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.
2010
Authors
Peder GjerdrumAbstract
Building, maintaining and operating drying kilns is a heavy economic burden for most sawmills. As a consequence, drying capacity is often a bottleneck. Kilns are generally operated 24 h a day, 7 days a week, so there is no spare time to increase the production. Good planning routines are a prerequisite for short as well as long term operational planning. Most established sawmills have a mixture of batch and progressive kilns, some older, possibly upgraded, others more modern. This offers some flexibility in choosing the right kiln for drying a timber lot of defined quality, but also represents operational challenges. Through the years working in and for the sawmill industry, a spreadsheet model tool was made for analysing kiln capacity. The model is put together to examine the available-to-needed capacity balance in each of thirteen four-week periods of a year. Input values are information about the drying kilns and their operations, the sawmill production plans and the requested drying quality. Capacity is given in volume-hours (calculated in the same way as man-hours). The operational plans, i.e. the input values, can and should be adjusted until a reasonable balance for all periods, summed up in a graph, is achieved. A description of the model with a specified sawmill example will be given, illustrating the process from the initial stage to the final plans.
Authors
Igor A. Yakovlev Carl Gunnar Fossdal Øystein JohnsenAbstract
The temperature level experienced during zygotic embryogenesis in the conifer Norway spruce effects an epigenetic memory and vital phenological traits in the progeny (Kvaalen & Johnsen, 2008). MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous small RNAs having large-scale regulatory effects on plant development and could participate in epigenetic regulation of expression in plants. To unravel the possible molecular mechanisms behind this epigenetic phenomenon we prepared two concatemerized small RNA libraries representing smallRNAs expressed in plants from seeds obtained after embryogenesis in cold environment and in a warm environment and made a search of conserved miRNAs found in other plant species. Partial sequencing of the libraries allowed identifying of 199 different small RNAs, with predominant length of 21-nt. Among them were 24 novel candidate miRNAs and 4 conserved. Screening of conserved miRNAs allowed confirming additional 17 miRNAs belonged to 11 miRNA families. Most of the miRNA obtained were related to unknown and “no-hit” genes. The expression of 8 conserved miRNAs (pab-miR156c, 159a, 396a,b, 535, 947, 951 and 858) and 9 predicted miRNAs (miR080, 100, 105, 119, 122, 132, 144a,b and 157) showed significant differences in transcript levels between epigenetically distinct plants. Additionally we confirmed that four selected genes PaLPT4, PaGaMYB, PaMYB10 and PaSPB13 regulated by miRNAs pab-miR100, 858, 159a and 156c, may also be involved in epigenetic memory regulation. Our results suggest that Norway spruce miRNAs are composed of a set of conserved miRNAs and a large proportion of novel non-conserved miRNAs with relatively low expression levels. These findings imply that both kinds of miRNAs might be involved or at least affected by the molecular mechanisms underlying the temperature sensitive epigenetic memory in Norway spruce.
Abstract
We investigated concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in throughfall and soil solutions at 5, 15 and 40 cm depth in 16 Norway spruce and 2 Scots pine plots throughout Norway between 1996 and 2006. Average DOC concentrations ranged from 2.3 mg/l to 23.1 mg/l and from 1.1 mg/l to 53.5 mg/l in throughfall water and soil solutions, respectively. Concentrations of DOC in throughfall and soil waters varied seasonally at most plots with peaks in the growing season. By contrast to recently reported positive long-term trends in DOC concentrations in surface waters between 1986 and 2003, soil water data from 1996 to 2006 showed largely negative trends in DOC concentrations and no significant trends in throughfall. However, regression analysis for individual sites, particularly at 5 and 15 cm soil depths, showed that DOC concentrations in soil water were significantly and negatively related to non-marine sulphate (SO4) and chloride (Cl-). The lack of a long-term increase in DOC in soil water in the period May 1996 – December, 2006 may be due to the relatively small changes in the deposition of SO4 and Cl- in this period.
Authors
Hans Haavardsholm Blom Louise LindblomAbstract
Degelia cyanoloma (Schaer.) H.H. Blom & L. Lindblom is resurrected from synonymy and elevated from varietal rank to species. The taxon was earlier referred to D. plumbea (Lightf.) P.M. Jørg. & P. James, however, several discontinuous character states distinguish the two species. Degelia cyanoloma is characterized morphologically by having a large thallus that is pale greyish when dry, lobes that are composed of consecutive trough-shaped segments with an upper surface without squamules, no isidia or soredia, and apothecia discs that are dark reddish brown to blackish. Degelia cyanoloma has a euoceanic distribution and is known from western Europe (Norway, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Portugal, Spain). Based on results from studies of morphology, we hypothesize that D. atlantica (Degel.) P.M. Jørg. & P. James is the closest relative of D. cyanoloma among the European species of the genus whereas D. plumbea is closely related to D. ligulata P.M. Jørg. & P. James.
Abstract
Competition for canopy space is a fundamental structuring feature of forest ecosystems and remains an enduring focus of research attention. We used a spatial neighborhood approach to quantify the influence of local competition on the size of individual tree crowns in north-central British Columbia, where forests are dominated by subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa), lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) and interior spruce (Picea glaucax engelmanii).Using maximum likelihood methods, we quantified crown radius and length as functions of tree size and competition, estimated by the species identity and spatial arrangement of neighboring trees.Tree crown size depended on tree bole size in all species. Given low levels of competition, pine displayed the widest, shortest tree crowns compared to the relatively long and narrow crowns found in spruce and fir. Sensitivity to crowding by neighbors declined with increasing tree height in all but the pine crown radius model. Five of the six selected best models included separate competition coefficients for each neighboring tree species, evidence that species generally differ in their competitive effects on neighboring tree crowns.The selected crown radius model for lodgepole pine, a shade-intolerant species, treated all neighbors as equivalent competitors. In all species, competition from neighbors exerted an important influence on crown size. Per-capita effects of competition across different sizes and species of neighbors and target trees varied, but subalpine fir generally displayed the strongest competitive effects on neighbors.Results from this study provide evidence that species differ both in their response to competition and in their competitive influence on neighbors, factors that may contribute to maintaining coexistence.
Abstract
In European forests, standing stocks are currently higher than ever during the last decades, in part due to reduced logging or the abandonment of agricultural land. However, data from intensive monitoring plots reveal an increased growth even without direct human intervention.We used a set of 363 plots from 16 European countries to investigate the influence of environmental factors on forest growth: nitrogen, sulphur and acid deposition, temperature, precipitation and drought, for Norway spruce, Scots pine, common beech and European as well as sessile oak.We used existing information on site productivity, stand age and stand density to estimate expected growth. Relative tree growth, i.e., the ratio between actual growth within a five-year period and expected growth, was then related to environmental factors in a stepwise multiple regression.The results consistently indicate a fertilizing effect from nitrogen deposition, with roughly one percent increase in site productivity per kg of nitrogen deposition per ha and year, or 20 kg C fixation per kg N deposition. This was most pronounced for plots having soil C/N ratios above 25. We also found a positive albeit less clear relationship between relative growth and summer temperatures.From the study, we cannot conclude on any detrimental effects on growth from sulphur and acid deposition or from drought periods. A very recent study from the U.S., comprising 4800 plots and 24 tree species, confirms our results. However, we also show that the magnitude of N deposition effects on global forest C balance is currently a highly controversial matter, and comment on this debate. http://www.cef-cfr.ca/uploads/Colloque/Programme10_5.pdf
Authors
Svein Solberg Rasmus Astrup Dan Johan Weydahl Erik Næsset Terje Gobakken Ole Martin BollandsåsAbstract
There is an increasing need for forest resource monitoring methods, as more attention is paid to deforestation, bio-energy and forests as habitats. Most national forest inventories are based on networks of field inventory plots, sometimes together with satellite data, and airborne laser scanning (ALS) is increasingly used for local forest mapping. These methods are expensive to establish or carry out, and many countries, including some severely affected by deforestation, do not apply such methods.Satellite based remote sensing methods in use today are hampered by problems caused by clouds and saturation at moderate biomass levels. Satellite SAR is not hampered by cloud problems, and monitoring of canopy surface elevation, which is correlated to key forest resource variables, might be a future method in forest monitoring.We here present the main findings of three studies (Solberg et al. 2010, a, b, c) investigating the potential of interferometric SAR (InSAR) for forest monitoring, by describing the relationship between InSAR height above ground and key forest variables. We based this study on InSAR data from the Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) with its acquisition in February 2000. We obtained SRTM InSAR DEM data from DLR for two forest areas in Norway, and built a ground-truth from the combination of field inventory and ALS.The forest areas were dominated by Norway spruce and Scots pine. In each forest area we laid out a number of field inventory plots, where we recorded standard forest variables such as Dbh and tree height, and from this derived plot aggregated variables of top height, mean height, stand density (mean tree height divided by the mean tree spacing), volume and biomass. We used this to calibrate and validate ALS based models, from which we derived estimates of the same variables for each SRTM pixel. This served as reference data for the SRTM data.From the X-band SRTM digital surface model (DSM) image we subtracted a high quality digital terrain model (DTM) derived from the ALS data. This was based on an extraction of ground echoes from the data provider, and the elevations of these echoes were interpolated into a grid fitting the SRTM grid.This produced data on the RADAR echo height above ground (InSAR height), which we related to the forest variables. With digital stand maps we aggregated the variables to the stand level. The X-band microwaves penetrate a little into the canopy, and the InSAR height was on average about 1.2 m below the mean tree height. InSAR height was strongly related to all forest variables, most strongly to top height.Particularly valuable was that stem volume and biomass, ranging up to 400 m3/ha and 200 t/ha, respectively, were linearly related to InSAR height with an accuracy, RMSE, of 19% at the stand level. However, these relationships had an intercept, which represents the microwave penetration into the vegetation, and due to this the relationships were non-linear for forest stands having heights and biomass values close to zero.With a lower quality DTM derived from topographic maps, the relationships were weaker. However, as long as a forest variable is within the ranges of the linear relationship, any change in InSAR elevation would be proportional to a change in forest height, volume or biomass. And, any logging should be detectable as a sudden decrease in InSAR elevation.Hence, a forest monitoring based on X-band InSAR might be suitable even without a DTM. An application of space borne InSAR for forest monitoring would be feasible for large areas at low cost, whereas an ALS acquisition for a part of the area would serve as reference data for calibration.
Authors
Igor A. Yakovlev Ari M. Hietala Pierre-Emmanuel Courty Francis Martin Jan Stenlid Halvor Solheim Carl Gunnar FossdalAbstract
The genome H. annosum s.l. was sequenced by JGI to a 8.23X coverage and assembled into 39 scaffolds with a total size of 33.7 Mb covering more than 98% of the whole genome. Based of genome sequence we annotated a number of genes for fungal enzymes that are believed to participate in lignin degradation, including: laccases (Lcc18 genes), manganese peroxidases (MnP8 genes) and hydrogen peroxide forming enzymes such as glyoxal oxidases (GLOX5 genes), quinone oxidoreductases (QOR17 genes) and aryl alcohol oxidases (AAO16 genes), which is in concordance with these gene family sizes observed in other sequenced white-rot fungi. We studied the genomic organisation and phylogeny of these genes as well as their expression using NimbleGen arrays and qRT-PCR. Transcript profiling using whole-genome oligo arrays and qRT-PCR revealed that some transcripts were very abundant in lignin-rich media (Lcc5 15, MnP2, GLOX4, QOR2 10, AAO9), in cellulose-rich media (lcc2, 7 16, MnP3 4, GLOX3, QOR4 6, AAO2, 7 10), in wood (Lcc3, MnP4, QOR2, GLOX1, AAO10) or in the free-living mycelium grown liquid culture (Lcc1, 3, 10 13), suggesting specific functions of these genes, which need to be studied further.
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Tor J. JohansenAbstract
No abstract has been registered