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.
2007
Authors
Charles A. Francis Andrea Lawseth Alexandra English Paula Hesje A. McCann J. Wagner Wendy Marie Waalen Geir Lieblein Tor Arvid BrelandAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Charles A. Francis Andrea Lawseth Alexandra English Paula Hesje A. McCann J. Wagner Wendy Marie Waalen Geir Lieblein Tor Arvid BrelandAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Roald Sørheim John Eirik Paulsen Arild Saasen Jerome Leleux Arnaud Albouy Trond Knapp Haraldsen Per Anker Pedersen Thomas Hartnik Roar LinjordetAbstract
This paper presents the potential of composting oil wet drill cuttings as a drilling waste disposal option. The potential is substantiated by results from several laboratory and field experiments. Artificially oil wetted drill cuttings were prepared by adding commonly used base oils from Norwegian offshore operations to a representative clay. Degradation of the hydrocarbon components in the oily wet cuttings by vermicomposting was successfully accomplished. The composts were beneficially used as part of growing media for landscape plants; ryegrass, coniferous, and deciduous trees, and the fertilization effect was compared with commercial NPK fertilizers. The plant growth studies showed that the composts produced by treating artificial oily drill cuttings by vermicomposting had considerable fertilizing effect on ryegrass and trees.
Authors
Ragnhild Hafskjold Nærstad Arne Hermansen Tore BjorAbstract
Field trials in 1996, 1997 and 1998 with six potato cultivars differing in levels of foliar and tuber race-nonspecific resistance to late blight were treated with 100, 50 and 33% of the recommended dose of the fungicide fluazinam at application intervals of 7, 14 and 21 days. Using a mixed inoculum of six or seven indigenous isolates of Phytophthora infestans small potato plots were inoculated via infector plants. A foliar blight model for the relationship between the effects of resistance, fungicide application and disease pressure was developed using multiple regression analysis. Cultivars with a high level of quantitative resistance offered the greatest potential for fungicide reduction. The model showed that the effect of resistance on integrated control increased exponentially with increasing cultivar resistance. Reducing fungicide input by lowering the dose resulted in less foliar disease than extending application intervals. The higher the disease pressure, the greater the risk associated with reducing fungicide input by extension of application intervals. The field resistance of cultivars to tuber blight mainly determined the frequency of tuber infection. Exploiting high foliar resistance to reduce fungicide input carried a high risk when cultivar resistance to tuber blight was low. When field resistance to tuber blight was high, a medium level of resistance in the foliage could be exploited to reduce fungicide dose to c. 50%, provided application was at the right time. At a high level of field resistance to both foliar and tuber blight, application intervals could be extended.
Authors
Sanna Koutaniemi Tino Warinowski Anna Karkonen Edward Alatalo Carl Gunnar Fossdal Pekka Saranpaa Tapio Laakso Kurt V. Fagerstedt Liisa K. Simola Lars Paulin Stephen Rudd Teemu H. TeeriAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Sanna Koutaniemi Tino Warinowski Anna Kärkönen Edward Alatalo Carl Gunnar Fossdal Pekka Saranpää Tapio Laakso Kurt V. Fagerstedt Liisa K. Simola Lars Paulin Stephen Rudd Teemu H. TeeriAbstract
Abstract Lignin biosynthesis is a major carbon sink in gymnosperms and woody angiosperms. Many of the enzymes involved are encoded for by several genes, some of which are also related to the biosynthesis of other phenylpropanoids. In this study, we aimed at the identification of those gene family members that are responsible for developmental lignification in Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.). Gene expression across the whole lignin biosynthetic pathway was profiled using EST sequencing and quantitative real-time RT-PCR. Stress-induced lignification during bending stress and Heterobasidion annosum infection was also studied. Altogether 7,189 ESTs were sequenced from a lignin forming tissue culture and developing xylem of spruce, and clustered into 3,831 unigenes. Several paralogous genes were found for both monolignol biosynthetic and polymerisation-related enzymes. Realtime RT-PCR results highlighted the set of monolignol biosynthetic genes that are likely to be responsible for developmental lignification in Norway spruce. Potential genes for monolignol polymerisation were also identified. In compression wood, mostly the same monolignol biosynthetic gene set was expressed, but peroxidase expression differed from the vertically grown control. Pathogen infection in phloem resulted in a general upregulation of the monolignol biosynthetic pathway, and in an induction of a few new gene family members. Based on the up-regulation under both pathogen attack and in compression wood, PaPAL2, PaPX2 and PaPX3 appeared to have a general stress-induced function.
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
Urbanization and an increasingly globalized food system cause growing physical and psychological distances between producers and customers. Alternative distribution initiatives with direct sale to local customers are emerging. This paper reports results of two surveys, one from producers and one from customers, in the newly introduced Norwegian farmers market system. The main aim of the research was to examine attitudes toward local foods and evaluate the potential of this new marketing channel to reduce the distances between farmers and consumers. Results show that producers were more concerned than customers regarding knowledge on how food was produced, and locally marketed, although customers were also interested in these issues. Both groups regarded as to how food was produced to be more important than where it was produced. Producers were more interested in giving customers information on agriculture than customers were in receiving this information. The attitudes toward food differed between respondents of larger urban cities and smaller cities in Norway. Producers traveled a longer distance (average 79 km) than customers (average 14 km) to come to the markets, but traveling distance differed substantially among the sites owing to market location, number of local farmers and small-scale local processors, and product diversity. Results suggest that the farmers markets have potential to reduce both physical and social distances between producers and consumers, and thereby contribute to the sustainability of local food production. Understanding farmer and consumer attitudes can contribute to organization and promotion of farmers markets in Norway and elsewhere. doi:10.1300/J064v30n04_06.
Abstract
We present results from early tests and field trials of offspring from two Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) seed orchards containing clones that have been transferred from high altitudes to sea level and from northern to southern latitudes. Seedlings from seeds produced in the low-altitude seed orchard developed frost hardiness later at the end of the growth season, flushed later in field trials, and grew taller than seedlings from seeds produced in natural stands. They had the lowest mortality rate and the lowest frequency of injuries in the field trials. Similar results were observed in seedlings from seeds produced in the southern seed orchard. We found no adverse effects of the changed growth rhythm. Seedlings from two seed crops in the southern orchard, produced in years with a warm and a cold summer, had different annual growth rhythms. The results are explained mainly by the effects of the climatic conditions during the reproductive phase. Seed crops from different years in the same seed orchard may produce seedlings that perform as if they were from different provenances. It is argued that the effects of the climatic conditions during seed production must contribute to the variation among provenances of Norway spruce.
Authors
Mensur Vegara Thor S. Larsen Hans Magnus Gjøen Anders Kiessling Roger K. Abrahamsen Ole Hofstad Lars Helge Frivold Bal Ram Singh Roberto Garcia Geir-Harald Strand dag-ragnar blystad Åsmund AsdalAbstract
The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has been funding an NORWEGIAN SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE (SEE) PROGRAMME IN AGRICULTURE; ?Competence transfer and institutional contact and co-operation between faculties of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine in South Eastern Europe?, (2002 ?2005). The main objectives under this programme were: - To improve organising, content and quality of academic education and research in agriculture, veterinary medicine and forestry to meet with needs for qualified people in ongoing rebuilding after wars and to reach the general European level and standards. - Create functional and sustainable networks of regional institutions and professionals to support each other and cooperate for optimal use of limited available resources in the SEE region in a difficult rebuilding situation. The main activities were: - Research and development projects in the areas of animal sciences, crop and fodder production and use of GIS-methods in forestry and agriculture. - Support to development of staff and institutions in form of study stays, study material, covering of costs for laboratory analysis etc. related to M.Sc. and Ph.D. thesis work, guest lecturing and some equipment. - Support to reorientation of academic education in agriculture, forestry and veterinary medicine. - Support to regional networks, professional meetings, further development and use of the Programme web site and web-based teaching. The most important strategy in this Programme was to facilitate for institutional cooperation and network building between partners in the SEE area. Therefore a broad approach was chosen with a large number of partners (16) from all actual geographical areas in SEE - West Balkan - (Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia & Montenegro) and representing most of the different ethnical groups in the region. In 2004, Norway?s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) invited the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB), Noragric to present plans for a new, targeted programme on agriculture, forestry and veterinary medicine in the SEE/WB region. Noragric is UMB?s Department for International Environment and Development Studies. With its professional staff from several nations, Noragric plays active roles in national and international committees and networks, in advisory roles for NORAD and MFA, and in institutional collaboration with many partners throughout the world. Noragric brings together research, education and development-related assignments with a focus on developing countries and countries with economies in transition. Besides its role as the international gateway for UMB, Noragric also acts on behalf of the Norwegian College of Veterinary Medicine (NVH) and Norwegian Agricultural Research International (NARI), which form alliances with UMB. With more than 40 years of collaboration between UMB and academic and professional institutions in developing countries and in Eastern Europe, Noragric has established a broad network of worldwide contacts.