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
Authors
Lång Kristiina Daniël van de Craats Henri Honkanen Lars Elsgaard Rudi Hessel Hanna Kekkonen Tuula Larmola Jens Leifeld Poul Erik Lærke Andres Rodriguez Sanna Saarnio Junbin ZhaoAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Diress Tsegaye Alemu Christian Pedersen Svein Olav Krøgli Anders Bryn Kerstin Potthoff Wenche DramstadAbstract
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
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Trygve S. Aamlid Sigridur Dalmannsdottir Marit Jørgensen Kristoffer Herland Hellton Akhil Reddy Pashapu Ievina Sturite Mallikarjuna Rao Kovi Helga Amdahl Carl Gunnar Fossdal Odd Arne RognliAbstract
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.
Authors
Annika M. Felton Robert Spitzer David Raubenheimer Per-Ola Hedwall Adam Felton Ruth V. Nichols Brendan L. O'Connell Jonas Malmsten Erik Löfmarck Hilde Karine WamAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Åsa Helena Frostegård Christer Magnusson Kjetil Klaveness Melby Nana Yaa Boahene Siamak Pour Yazdankhah Beatrix Alsanius Jorunn Børve Paal Krokene Mogens Nicolaisen Line Nybakken Johan A. Stenberg Iben Margrete Thomsen Sandra A.I. Wright May-Guri SæthreAbstract
submittedVersion
Authors
Eivind Handegard Ivar Gjerde Rune Halvorsen Robert John Lewis Ken Olaf Storaunet Magne Sætersdal Olav SkarpaasAbstract
Multiple ecological drivers, along with forest age, determine the species composition of boreal forest ecosystems. However, the role of age in successional changes in forests cannot be understood without taking site conditions, the disturbance regime and forest structure into account. In this study, we ask two research questions: 1. What is the relationship between forest age and overall species composition in older near-natural spruce forests, i.e. forests of age beyond harvest maturity? 2. Do species associated with different forest habitats respond similarly to variation in forest age? Data were collected in 257 Norway spruce dominated 0.25 ha plots from three study areas in Southeastern and Central Norway. Species inventories were conducted for lichens and bryophytes on trees and rocks, vascular plants on the forest floor, and for deadwood-associated bryophytes and polypore fungi. Although NMDS ordination analyses of the total species composition identified a main axis related to the age of the oldest trees in two of the study areas, variation partitioning analyses showed that age explained a small fraction of variation of the species composition compared to site conditions, logging history, forest structure, and differences between the sites in all habitats. The unique variation explained by forest age species was, however, significant for all habitats. The fraction of variation in species composition explained by forest age was the largest for lichens and bryophytes on trees, and for deadwood-associated bryophytes and polypore fungi. Our results suggest that practical mapping of near-natural forests for management purposes inventories should include site conditions, forest structure and between site differences in addition to forest age.
Authors
Robert Spitzer Monica Ericson Annika M. Felton Morten Heim David Raubenheimer Erling Johan Solberg Hilde Karine Wam Christer Moe RolandsenAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Oddvar Heggøy Jostein Gohli Terje LislevandAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Adam Kristensson Paul Miller Holger Lange Thomas Holst Jaana Bäck Pontus Roldin Natascha Kljun Anne Klosterhalfen Anders Ahlström Thomas A. Pugh Liesbet Vranken Mark Rounsevell Svein Solberg James AtkinsonAbstract
Forests are a key plank of European policies to mitigate and adapt to climate change and to promote biodiversity. These policies are starting to become more nuanced with respect to the account of their impacts on carbon storage, considering the effect of long-lived wood products and value of conserving old-growth forests, along with indirect land-use change impacts. However, a CO2-focused perspective means that many processes are still omitted for the quantification of the true extent of climate effects. Emissions of the greenhouse gases nitrous oxide and methane, short-lived climate forcers and effects from albedo changes and heat fluxes are also relevant. These processes are interconnected and influence the climate mitigation of forests in a complex way and need to be considered. The CLImate Mitigation and Bioeconomy pathways for sustainable FORESTry (CLIMB-FOREST) Horizon Europe project that runs until 2027 uses a holistic approach to estimate the climate impacts of various management alternatives. The foundation of CLIMB-FOREST is the use of European-wide empirical data, as well as an advanced coupled vegetation and earth-system modelling framework that includes biodiversity indicators and the interaction of forestry stakeholders in a global trade system. This framework is used to model management, forest tree species and climate on short- to long-term in Europe. We present first results of the climate effects and ecosystem functioning for a range of management alternatives in boreal, temperate, and Mediterranean forests. For example, introducing broadleaved trees in a coniferous forest promotes resilience and increased cooling from higher solar light scattering and latent heat flux of broadleaved trees. On the other hand, higher evapotranspiration might lead to an accelerated soil moisture depletion and reduced monoterpene emissions. The latter would have a warming effect because terpenes produce atmospheric particles, which are effective cooling agents through their involvement in cloud formation. Consequently, understanding these complex climate effects is key for appropriate climate-smart-forestry policies and approaches. The main outcomes and impacts of CLIMB-FOREST are to suggest alternative pathways for the forest sector to mitigate climate change in entire Europe, create attitude change in the policymaking process and influence foresters to adopt to new forest management strategies.