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.
2018
Abstract
Runoff prediction in ungauged catchments has been a challenging topic over recent decades. Much research have been conducted including the intensive studies of the PUB (Prediction in Ungauged Basins) Decade of the International Association for Hydrological Science. Great progress has been made in the field of regionalization study of hydrological models; however, there is no clear conclusion yet about the applicability of various methods in different regions and for different models. This study made a comprehensive assessment of the strengths and limitations of existing regionalization methods in predicting ungauged stream flows in the high latitudes, large climate and geographically diverse, seasonally snow-covered mountainous catchments of Norway. The regionalization methods were evaluated using the water balance model – WASMOD (Water And Snow balance MODeling system) on 118 independent catchments in Norway, and the results show that: (1) distance-based similarity approaches (spatial proximity, physical similarity) performed better than regression-based approaches; (2) one of the combination approaches (combining spatial proximity and physical similarity methods) could slightly improve the simulation; and (3) classifying the catchments into homogeneous groups did not improve the simulations in ungauged catchments in our study region. This study contributes to the theoretical understanding and development of regionalization methods.
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Trygve S. Aamlid Gudni Thorvaldsson Anne Mette Dahl Jensen Pia Heltoft Tatsiana Espevig Trond Olav Pettersen Jan TangsveenAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Anne Linn Hykkerud Eivind Uleberg Espen Hansen Marieke Vervoort Jørgen A.B. Mølmann Inger MartinussenAbstract
Cloudberry (Rubus chamaemorus L.) is a wild perennial shrub growing on peatland with a circumpolar distribution. The combined berries have a high polyphenol content comprised primarily of ellagitannins. A few commercial cultivars are available, and pre-breeding trials on clonal material from different geographical origins are in progress. The objective of this study was to investigate how the content of polyphenols of four different cloudberry cultivars were affected by harvesting time and climatic variations during a 3-year-period. Plants were grown outside in plots and berries were harvested when mature. Berries were analyzed for total polyphenols and total anthocyanins by spectrophotometer. Total ellagic acid was identified and quantified using HPLC-MS after hydrolysis of the extracts. Results showed that all measured parameters; total anthocyanins, total polyphenols and ellagic acid are strongly influenced by the genetic background. Although low anthocyanin contents were present in all genotypes, they were highly affected by climatic conditions, being highest at low temperatures. However, the content of ellagic acid was less affected by environmental conditions and showed little response to changing temperatures. In conclusion, ellagitannin content was the most dominating polyphenol group observed in this study and was affected by genetics and is therefore a good breeding criterion for increased health benefit of cloudberry.
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
Background and aims Layered profiles of designed soils may provide long-term benefits for green roofs, provided the vegetation can exploit resources in the different layers. We aimed to quantify Sedum root foraging for water and nutrients in designed soils of different texture and layering. Methods In a controlled pot experiment we quantified the root foraging ability of the species Sedum album (L.) and S. rupestre (L.) in response to substrate structure (fine, coarse, layered or mixed), vertical fertiliser placement (top or bottom half of pot) and watering (5, 10 or 20 mm week−1 ). Results Water availability was the main driver of plant growth, followed by substrate structure, while fertiliser placement only had marginal effects on plant growth. Root foraging ability was low to moderate, as also reflected in the low proportion of biomass allocated to roots (5–13%). Increased watering reduced the proportion of root length and root biomass in deeper layers. Conclusions Both S. album and S. rupestre had a low ability to exploit water and nutrients by precise root foraging in substrates of different texture and layering. Allocation of biomass to roots was low and showed limited flexibility even under water-deficient conditions.
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Florencia A. Yannelli Gerhard Karrer Rea Hall Johannes Kollmann Tina HegerAbstract
Question Disturbed areas offer great opportunities for restoring native biodiversity, but they are also prone to invasion by alien plants. Following the limiting similarity hypothesis, we address the question of whether or not similarity of plant functional traits helps developing seed mixtures of native communities with high resistance to invasive species at an early stage of restoration. Location Centre of Greenhouses and Laboratories Dürnast, Technische Universität München, Freising, Germany. Methods Using a system of linear equations, we designed native communities maximizing the similarity between the native and two invasive species according to ten functional traits. We used native grassland plants, two invasive alien species that are often problematic in disturbed areas (i.e., Ambrosia artemisiifolia and Solidago gigantea) and trait information obtained from databases. The two communities were then tested for resistance against establishment of the two invaders separately in a greenhouse experiment. We measured height of the invasive species and above‐ground biomass, along with leaf area index, 4 and 8 months after sowing respectively. Results Both invasive species were successfully reduced by the native community designed to suppress S. gigantea dominated by small‐seeded species. These results could be considered as partial support for the limiting similarity hypothesis. However, given the success of this mixture against both invasive species, suppression was better explained by a seed density effect resulting from the smaller seed mass of the native species included in this mixture. Further, the dominance of a fast‐developing competitive species could also contribute to its success. Conclusions There was no unequivocal support for the limiting similarity hypothesis in terms of the traits selected. Instead we found that increasing seeding density of native species and selecting species with a fast vegetative development is an effective way to suppress invasive plants during early stages of restoration. If limiting similarity is used to design communities for restoration, early life‐history traits should be taken into account.