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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

Models for predicting mortality in even-aged stands were developed. The models rely on data from the Norwegian National Forest Inventory, and were designed for use in large-scale forestry scenario models. A two-step modelling strategy was applied: i) logistic regression models predicting the probability of complete survival to occur, and ii) multiplicative regression models for stem number reduction and diameter calibration. A joint model for all species predicting the probability of survival to occur on a plot was developed. Separate models for spruce, pine and broadleaved-dominated forests were developed for stem number reduction, while no appropriate models for diameter calibration were found. The phenomenon mortality is a stochastic, rare and irregular event, and this was reflected as low R2 in the models. However, the model performance appeared logical and the results of validations based on independent data were reasonably good, i.e. the presented models may be applied for large-scale forestry scenario analyses. With new rotations of permanent sample plot measurements, the models should be evaluated and, if necessary, revised.

Abstract

Norwegian agriculture depends heavily on governmental subsidies, due to small farming units and high costs. Due to a limited home market, many agricultural productions are also quantum regulated. Milk and grain production was regulated starting in the 1950 using region specific prices. At the level of three counties in south-eastern Norway, this policy resulted in an increase in the grain producing area from 30 to 80% of total agricultural area causing a similar reduction in grassland area over a'30 year period. The change in land use caused by this policy more than doubled the estimated soil losses by water erosion. During the late; seventies extensive land levelling in the same region stimulated by subsidies lead to an estimated two-three fold increase in soil erosion. The increase was especially high when former ravine landscapes used for pasture were levelled and turned into arable land that was ploughed in autumn. Very visible erosion and increasing negative offsite effects on water quality together with overproduction put an end to the subsidies for land levelling. Erosion research was started around 1980 and the results from this research lead to the introduction of several kinds of payments in the early 1990 to encourage more sustainable agricultural production. Since the policy changed there has been changes in cultivating systems and a reduction in soil erosion has been estimated. Thus, farmers' behaviour and soil erosion in Norway is strongly influenced by agricultural and environmental policy.

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.

2002