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.
2008
Abstract
Recent in situ 13C studies suggest that lignin is not stabilised in soil in its polymerised form. However, the fate of its transformation products remains unknown. The objective of the present research was to provide the first comprehensive picture of the fate of lignin-derived C across its transformations processes: (1) C remaining as undecomposed lignin molecules, (2) C in newly formed humic substances, i.e. no longer identifiable as lignin-polymer C, (3) C in microbial biomass, (4) C mineralised as CO2, and (5) dissolved organic C. To achieve this objective, we designed an incubation experiment with 13C-labelled lignin where both elementary and molecular techniques were applied. Lignin was isolated from 13C labelled maize plants (13C-MMEL) and incubated in an agricultural soil for 44 weeks. Carbon mineralisation and stable isotope composition of the released CO2 were monitored throughout the incubation. Microbial utilisation of 13C-MMEL was measured seven times during the experiment. The turnover rate of the lignin polymer was assessed by 13C analysis of CuO oxidation products of soil lignin molecules. After 44 incubation weeks, 6.0% of initial 13C-MMEL carbon was mineralised, 0.8% was contained in the microbial biomass, and 0.1% was contained in dissolved organic C form. The compound-specific 13C data suggest that the remaining 93% were overwhelmingly in the form of untransformed lignin polymer. However, limited transformation into other humic substances potentially occurred, but could not be quantified because the yield of the CuO oxidation method proved somewhat variable with incubation time. The initial bacterial growth yield efficiency for MMEL was 31% and rapidly decreased to plateau of 8%. A two-pool first-order kinetics model suggested that the vast majority (97%) of MMEL lignin had a turnover time of about 25 years, which is similar to field-estimated turnover times for soil-extractable lignin but much longer than estimated turnover times for fresh plant-residue lignin. We conclude that natural lignin structures isolated from plants are rather unreactive in soil, either due to the lack of easily available organic matter for co-metabolism or due to enhanced adsorption properties. The data also suggest that fairly undecomposed lignin structures are the main reservoir of lignin-derived C in soils.
Authors
Toril Eklo Trond HofsvangAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
The environmental control of flowering in the perpetual-flowering (everbearing) diploid strawberry Fragaria vesca ssp. semperflorens cultivars 'Rugen' and 'Baron Solemacher' has been studied in controlled environments. Seed-propagated plants were exposed to 10-h short-day (SD) and 24-h long-day (LD) conditions at temperatures ranging from 9 degrees - 27 degrees C. The results revealed a quantitative LD response of flowering that increased in strength with increasing temperature, to become almost obligatory at 27 degrees C. Occasional runner formation was observed in SD at high temperature, conditions which were inhibitory to flowering, demonstrating that runnering ability is not completely lost in these genotypes. A comparison with the perpetual-flowering octoploid F X ananassa 'Elan', in one experiment, demonstrated an identical LD X temperature interaction in the two species. The results are discussed in relation to available information on the genetics of flowering habits in the two species. Since seasonal flowering types of F vesca and E X ananassa have also been shown to share a principally identical flowering response, controlled by SD and low temperature, it is concluded that a remarkably similar flowering control system is present in the diploid F vesca and the octoploid F. X ananassa. Despite the large genetic differences between the two species, and regardless of the origin of the cultivars, the seasonal flowering types are all SD plants, while their perpetual-flowering counterparts all appear to be LD plants. In both cases, there is a pronounced interaction with temperature; the photoperiodic responses increasing with increasing temperature, in both cases. This raises the question whether a common genetic flowering control system is present in both species.
Authors
Erik LarnøyAbstract
To evaluate the decay resistance of wood, treated or untreated, for hazard classes 3, 4 and 5, the mass loss due to fungal exposure needs to be calculated. The standards for calculating mass loss in wooden test samples (i.e EN 113 and ENV 807) require that the samples used in the test are pre-dried to 0 % moisture content, m0, for determination of the initial dry mass. The standards describe that the samples should be dried at 103±2°C for 18 hours. When drying wood samples to 103 °C the samples are altered. Literature describes that extractives are influenced at temperatures as low as 60 °C, and redistribution and/or evaporation of these, will change the characteristics of the wood samples...
Abstract
The relationships between measures of forest structure as derived from airborne laser scanner data and the variation in quantity (Q) and vitality (V) of young trees in a size-diverse spruce forest were analyzed. A regeneration success rate (Q), leader length (V), relative leader length (V), and apical dominance ratio (V) were regressed against 27 different laser-derived explanatory variables representing three different spatial scales. The resulting 81 different models for each response variable were ranked according to their Akaike information criterion score and significance level. Each laser variable was then associated with four categories. These were scale, return, fraction, and type. Within the scale category, laser variables were grouped according to the spatial scale from which they originated. Similarly, within the return, fraction, and type categories, the variables were grouped according to if they originated from first or last return echoes; if they originated from lower, middle, or upper fraction of the range of laser heights or values derived from the full range of laser pulses, and if they were canopy height or canopy density metrics. The results show that the laser variables were strongest correlated with the quantity of small trees and that these variables could be attributed to large-scale, last return, lower fraction, and density metrics. The correlations with the vitality responses were weaker, but the results indicate that variables derived from a smaller scale than for the quantity were better in order to explain variation in leader length, relative leader length, and apical dominance ratio. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
We investigated whether the stand age affects the life span of tree and understory fine roots (<1mm) in three Norway spruce (Picea abies) stands: 30, 60 and 120-yr-old. In each stand 9 minirhizotrons were installed and images were collected once in a month throughout the growing season during the three years. Norway spruce fine roots in the 30-yr old stand had a life span 401 ± 27 and 341 ± 68 days, and understory 409 ± 162 and 349 ± 142 days, estimated by using the Kaplan Meier survival analysis (KM) and Weibull distribution, respectively...
Authors
Peder GjerdrumAbstract
Moisture content, volatile in nature, is an important trait for any timber customer. Commercial board samples were observed to yield formulas for EMC reduction by kiln temperature, for hysteresis by board length, and for MC sorption dynamics by temperature. Industrial kiln practice lowers the EMC to approximately 95% of tabulated values. In this work, hysteresis was verified, and the most significant impact in natural ambient is that moisture migration to the board center appears to catch up with surface adsorption, reducing the influence of temperature and surface resistance. A concluding procedure for estimating MC dynamics for timber boards on stickers is outlined.
Authors
Peder Gjerdrum Olav Albert HøibøAbstract
A huge effort has been put into modelling wood quality the last few decades. Predicting knot size has been the centre of interest, either for timber quality, for tree growth models, or related purposes. The main objective of this paper is to analyse the stochastic features connected to knot distribution inside the three-dimensional volume of a tree\"s trunk. Four large Alpine spruce trees were sampled; age 150 years, DBH 30 to 70 cm, total volume 14.5 m3. To open a possibly large part of the stems, they were cross-cut to 31 logs and sawn to 193 unedged boards. On each unique board surface all perceptible knots were observed and localised in polar coordinates; origin in the stem base, along the pith and in the north direction. A total of 6200 knot intersections were observed in the 283 m2 sawn surfaces; however, most knots were observed several times in consecutive sawn surfaces. In order to obtain stationary variable, knot size was transformed by dividing by the square root of radial distance, and radial distance was transformed by dividing by log radius at the given location. Relative size, knot quality and spatial distribution were largely random and not correlated to each other in a tree. Thus, knots demonstrate a double nature, one part obeying the physiological laws, and another part stochastic.