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.
2005
Authors
Karin Jacobs Brenda D. Wingfield Halvor Solheim Michael J. WingfieldAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Peder GjerdrumAbstract
Heart- and sapwood demonstrates different wood quality features which should be taken into account when deciding how to make use of each single trunk. To analyse heartwood relations, radial cores were sampled from ten trunks and one thousand trees in four gymnosperm species from the European Alps, covering a wide variety of growth conditions. The objective was to test whether the simple and straightforward model denoted the heartwood age rule (HAR) would give an adequate description of the observed heartwood - age relations in these species. In this paper, preliminary results are reported, confirming the validity of HAR: For each of the species, the number of heartwood rings equals the square root of the cambial age less a constant parameter, to the second power. The parameter evaluated to (valid cambial age rang in brackets): 3.31 (up to 220 years) for Scots pine; 1.28 (up to 270 years) for larch; 1.47 (up to 490 years) for stone pine; and 1.10 (up to 110 years) for yew. The explained part of the variance in the square root transformed observations of heartwood rings was 90-99%. For the examined specimens, HAR applied to observations at breast height as well as along single trunks from base to top, irrespective within or beneath the living crown. The findings confirm former reports and enhance the application of HAR to a wider geographic area and to new species. The results should suitably be incorporated in wood quality models.
Abstract
In spring 2002, extensive damages were recorded in southeast Norway on nursery-grown Norway spruce seedlings that had either wintered in nursery cold storage or had been planted out in autumn 2001. The damages were characterised by leader shoot dieback and necroses on the upper or lower part of the 2001-year-shoot. Gremmeniella abietina and Phomopsis sp. were frequently isolated from the diseased seedlings. RAMS (random amplified microsatellites) profiling indicated that the G.abietina strains associated with diseased nursery seedlings belonged to LTT (large-tree type) ecotype, and inoculation tests confirmed their pathogenicity on Norway spruce. Based on sequence analysis of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions of ribosomal DNA, the Phomopsis strains associated with diseased seedlings do not represent any characterized Phomopsis species associated with conifers. Phomopsis sp. was not pathogenic in inoculation tests, this implying it may be a secondary colonizer. ITS-based real-time PCR assays were developed in order to detect and quantify Gremmeniella and Phomopsis in the nursery stock. We describe here the Gremmeniella - associated shoot dieback symptoms on Norway spruce seedlings and conclude that the unusual disease outburst was related to the Gremmeniella epidemic caused by the LTT type on large pines in 2001.
Authors
Line HoemAbstract
A Marketing Consultant Report for the Advantage Hardwood Project. Key Findings:• The use of hardwood products has grown considerably the last decade• Main hardwood products are floors, furniture, carpentry work and external claddings• Fire restrictions give the interior cladding for walls and ceilings a marketing challenge.
Abstract
Instationarities in runoff time series are ubiquitous. However, simple trend analyses are often obscured by the presence of long-term correlations, and some instationarities are not simply changes in the mean or periodicities. Thus, wherever feasible, instationarities should be based on the full frequency distribution, or the cumulative distribution function (cdf), of the series. In this paper, we investigate the time-dependence of the empirical cdfs of 97 runoff datasets from the upper Danube basin applying a new pairwise test statistic, KSSUM, based on integrated differences of the cdfs. This is an improvement to the Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) test and was applied on different time scales, i.e. windows of varying size. If desired, the influence of drifts in the mean as well as heteroscedasticity can be excluded via z-transformations. The resulting time series of the KSSUM variable, either within a runoff series for different windows, or across series for the same period, is then subjected to the detection of spatiotemporal patterns with different methods. For most of the time series the underlying distributions move towards higher values in the long run. We also observed a periodic drift in the mean across all analysed gauges. It is furthermore possible to separate exceedingly variable runoff series from those with intermediate or small changes in value distribution on a regional basis, and thus to separate overall trends from local deviations at individual gauges. It is demonstrated that KSSUM is a sensitive method to investigate instationarities in sets of time series based on pairwise comparisons. An extension to a proper multivariate comparison is a possible further development. http://www.cosis.net/abstracts/EGU05/04198/EGU05-J-04198.pdf
Authors
P. Neville Richard Fischer A.L. Axelsson Dan Aamlid Marco Marchetti T.B. Larsson Annemarie Bastrup-BirkAbstract
The joint network of tree crown condition monitoring under the EU and ICP Forests operates at two levels, a systematic extensive approach (Level I) based on a 16 km x 16 km trans-national grid of sample plots (>6000 plots) and an intensive approach (Level II) on more than 800 plots across continental Europe. Three ongoing projects embrace the different levels of monitoring, the above mentioned Level I and Level II systems, and the National Forest Inventories (NFIs). All of the three projects are based on a stand structure approach that assumes an increased potential for species diversity with increasing complexity of stand structure. An intensive test-phase of forest biodiversity assessment at more than 100 Level II plots, known as ForestBIOTA is underway during 2005. This project aims to test standardized methods of forest biodiversity assessment in the field and examine the relationship between stand structure, forest deadwood, ground vegetation and epiphytic lichens. A forest classification of the plots is also included. A separate approach, known as BioSoil (due to its combination with a detailed chemical inventory of the soils) is a demonstration project which aims to record indicators of forest biodiversity at the extensive Level I plots. Practical measures of stand structure, including records of tree species, lists of vascular plant species, and simple measures of forest deadwood are included for field assessment during 2006. A pan-European forest type classification elaborating on the EUNIS system and including the Natura 2000 habitat types is proposed. These initiatives are linked to a third project, COMON, operating at the level of the National Forest Inventories aiming to test the same core variables at national levels.
Abstract
The uptake of chitosan based impregnation solutions were tested on Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L), Beech (Fagus sylvatica L.), Downy birch (Betula pubescens Ehrh.) and Norway spruce (Picea abies L. Karst.) in longitudinal, radial and tangential directions separately. The four chitosans tested had a fraction of acetylated residues (FA) of 0.198 and average molecular weights ranging from 18 to 129kDalton. The kinetic viscosity of the 2.4% (weight/volume) solutions at pH 5.0 was in the range of 2.95 to 28.8mm2s-1. The general trend showed that there was an increase in uptake of chitosan based impregnation solutions with decreasing viscosity, and the chitosan solution with the lowest viscosity had almost comparable uptake with water for Pine and Beech in the longitudinal direction. In general, the lower the ability for uptake of impregnation solution, the more the viscosity influences the uptake.
Abstract
During a period of 2 years and 3 months (1 January 2001 - 20 March 2003) Mycoteam had 3161 consultations in buildings in southern Norway, 1428 revealing damage from decay fungi. One consultation often revealed several occurrences of fungi, and the total number of occurrences of decay fungi was 3434. Thirty-five different species/genera/groups of decay fungi were recorded. During this period brown rot was more frequent (77.4 %) than soft rot (19.2 %) and white rot (3.4 %). Coniophora puteana (16.3 %) and Serpula lacrymans (16 %) were the most frequently identified species. Different species of the genus Antrodia were recorded in 18.4 % of the occurrences, while the group Corticiaceae accounted for 5.7 % and soft rot for 15.8 %. Investigations of damaged structural parts of buildings showed that decay fungi were most common in walls (18.3 %). Floor damage accounted for 13.4 % of the damaged structures and roofs for 8.8 %. Nearly all species and groups of the investigated fungi were most common indoors. Gloeophyllum sepiarium on the other hand was most common outdoors, and Dacrymyces stillatus was exclusively found outdoors. The Norwegian data were compared with published time series data from Denmark (1946-66, 1966-71, 1974-75, 1982) and Finland (1978-84, 1985-88). S. lacrymans and C. puteana were the most frequent species in these datasets too. Antrodia spp. were also common in the Finnish reports, but barely recorded (as identified species) in Denmark. In both the Danish and the Finnish data, damage to floors is the most frequently recorded structural damage in buildings.
Authors
Vegard Gundersen Lars Helge Frivold B.B. Jørgensen J. Falck Bernt-Håvard ØyenAbstract
A postal questionnaire survey about the forest situation and management in urban woodland was carried out around the three largest urban agglomerations in each of the five Nordic countries, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Twenty estate managements responded, giving a respondent rate of 54%. Our material from 13 cities includes 108,888ha productive forests, representing approximately 13% of all urban woodland areas in the Nordic region. The tree species composition in the urban woodland areas largely reflected the typical tree species distribution in the respective vegetation zones. It is expected that the percentage of Fagus sylvatica and Quercus spp. in the nemoral zone, and boreal hardwoods will increase in the future. The proportion of young and middle-aged forests is high in all urban woodlands, despite the focus on old forests in urban woodland management policy and research since the 1970s. Current silvicultural systems belonging to even-aged forestry prevail in most cities. However, the use of clear-cutting has decreased over the last 30 years. A conservative felling policy makes it likely that the proportion of old stands will increase. Various restrictions on forest management are briefly discussed. Reasons for changes in silvicultural practices differ from city to city, but recreation and conservation are most commonly reported.
Abstract
In recent years chitosans have been investigated as a natural chemical for wood preservation against fungal decay, and chitosan in aqueous solutions has been used in impregnation studies. To evaluate the retention of chitosan after an impregnation process and to evaluate the fixation of chitosan in wood a method for determination of chitosan in wood and water samples has been developed based on acidic hydrolysis of chitosan to glucosamine followed by online derivatization by o-phthalaldehyde, chromatographic separation and fluorescent detection. For wood samples the method was linear up to 45mgg−1 chitosan in wood and had a recovery of 86%. The yield of chitosan in water was 87% at 1%(w/v) concentration.