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.
2006
Abstract
This analysis is based on climatic data and increment cores from about 550 Forest officers from latitude 58-70N and longitude 6-18E. The strength of the data is the high number of plots scattering over most of the Norway spruce forest area in Norway. Tree ring-widths were transformed to ring indices to remove age disturbances and strengthen the climatic signal on the tree growth.We used regression analyses to examine the annually growth responses of these ring indices against 42 monthly climatic variables. The climatic variables we used were mean month temperature, precipitation and Palmer drought severity index (PDSI) with a range from previous year July to current years August.The results showed some correlations of climate on growth, with the June weather as most important. The most important variable in the lowlands (altitude 500 m) of southeastern Norway was the June precipitation, and the June temperature in the rest of the country.
Abstract
There is a high correlation between methods for dynamic modulus of elasticity (MOEdyn) and static modulus of elasticity (MOEstat). MOEdyn methods have been found sensitive to detect early stages of decay and may be seen as an option for non-destructive wood durability testing.As the MOEstat measurements do not change after reaching the fibre saturation point, the uncorrected MOEdyn data from ultrasonic pulse excitation method provides increasin values after fibre saturation. This is due to the effect of free water in the cell lumen on ultrasonic waves. The aim of this study was to make a moisture calibration for the MOEdyn ultrasonic pulse excitation method using Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) sapwood samples.MOE was measured at five different moisture levels. Three different MOE test methods were used: MOEdyn using ultrasound and vibration excitation and the traditional MOEstat. Sound Scots pine sapwood samples treated with two copper-containing wood preservatives and two chitosan solutions were evaluated, using untreated sapwood samples as control.In this study a correction value (\"k\") was calculated based on data from different moisture levels for water saturated samples using four different wood treatments and control. By measuring MOEdyn ultrasonic at wood moisture contents just below fibre saturation point, a minor effect of incipient water accumulation in the wood matrix was detected.Wood treatments influence the \"k\" value, and a \"k\" value needs to be calculated for all wood treatments when measuring MOEdyn ultrasound above fibre saturation. All the three MOE test methods in this study are applicable for all wood moisture levels as long as a \"k\" value is calculated for MOEdyn ultrasound above fibre saturation.
Authors
Birger VenneslandAbstract
During the 1980s and the 1990s the tourism development in general increased rapidly. The term innovation has been used to describe this development. But how well can we adapt the traditional industrial understanding of innovation in the service sector? Especially it seems as we have to extend our understanding of innovation when comes to the development of nature based tourism. There is a need to discuss various definitions of innovation and look at a framework of understanding that distinguishes between various definitions of innovation in the service sector.
Authors
Magnus Karlsson Ari M. Hietala Harald Kvaalen Halvor Solheim Åke Olson Jan Stenlid Carl Gunnar FossdalAbstract
Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) has a natural distribution in the northern parts of Europe and Asia and is economically the most important tree species grown in the Nordic countries. A common threat to Norway spruce is the basidiomyceteous fungus Heterobasidion parviporum Niemelä and Korhonen. H. parviporum mainly attacks Norway spruce, although Siberian fir (Abies sibirica Ledeb.) and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) occasionally get infected. One obstacle to studying host/pathogen interaction in conifers has been the limited availability of mature clones for controlled inoculations, as genetic variation within the host material and the lack of replicates complicate interpretation of the results. Somatic embryogenesis, rooted cuttings, and tissue cultures may provide solutions for this problem. Tissue cultures from mature Norway spruce trees have been proposed as a possible model system for assessing resistance toward fungal pathogens. Recent data on chitinase isoform activity in the Norway spruce/H. parviporum pathosystem are encouraging; clonal variation was observed in the isoforms affected by inoculation, and the isoforms showing increased band intensity following bark inoculation by H. parviporum were also induced in the inoculated tissue cultures of the corresponding clones. To investigate the biological relevance of tissue cultures in host-pathogen interaction studies, transcript levels of selected host and pathogen genes in tissue cultures of Norway spruce were compared to those in bark of 33-year-old ramets of the same clones upon challenge by the pathogenic fungus H. parviporum. Similar transcript profiles of the pathogen and host genes were observed in both tissues, this supporting the use of tissue cultures as experimental material for the pathosystem. Higher transcript levels of the host genes phenylalanine ammonia lyase, peroxidase, and glutathione-S-transferase were observed in the more resistant clone #589 than in the less resistant clone #409 during the early stages of colonization. The most striking difference between the spruce clones was related to gene transcript levels of a class IV chitinase, which showed a continuous increase in clone #409 over the experimental period, with a possible association of this gene product to programmed cell death. Several of the fungal genes assayed were differentially expressed during colonization, including putative glutathione-S-transferases, laccase, cellulase, cytochrome P450 and superoxide dismutase genes. The transcriptional responses suggest an important role for the antioxidant systems of both organisms.
Authors
Anders Busse Nielsen Jasper Schipperijn Yngve Rosenblad Heldur Sander Mikk Sarv Kirsi Mäkinen Janis Donis Vegard Gundersen Ulrika Åkerlund Roland GustavssonAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Clemens Reimann Arnold Arnoldussen Rognvald Boyd Tor Erik Finne Øystein Nordgulen Tore Volden Peter EnglmaierAbstract
Forty terrestrial moss (Hylocomium splendens) samples were collected along a 120-km-long south–north transect running through Norway\"s largest city Oslo. Concentrations of 29 chemical elements (Ag, Al, Au, Ba, Bi, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, K, La, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Ni, P, Pb, Pt, S, Sb, Sr, Th, Ti, and Zn) and values for loss on ignition (475 °C) are reported. Silver (Ag), Al, Au, Bi, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mo, Ni, Pb, Pt, Sb, Th, Ti, and Zn all show a characteristic Oslo peak when element concentrations are plotted against location of the sample site along the transect. Gold (Au) and Pt show the greatest relative enrichment of all elements in the city (ca. 10× “background”). Titanium (Ti), which is related to local minerogenic dust rather than anthropogenic emissions, shows a significant peak in Oslo. Loss on ignition, a measure of the amount of organic material in a sample, shows a negative peak in Oslo and at sites close to a known dust source. Input of fine dust thus appears to dominate many of the observed element concentrations in moss. The concentrations of Na are clearly influenced by the input of marine aerosols and show decreasing concentrations from south (near Oslo Fjord) to north (inland). The major plant nutrients Ca, K, Mg, P and S, as well as Hg, are the few elements displaying no spatial dependency along the transect. Element concentrations reach background variation levels at a distance of 20–40 km from the city centre.
Authors
Holger LangeAbstract
Most phenomena in ecosystem research are assessed via repeated measurements of environmental variables. The dynamics of these time series is investigated with a variety of statistical techniques; in this article, we focus on modern nonlinear methods. They enable separation of short- and long-term components, show all types of trends and quantify the information contained and the complexity of the data sets.
Authors
Joha W. Grobbelaar Michael J. Wingfield P. Bloomer Halvor Solheim Brenda D. WingfieldAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
There is increasing awareness of the need to monitor trends in our constantly changing agricultural landscapes. Monitoring programmes often use remote sensing data and focus on changes in land cover/land use in relation to values such as biodiversity, cultural heritage and recreation.Although a wide range of indicators is in use, landscape aesthetics is a topic that is frequently neglected. Our aim was to determine whether aspects of landscape content and configuration could be used as surrogate measures for visual landscape quality in monitoring programmes based on remote sensing.In this paper, we test whether map-derived indicators of landscape structure from the Norwegian monitoring programme for agricultural landscapes are correlated with visual landscape preferences. Two groups of people participated: (1) locals and (2) non-local students.Using the total dataset, we found significant positive correlations between preferences and spatial metrics, including number of land types, number of patches and land type diversity. In addition, preference scores were high where water was present within the mapped image area, even if the water itself was not visible in the images.When the dataset was split into two groups, we found no significant correlation between the preference scores of the students and locals. Whilst the student group preferred images portraying diverse and heterogeneous landscapes, neither diversity nor heterogeneity was correlated with the preference scores of the locals.We conclude that certain indicators based on spatial structure also have relevance in relation to landscape preferences in agricultural landscapes. However, the finding that different groups of people prefer different types of landscape underlines the need for care when interpreting indicator values
Abstract
No abstract has been registered