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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.

2003

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Abstract

Establishment, survival and height growth of sown and naturally regenerated Picea abies (L.) Karst. seedlings were examined in a 6 yr period in eight stands on bilberry woodland in south- east Norway. Five harvesting treatments (shelterwoods of high, medium and low density, 253/25 m patch-cut, 503/50 m clear-cut) and three scarification alternatives (unscarified, patch scarification, inverting) were combined in a split-plot design. Establishment, survival and plant height after 6 yrs were positively affected by scarification. Significant differences between patch scarification and inverting were not observed, although mortality tended to be lower, and seedlings slightly taller, after patch scarification. Establishment after natural seedfall was least successful on the clear-cut, but more or less equal at the other stand treatments. Height growth increased with decreasing overstorey retention, while there was a tendency towards lower survival on the clear-cuts and patch-cuts. Natural regeneration in the unscarified plots was unsuccessful after 6 yrs, while the different combinations of harvesting and scarification treatments usually gave sufficient regeneration.

Abstract

Phytoremediation as a means of cleaning up polluted soils has gained popularity during the last decade due to its convenience and low costs of installation and maintenance. When the target pollutant is biodegradable, this technology exploits the stimulating effect that roots have on microbial processes and physical/chemical modifications in the rhizosphere.Among the microorganisms that affect rhizosphere processes, symbiotic fungi forming mycorrhizas induce a series of changes in plant physiology, nutrient availability and microbial composition that may determine the outcome of a phytoremediation attempt. Beyond the rhizosphere, mycorrhizal hyphae act as the roots of the roots, and may thus extend the rhizosphere into the bulk soil by creating a new interface of soil-plant interactions: the hyphosphere.We here discuss some of the recent results on phytoremediation of organic pollutants with emphasis on processes in the mycorrhizosphere, and highlight future research priorities

Abstract

Det har vært omfattende angrep i the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve, Belize, av barkbiller. Denne undersøkelsen viser at angrepene skyldes en ukjendt barbilleart med rask utviklingstid og meget rask spredning. Totalt ble 80% av reservatet angrepet før det ble stoppet. Metoder for overvåking og bekjempelse er beskrevet på engelsk og spansk. During the years from 1998 to 2002, heavy attacks by an unknown bark beetle species occurred in the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve, Belize. The species is described in this publication, and methods for monitoring and control of this, and related species, is described in English and Spanish.

Abstract

Previous studies point at biogeographic (i.e. evolutionary and demographic) and ecological (i.e. habitat differentiation and disturbance) processes as the most important causes of spatial variation in species richness and species composition. We examined patterns of variation in similarity of vascular plant and bryophyte species composition among 150 1-m2 plots distributed semi-randomly over 11 Norwegian boreal swamp-forest localities that were species-rich islands in an otherwise species-poor forest landscape. For each plot, 53 environmental variables were recorded. By using CCA analyses, we found that c. 20% of the explainable variation in species composition was due to swamp-forest affiliation, in addition to the c. 35% that was due to environmental differences between swamp-forest localities. The unique component of the species composition of each swamp forest was also emphasised by analyses of floristic dissimilarity: plots were significantly more floristically dissimilar if situated in different than if situated in the same swamp forest, even after environmental differences had been corrected for. The lack of any significant relationship between floristic dissimilarity and geographical distance or swamp-forest area indicated that this pattern was not mainly due to demographic processes. We argue that the floristic distinctness of swamp forests, in particular those richer in species and soil nutrients, is due to a combination of factors among which randomness in establishment in infrequently occurring gaps ( ‘windows of opportunity’) are likely to be important. The unique combination of important determinants of the species composition found for boreal swamp forests supports the view that there exists a diversity of explanations for diversity and that these, to a large extent, are system- and/or area-specific.

Abstract

An individual-based agent model is presented which resembles aspects of natural evolution in ecosystems under selective pressure due to limited resources. The environmental conditions are determined by spatial and temporal variability of resource abundances.The agents have to choose between three different types of resources; the one consumed most during lifetime solely counts for the fitness of the individual agent. Simulation runs show that populations specialized in different resource types are mutually influencing each other under temporal variation of a single resource type.Mobility of agents in a locally heterogenous world enables recolonization after a population has starved to death. Wavelet analysis of the population time series reveals that some observed population dynamics show phenomena such as localized periodicities which cannot be explained by linear dependencies on the resource input dynamics.