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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.

2019

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Abstract

This paper is the outcome of a community initiative to identify major unsolved scientific problems in hydrology motivated by a need for stronger harmonisation of research efforts. The procedure involved a public consultation through online media, followed by two workshops through which a large number of potential science questions were collated, prioritised, and synthesised. In spite of the diversity of the participants (230 scientists in total), the process revealed much about community priorities and the state of our science: a preference for continuity in research questions rather than radical departures or redirections from past and current work. Questions remain focused on the process-based understanding of hydrological variability and causality at all space and time scales. Increased attention to environmental change drives a new emphasis on understanding how change propagates across interfaces within the hydrological system and across disciplinary boundaries. In particular, the expansion of the human footprint raises a new set of questions related to human interactions with nature and water cycle feedbacks in the context of complex water management problems. We hope that this reflection and synthesis of the 23 unsolved problems in hydrology will help guide research efforts for some years to come.

Abstract

Understanding the quality of new raw material sources will be of great importance to ensure the development of a circular bioeconomy. Building up quality understanding of wood waste is an important step in this development. In this paper we probe two main questions, one substantial and one theoretical: What different understandings of wood waste quality exist and what significance do they have for the recycling and re-use of this waste fraction? And, what is the evolution of knowledge and sustainable practices of wood waste qualities a case of? The analysis is based on diverse perspectives and forms of methods and empirical material. Studies of policy documents, regulations, standards, etc. have been reviewed to uncover what kind of measures and concepts that have been important for governing and regulating wood waste handling. Interviews concerning wood and wood waste qualities have been conducted with key informants and people visiting recycling and waste management stations in Oslo and Akershus in Norway. By studying quality conceptions through the social birth, production, life, end-of-life and re-birth of wood products, we analyse socio-cultural conditions for sustainability. Furthermore we show how the evolution of knowledge and sustainable practices of wood waste qualities, in the meeting with standards and regulations, is a case of adaptation work in the evolution of Norwegian bioeconomy.

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Abstract

We report an observation of a flightless fledgling Lapland longspur (Calcarius lapponicus (Linnaeus, 1758)) at a long-term study site near Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, in late July 2018. Based on our observations of longspur nests at the site dating back to 1993, we estimate that the fledgling observed in 2018 may have originated from a nest initiated 12–37 d later than nesting in previous years. Onset of spring in 2018 was late, but comparable with other years in which longspur nests were observed a full calendar month earlier than in 2018. An analysis including multiple candidate predictor variables revealed a strong negative association between estimated longspur nest initiation dates and mean May temperature, as well as a weaker association with the length of the annual period of vegetation green up at the site. Given the limitations of our data, however, we are unable to assign causality to the 2018 observation, and cannot rule out other possibilities, such as that it may have resulted from a second clutch.