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.
2023
Authors
Iva Franić Michelle Cleary Ayse Gülden Aday Kaya Helena Bragança Guro Brodal Thomas L. Cech Anne Chandelier Tuğba Doğmuş-Lehtijärvi René Eschen Asko Lehtijärvi Michael Ormsby Simone Prospero Katharina Schwanda Katarzyna Sikora Hanna Szmidla Venche Talgø Miłosz Tkaczyk Anna Maria Vettraino Ana Pérez-SierraAbstract
Purpose of Review Because tree seeds have been considered a low-risk pathway for the spread of plant pathogenic fungi, their international movement is not subject to strict phytosanitary regulation. However, recent studies have provided scientific evidence that the biosecurity risk of seed trade may not be as negligible as assumed. This review summarises current knowledge about seed trade activity across the world and seed-borne plant pathogenic fungi and highlights knowledge gaps that need to be filled to mitigate the risk of spreading tree pathogens via seeds. Recent Findings Several outbreaks of severe tree diseases in natural forests and plantations worldwide have been linked to fungal pathogens spread by seed trade. Indeed, recent studies based on modern sequencing technologies have shown that tree seeds harbour highly diverse fungal communities, including well-known pathogens and fungal taxa belonging to unknown species. While it has become clear that even apparently healthy seeds can carry potentially pathogenic fungi, the likelihood of seed-borne pathogens being introduced and becoming established, spreading and causing impact in the new environment is still unclear which challenges the assessment of the phytosanitary risk posed by seed trade. Summary Our analyses show that large amounts of tree seeds have been traded among countries and continents. Based on published literature, the risk of spreading pathogenic fungi via tree seed movement is high. However, the role of the taxonomically and functionally diverse fungal communities associated with seeds is still poorly understood. In particular, more research is needed to assess the likelihood of seed-borne fungi being transmitted to the seedlings and spreading and causing impact in the new environment.
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No abstract has been registered
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No abstract has been registered
Authors
Jacek Krzyżak Szymon Rusinowski Krzysztof Sitko Alicja Szada-Borzyszkowska Jacek Borgulat Radosław Stec Hans Martin Hanslin Marta PogrzebaAbstract
Nature-based solutions are promising for climate adaptation and environmental management in urban areas, but urban conditions are stressful for vegetation. In particular, the interaction of drought and high temperatures may be detrimental. Guiding plant selection for urban greening with native species requires a far better knowledge of plant adaptations and stress acclimation. We tested the physiological responses of four candidate calcareous grassland species for green roofs and walls to the combined effects of drought and high temperatures under controlled conditions. The tested species proved relatively resistant to stress despite different strategies to protect the photosynthetic apparatus, maintain water balance, and repair damages. Based on the physiological responses, we rank the species in descending order of resistance to the stress factors tested: Trifolium medium > Festuca ovina > Carex flacca > Potentilla reptans, but all four can serve as potential candidates for green walls and roofs. Physiological stress screening of plant species for use on green roofs and walls supplements the habitat template approach to provide a stronger and wider base for prioritizations.
Abstract
The benefits of individual vessel quota (IVQ) management in terms of improved harvest strategy and profitability are well recognized, but there is less focus on how different components of a quota portfolio can influence decisions underlying the effort allocation and profit-maximizing behaviour of fishers. Variations in the components of the quota portfolio may create economic incentives that alter the optimal harvest strategy and profitability. Thus, we study the potential impact of different components of quota portfolio on the intra-annual harvest strategy and profitability in two segments of the Norwegian bottom trawl fleet. By developing a vessel-based spatio-temporal bioeconomic framework, we demonstrate and compare adopted harvest strategies and accrued profits for small and large trawl vessels under three scenarios regarding restrictive quotas in codfish fishery. Our analysis confirms that alternations in the components of the quota portfolio influence the spatio-temporal dynamics of the fishing effort for small and large trawl vessels in different ways, probably due to the differences in vessel-specific characteristics. We also demonstrate that the differences in profit between small and large vessels in part depend on the overall size of the quota portfolio. The economies of scale in the trawl industry are being eroded as the shares of higher-priced species in the quota portfolio decreases. The benefits of economies of scale cannot be reaped as trawlers respond to the reduction in profit by redirecting effort from offshore areas of the Arctic to nearshore waters or staying ashore. Likewise, having small quotas of high-priced species reduces the effectiveness of the IVQ system in meeting management objectives, and could in some cases undermine sustainability outcomes. Our results also demonstrate that both the intensity with which fishers react to the fluctuations in market price levels and fishers’ perceptions of location attractiveness are influenced by the components of the quota portfolio.
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No abstract has been registered
Abstract
Constructed wetlands (CWs) are a widely recognised measure for reducing pollution loads and improving the quality of surface waters. The removal efficiency of CWs varies considerably depending on system type and design as well as residence time, hydraulic load, particles and nutrient loading rates. Therefore, there is a need to closely monitor the efficiency of existing measures, look at their efficiency in practice and be able to foresee potential implications for their efficiency in light of climate change and land management intensification. This study presents 18 years of data from a typical Norwegian small CW established in the Skuterud catchment. The main objective of this study was to look at the impact of hydraulic load, particles and nutrient loads (depending on climatic factors such as temperature and precipitation) on CW effectiveness. The results showed an average of 39 % and 22 % annual removal efficiency for sediment and phosphorus, respectively. It appears that good CW effectiveness coincides with a combination of high sediment or phosphorus loads to the CW and a stable runoff of low to moderate intensity. At the seasonal level, the highest sediment and phosphorus removal efficiency is observed in the summer seasons (47% for sediment and 29% for phosphorus), when the sediment and phosphorus loads and runoff are at their lowest, and the lowest in autumn (23% for sediment) and in winter (4% for phosphorus). The relationship between removal efficiency and loads to the CW is not that straightforward, as other seasonal differences, such as erosion patterns, vegetation development, also become important. The conclusion based on the results presented is that establishing CWs can be a good supplement to best management practice in erosion-prone catchments with sensitive recipients.
Abstract
Productive and stable forage yields are essential for the sustainability of ruminal livestock production. Grassland seed mixtures composed of species of diverse functional groups have previously been demonstrated to increase yield performance and stability compared to monocultures. In this study we conducted field trials with five grass and two legume species either grown in monocultures or a range of mixtures from two-species to seven-species mixtures sown in a simplex design. The species represented different functional groups regarding ability to fixate atmospheric nitrogen (N), rate of establishment and temporal persistence.The experiments were established with the same cultivars of species at five locations in Norway with climatically contrasting environments – from mild humid, mountainous continental to sub-arctic. The experimental plots were harvested for three years at four of the sites and two years at one of the sites, and they were fertilised according to normal practise in intensive silage grass production in the respective regions (regular N). At three of the sites, a treatment with low mineral N supply rate was also included.We found that crops sown as mixtures returned higher yields and contained less weeds than the average of monoculture crops, and these effects were consistent over all sites and study years. The grass-legume mixtures managed at low N supply rate performed equally well or better than monocultures or grass-only mixtures managed at regular N supply. We found no effects of the functional groups categorised as temporal persistence or rate of establishment on the yield performance, and there were no apparent benefits of increasing the number of species beyond the species P. pratense, F. pratensis and T. pratense over the three production years the experiments lasted.The results suggest that by using grass-clover mixtures, farmers can reduce N fertiliser rates, without compromising productivity of temporary grassland under northern conditions over the first three years of production.
Authors
Michael Salka Vicente Guallart Daniel Ibañez Divina Gracia P. Rodriguez Nicolas Picard Jerylee Wilkes-Allemann Evelyn Coleman Brantschen Stefano Boeri Livia Shamir Lucrezia De Marco Sofia Paoli Maria Chiara Pastore Ivana ŽivojinovićAbstract
The Governing Missions and Mission-Oriented Research and Innovation in the European Union guidelines promoted by the European Commission (EC) are helpful as a starting place for creating the enabling environment for BioCities which follow the principles of natural ecosystems to promote life (Mazzucato 2018, 2019). The strength of mission-oriented policies, defined as systemic public policies that draw on frontier knowledge to attain specific goals, is the empowerment of emergent solutions achieved by: (1) being bold and inspirational with wide social relevance; (2) having a clear direction with targeted, measurable, and time-bound metrics; (3) being ambitious but realistic; (4) being cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral; and (5) driving multiple bottom-up solutions (Ergas 1987).
Authors
Divina Gracia P. RodriguezAbstract
The world's burgeoning billions have been kept fed thanks to the "Green Revolution" of the 20th century, which featured new hybridized crops with enhanced yields. Often deemed a miracle of science, it was also made possible by energy-intensive industrial fertilizers. Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch were each awarded the Nobel Prize for their contributions to the widely used processes for synthesizing ammonia from nitrogen taken from ambient air and hydrogen derived from fossil fuels. These ammonia-based nitrogen fertilizers, along with mined fertilizers, today help to feed the world, something Thomas Robert Malthus never envisioned in his 18th century writings warning of overpopulation. Today we are concerned with another green revolution that seeks to end the use of fossil fuels, which when burned create emissions that are dangerously warming the atmosphere and creating the need for a second agricultural revolution to ensure the world's billions can still be fed in the face of drastic climatic extremes. So as we look to decarbonize the world's economy and phase out the use of fossil fuels, what is the fertilizer industry doing to green its highly fossil fuel-dependent industrial and mining processes? We talk with Alzbeta Klein, CEO of the International Fertilizer Association, freshly returned from COP28 in Dubai, where for the first time the world's nations agreed to the need to phase out fossil fuels to temper the runaway climate change we are experiencing. "Food is energy, and we need to understand that connection," Klein says. "We need to understand the transition for the energy markets, and we need to understand the transition for the food market because the two go hand-in-hand." We also hear from Hiro Iwanaga of Talus Renewables, a nitrogen fertilizer startup at the forefront of using photovoltaics to crack hydrogen from water, rather than fossil fuels. Also freshly returned from Dubai, Iwanaga talks about his company's demonstration project now under way in Kenya, and the company's next projects here in the United States. "The green hydrogen tax credit that was passed as part of the Inflation Reduction Act makes our product cost-competitive," he explains. Also, Brandon Kail of Rocky Mountain BioAg speaks to his company's approach employing soil microbes as the foundation of a non-fossil fuel-based approach to plant nutrition, and Divina Gracia P. Rodriguez of the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research tells us about an EU-funded project in Ethiopia she is spearheading that seeks to address barriers to the adoption of human urine-based fertilizers.