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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.

2024

Abstract

Mountain areas in Norway provide important resources for livestock grazing. These resources are crucial for agricultural production in a country with limited agricultural land and a climate and topography that restrict production of feed and food. A key contributor in the harvest of these resources has been mountain summer farming and outfield grazing in general. However, the use of mountainous grazing resources has been declining strongly for several decades with the regrowth of formerly open areas as a consequence. In contrast, recreational use, number of holiday cabins and associated infrastructure is rapidly increasing. Conflicts between recreational and agriculture use have received increasing attention in different media. We investigated the spatial patterns of cabin development and key grazing areas in Norwegian mountain areas, analysing data on livestock, cabins, and associated infrastructure. We found a large number of cabins and associated infrastructure within high-quality grazing areas indicating that the quality of grazing has not been adequately considered in the location of new cabins. Taking into consideration that cabin development seems not to decrease, the reduced availability of grazing resources may result in an increasing level of conflict and also impact food security in the long run.

Abstract

Timothy ( Phleum pratense L.) is the predominant forage grass species in the northern parts of the Nordic region. Because of the long andharsh winters and a short growing season, most of it with continuous light, the need for locally adapted timothy seed has been recognizedfor more than a century. However, the seed production of timothy in these marginal environments is unpredictable with acceptable seedyield and quality on average only every third year. Thus, a multiplication scheme for the northern cultivars was established with only pre-basic seed produced in the north, and basic and certified seed produced further south to secure enough seed of good quality. In recentdecades this scheme has been more or less abandoned with continous generations produced in the south. Farmers are complaining andare questioning whether the cultivars has changed and lost winter hardiness. We studied freezing and ice-encasement tolerance of generations of the the northern timothy cultivars ‘Engmo’ (old landrace) and ‘Noreng’(synthetic) multiplied for one, two or three generations in Central, Southern and Northern Norway. The trials introduce very largedifferences in mean temperature, growing degree days and photoperiod between place of parental origin and sites of multiplication so theeffects on fitness observed could arise from both selection and and induced epigenetic changes. Large changes (loss) in freezing and ice-encasement tolerance were observed, especially at the southern location in the first generation.The cultivars behaved differently and there were significant interactions. The extreme phenotypic changes observed might be explained bygenetic selection or epigenetic memory of the environmental conditions experienced during seed production, or a combination of the two.We are currently analysing GBS data of all generations and this will be used to test whether genetic shifts has occured during themultiplication in the different environments.