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
Authors
Wendy Marie Waalen Karen K. Tanino Jorunn Elisabeth Olsen Ragnar Eltun Odd Arne Rognli Lawrence V. GustaAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
Along the succession gradient of the boreal forest ecosystem, black grouse Tetrao tetrix inhabits the early and capercaillie Tetrao urogallus the latest stages. When converting old forest to clearcuts and plantations, commercial forestry has therefore been assumed to affect capercaillie negatively and to be favourable to black grouse. During a 30-year period (1979–2008) we monitored sympatric populations of the two species in a forest in southeast Norway based on annual spring and autumn censuses and radio-marked birds. During this period, the proportion of old, semi-natural forest was halved and clearcuts and young plantations increased accordingly. The grouse populations did not change as predicted. While the trend in August numbers of adult black grouse declined, males more than females, abundance of adult capercaillie remained unchanged. Number of males at leks showed similar patterns. Equally surprising, breeding success (number of chicks per female in August) of both species increased, thus indicating that the populations were regulated more by variation in adult survivorship than by recruitment of young birds. No correlations were found with changing climatic factors (precipitation and temperatures in winter and spring, snow depth and time of snow melt), except that year-to-year breeding success was positively correlated with minimum temperatures during 2 weeks posthatch. The results are explained by a combination of more flexible habitat selection than previously assumed and a changing predator regime: In the early period, nearly all capercaillie leks were located in old, semi-natural forest, but as plantations grew older (>30 years), new leks were established there. Similarly, while young capercaillie broods used old semi-natural forest almost exclusively when the study started, they frequently used middle-aged plantations, especially those with a ground cover of bilberry Vaccinium myrtillus, when these became common in later years. The increasing breeding success could largely be explained by more females rearing chicks successfully, presumably due to a marked decline in the main nest predator, the red fox Vulpes vulpes. A practice of thinning of the old, semi-natural forest some years prior to final harvesting probably facilitated predation of black grouse by goshawks Accipiter gentilis. Contrary to many beliefs, our results indicate that both capercaillie and black grouse are quite tolerant to changes in forest management regimes. In our study, numerical and functional responses of predators (mainly red fox and goshawk) apparently played a more important role in regulating grouse numbers than habitat factors per se.
Authors
Robin Engler Christophe E. Randin Wilfred Thuiller Stefan Dullinger Niklaus E Zimmermann Miguel B. Araujo Peter B. Pearman Gwenaëlle Le Lay Christian Piedallu Cécile H. Albert Philippe Choler Georghe Coldea Xavier De Lamo Thomas Dirnböck Jean-Claude Gegout Daniel Gómez-García John-Arvid Grytnes Einar Heegaard Fride Høistad Schei David Nogues-Bravo Signe Normand Mihai Puscas Maria Teresa Sebastia Angela Stanisci Jean-Philippe Theurillat Mandar R. Trivedi Pascal Vittoz Antoine GuisanAbstract
Continental-scale assessments of 21st century global impacts of climate change on biodiversity have forecasted range contractions for many species. These coarse resolution studies are, however, of limited relevance for projecting risks to biodiversity in mountain systems, where pronounced microclimatic variation could allow species to persist locally, and are ill-suited for assessment of species-specific threat in particular regions. Here, we assess the impacts of climate change on 2632 plant species across all major European mountain ranges, using high-resolution (ca. 100 m) species samples and data expressing four future climate scenarios. Projected habitat loss is greater for species distributed at higher elevations; depending on the climate scenario, we find 36–55% of alpine species, 31–51% of subalpine species and 19–46% of montane species lose more than 80% of their suitable habitat by 2070–2100. While our high-resolution analyses consistently indicate marked levels of threat to cold-adapted mountain florae across Europe, they also reveal unequal distribution of this threat across the various mountain ranges. Impacts on florae from regions projected to undergo increased warming accompanied by decreased precipitation, such as the Pyrenees and the Eastern Austrian Alps, will likely be greater than on florae in regions where the increase in temperature is less pronounced and rainfall increases concomitantly, such as in the Norwegian Scandes and the Scottish Highlands. This suggests that change in precipitation, not only warming, plays an important role in determining the potential impacts of climate change on vegetation.
Authors
Louise R. Cooke Huub T.A.M. Schepers Arne Hermansen Ruairidh A. Bain Nick J. Bradshaw Faye Ritchie David S. Shaw Albartus Evenhuis Geert J.T. Kessel Johan G.N. Wander Björn Andersson Jens Grønbech Hansen Asko Hannukkala Ragnhild Nærstad Bent J. NielsenAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Bernt HoelAbstract
No abstract has been registered
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No abstract has been registered
Authors
Gudbrand Lien J. Brian Hardaker M.A.P.M. van Asseldonk James RichardsonAbstract
No abstract has been registered
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No abstract has been registered
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
submittedVersion This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: Use of Multi-Criteria Involvement Processes to Enhance Transparency and Stakeholder Participation at Bergen Harbour, Norway, which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ieam.182/full. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.