Hopp til hovedinnholdet

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.

2011

Abstract

The centennial volume of this journal provides a fitting time to stop and reflect. Do we know where we are heading? Are we progressing in the right direction? Having studied landscape change for some years, we have seen the tremendous power of engagement that can be found in landscapes. Landscape is a theme that most people easily relate to. At the same time, landscape research has provided many appropriate tools for documenting landscape change and the effects of change. Yet in spite of public engagement and scientific knowledge, we still find many examples of negative landscape developments. In this paper we reflect on the applications of landscape research and the issue of communicating scientific findings to policy, management, landowners and the general public. Do we need a greater focus on communication to achieve sustainable landscape development?

To document

Abstract

Frequent bark beetle outbreaks cause biome-scale impacts in boreal and temperate forests worldwide. Despite frequent interceptions at ports of entry, the most aggressive bark beetle species of Ips and Dendroctonus in North America and Eurasia have failed to establish outside their original home continents. Our experiments showed that Ips typographus can breed in six North American spruce species: Engelmann spruce, white spruce¸ Sitka spruce, Lutz spruce, black spruce and red spruce. This suggests that differences between the Eurasian historical host and North American spruce species are not an insurmountable barrier to establishment of this tree-killing species in North America. However, slightly diminished quality of offspring beetles emerged from the North American spruces could reduce the chance of establishment through an Allee effect. The probabilistic nature of invasion dynamics suggests that successful establishments can occur when the import practice allows frequent arrivals of non-indigenous bark beetles (increased propagule load). Model simulations of hypothetical interactions of Dendroctonus rufipennis and I. typographus indicated that inter-species facilitations could result in more frequent and severe outbreaks than those caused by I. typographus alone. The potential effects of such new dynamics on coniferous ecosystems may be dramatic and extensive, including major shifts in forest structure and species composition, increased carbon emissions and stream flow, direct and indirect impacts on wildlife and invertebrate communities, and loss of biodiversity.

To document

Abstract

We examine the origins and outcome of entrepreneurship on the basis of exceptionally comprehensive Norwegian matched worker–firm–owner data. In contrast to most existing studies, our notion of entrepreneurship not only comprises self-employment, but also employment in partly self-owned limited liability companies. Based on this extended entrepreneurship concept, we find that entrepreneurship tends to be profitable. It also raises income variability, but the most successful quartile gains much more than the least successful quartile loses. Key determinants of the decision to become an entrepreneur are occupational qualifications, family resources, gender, and work environments. Individual unemployment encourages, while aggregate unemployment discourages, entrepreneurship.

To document

Abstract

Globally, soil organic matter (SOM) contains more than three times as much carbon as either the atmosphere or terrestrial vegetation. Yet it remains largely unknown why some SOM persists for millennia whereas other SOM decomposes readily—and this limits our ability to predict how soils will respond to climate change. Recent analytical and experimental advances have demonstrated that molecular structure alone does not control SOM stability: in fact, environmental and biological controls predominate. Here we propose ways to include this understanding in a new generation of experiments and soil carbon models, thereby improving predictions of the SOM response to global warming.

To document

Abstract

Gene expression levels (PAL, CCR1, HCT1, and CAD for the phenylpropanoid pathway, PX3 peroxidase, and CHI4 class IV chitinase), lignin, and soluble and cell wall bound phenolic compounds in bark and sapwood of Picea sitchensis clones inoculated with Heterobasidion annosum s.s. were compared before and 3 days after wounding and artificial inoculation, at site of inoculation and 1 cm above the inoculation site. In bark all genes were up-regulated at the site of inoculation but, except for CAD, not in the distal zone. In sapwood all genes were down-regulated, except for PX3 and CHI4; PAL, CCR1, HCT1 and CAD were present at lower levels around the inoculation site than in the distal zone. Compared to wounding only, inoculation with H. annosum triggered different CAD, PX3, and CHI4 levels in bark but not in sapwood. Different concentrations of cell wall bound phenolic compounds (unknown2, unknown3, coniferin, astringin, taxifolin, piceid, and isorhapontin) were found in bark after wounding and inoculation compared to constitutive material (i.e. untreated samples), whereas in sapwood concentrations did not differ following treatment. These results indicate that bark of Sitka spruce has a stronger and earlier response to wounding and pathogen inoculation than sapwood.