasing mass loss rates over time. Despite the range of climatic and edaphic factors, with various agricultural practices and vegetable productions at the study locations, the parameters that significantly favored in situ BDM degradation were higher soil organic matter content and temperatures.