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.
2025
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
Urban agriculture (UA) is increasingly recognized as a key component of sustainable cities. Commercial farmers in urban areas benefit from a large customer base, short transport distances, and access to diverse sales channels. However, high pressure on land resources makes it difficult for farmers and decision makers to find suitable areas for UA. This study ranks urban and peri-urban farmland areas based on their suitability for urban agriculture (UA) and identifies opportunities for extending the area for UA to currently unused farmland. Through collaboration with urban farmers, we identified four key themes and eleven criteria, which were weighted for two sales scenarios: on-farm and off-farm. We performed a GIS-based multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) and assessed suitability using the technique of order preference similarity to the ideal solution (TOPSIS) on 1 × 1 km grid cells. By overlaying the suitability maps with presumably unused farmland (PUF), we identified areas with high potential for extending UA. In the City of Bergen, 15.3 % (on-farm; off-farm=14 %) of the total farmland is both unused and highly suitable for UA, compared to only 2.8 % (on-farm; off-farm=2.4 %) in Oslo. Assessing the suitability of agricultural land for UA can support spatial planning, protect agricultural topsoil from urban expansion, and help achieve global, national, and local goals for urban farming and sustainable land use.
Authors
Jonas Schmidinger Sebastian Vogel Viacheslav Barkov Anh-Duy Pham Robin Gebbers Hamed Tavakoli Jose Correa Tiago R. Tavares Patrick Filippi Edward J. Jones Vojtech Lukas Eric Boenecke Joerg Ruehlmann Ingmar Schroeter Eckart Kramer Stefan Paetzold Masakazu Kodaira Alexandre M.J.-C. Wadoux Luca Bragazza Konrad Metzger Jingyi Huang Domingos S.M. Valente Jose L. Safanelli Eduardo L. Bottega Ricardo S.D. Dalmolin Csilla Farkas Alexander Steiger Taciara Z. Horst Leonardo Ramirez-Lopez Thomas Scholten Felix Stumpf Pablo Rosso Marcelo M. Costa Rodrigo S. Zandonadi Johanna Wetterlind Martin AtzmuellerAbstract
Digital soil mapping (DSM) relies on a broad pool of statistical methods, yet determining the optimal method for a given context remains challenging and contentious. Benchmarking studies on multiple datasets are needed to reveal strengths and limitations of commonly used methods. Existing DSM studies usually rely on a single dataset with restricted access, leading to incomplete and potentially misleading conclusions. To address these issues, we introduce an open-access dataset collection called Precision Liming Soil Datasets (LimeSoDa). LimeSoDa consists of 31 field- and farm-scale datasets from various countries. Each dataset has three target soil properties: (1) soil organic matter or soil organic carbon, (2) clay content and (3) pH, alongside a set of features. Features are dataset-specific and were obtained by optical spectroscopy, proximal- and remote soil sensing. All datasets were aligned to a tabular format and are ready-to-use for modeling. We demonstrated the use of LimeSoDa for benchmarking by comparing the predictive performance of four learning algorithms across all datasets. This comparison included multiple linear regression (MLR), support vector regression (SVR), categorical boosting (CatBoost) and random forest (RF). The results showed that although no single algorithm was universally superior, certain algorithms performed better in specific contexts. MLR and SVR performed better on high-dimensional spectral datasets, likely due to better compatibility with principal components. In contrast, CatBoost and RF exhibited considerably better performances when applied to datasets with a moderate number (<20) of features. These benchmarking results illustrate that the performance of statistical methods can be highly context-dependent. LimeSoDa therefore provides an important resource for improving the development and evaluation of statistical methods in DSM.
Authors
Andres Perea Sajidur Rahman Huiying Chen Andrew Cox Shelemia Nyamuryekung'e Mehmet Bakir Huping Cao Richard Estell Brandon Bestelmeyer Andres F. Cibils Santiago A. UtsumiAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Olle Anderbrant Hanh Huynh Ann-Kristin Isaksson Line Beate Lersveen Myhre Christer Löfstedt Sigrid Mogan Elisabeth Öberg Marja Rantanen Gunda Thöming Glenn P. SvenssonAbstract
Currant, and in particular blackcurrant, Ribes nigrum, is widely grown in Europe. It is the host of a number of pest insects, but their occurrence and the damage they cause vary geographically. In northern Europe, three lepidopteran species, the currant shoot borer (Lampronia capitella), the currant clearwing (Synanthedon tipuliformis), and the currant bud moth (Euhyponomeutoides albithoracellus), are particularly damaging and sometimes cause decreased plant vigour and drastic yield losses. With fewer insecticides approved for use and with an increased interest in organic production of currants, the need for alternative methods to control these moths is urgent. We here applied pheromone-based mating disruption in small and sometimes well isolated plantations in Finland, Norway and Sweden against the three pests using 15–25 g of active ingredients and 300 dispensers per ha. A strong trap shutdown effect, up to 100%, was recorded for the currant clearwing and the currant bud moth, but no effect on the most widespread species, the currant shoot borer, was noted. After 1 year of treatment, however, it was not possible to detect any significant effect on the damage level or on the future adult population size of the pests. We conclude that for the currant clearwing and the currant bud moth, mating disruption is likely to work with higher pheromone doses or modified dispenser density, whereas the reason behind the lack of effect on the currant shoot borer needs to be addressed by new experiments and observations of behaviour.
Authors
Glenn P. Svensson Hanh Huynh Ann-Kristin Isaksson Line Beate Lersveen Myhre Christer Löfstedt Sigrid Mogan Elisabeth Öberg Marja Rantanen Nina Trandem Olle AnderbrantAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Zahra Bitarafan Melissa Magerøy Rafael de Andrade Moral Najmeh Salehan Kristian Schmidt Nielsen Christian AndreasenAbstract
Atmospheric CO2 concentrations and temperatures have significantly increased, accompanied by substantial changes in precipitation patterns. These changes are anticipated to intensify in the future. In Nordic regions, increasing temperatures can improve growing conditions for some crops by extending the growing season and expanding cultivation northward. Climate changes may also favour some weed species, potentially reducing crop yield and affecting herbicide efficacy. To assess glyphosate efficacy under future climate conditions, we conducted two dose-response experiments on barnyard grass (Echinochloa crus-galli- C4 plant), oilseed rape (Brassica napus- C3 plant) and wild oat (Avena fatua- C3 plant). Plants were grown under ambient conditions (400 ppm CO2 at 18/12 °C (day/night)) and predicted future conditions (800 ppm CO2 at 20.5/14.5 °C (day/night)). Glyphosate was applied at 3–4 − leaf−stage in doses of 0, 8.75, 17.5, 35, 70, 140, 420, 1260, and 2520 g active ingredient (a.i.) ha−1, with the highest dose only included in the second experiment. Chlorophyll fluorescence was measured 48 h after spraying. Two days after spraying, oilseed rape exhibited stress symptoms under both growing conditions, while barnyard grass showed symptoms only under future conditions and doses exceeding 6 g a.i. ha−1. Plants were harvested 72 h after spraying for transcriptome analysis and two weeks after spraying to determine dry weight, C%, N% and C/N ratio. The ED50 and ED90 values did not significantly differ between the two environments for each grass species. However, oilseed rape required significantly higher glyphosate doses to reduce dry weight by 50 and 90 % at ambient growing conditions, likely due to the faster translocation of glyphosate. This suggests that glyphosate doses can be reduced in a warmer climate with an elevated CO2 level. No apparent differences in the C%, N%, or C/N ratio were observed between environments for any species. Transcriptome analysis indicated that all species respond differently to glyphosate and climate change.
Abstract
Data from the Norwegian national forest inventory spanning from 1994 to 2022 were analyzed to explore the growth dynamics of pure and mixed stands of Norway spruce and Scots pine. The derived large dataset enabled the development of models designed to assess how stand characteristics and drought interactively affect volume increment at the stand and individual tree level. The analysis revealed that pine-dominated stands outperform spruce-dominated stands at lower site qualities, while the opposite was true at higher site qualities. Mixed stands exhibited overyielding, with productivity exceeding the expected combined pure stand productivity of the individual species components. Based on model predictions, relative overyielding increased with stand age and declined with increasing site quality. Transgressive overyielding, where mixed stands outperform pure stands of either species, was predicted for medium site qualities. Drought-induced productivity losses increased with spruce proportion, especially at lower site qualities, and with stand density. The presence of pine in mixed stands mitigated the negative effects of drought on spruce. The findings of this study suggest that pure spruce stands should be avoided on lower-quality sites while mixed stands with appropriate thinning interventions should be promoted to maintain productivity under changing climatic conditions.
Authors
Belchior Oliveira Trigueiro da Silva Ademir De Oliveira Ferreira Rattan Lal Thiago Inagaki Telmo Jorge Carneiro Amado João Carlos De Moraes Sá Edivan Rodrigues de Souza Aline Roma Tomaz William Ramos da Silva Felipe José Cury FracettoAbstract
Frequent and intensive tillage in conventional agriculture disrupts soil aggregates, engendering significant depletion of soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks. Long-term studies are essential for assessing the impact of sustainable practices on aggregate dynamics and carbon sequestration in sugarcane monocropping in tropical ecosystems. The following hypothesis was first, conventional sugarcane management would degrade soil, thereby reducing C stocks and breaking down aggregates. Second, conservation management that involves reduced disturbance could restore C storage, reaching levels similar to those observed in native vegetation (NV) over time. Third, macroaggregation could be a key mechanism for C storage under conservation management. This study evaluated the distribution of SOC among distinct aggregate classes under conventional (CC) and minimum (MC) cultivation in a 60-year-old sugarcane system, comparing results with undisturbed NV. The monitored properties included aggregate mass, SOC content and stock, weighted average diameter (WAD), aggregate and C stability indexes (ASI and CSI), soil C–CO2 emissions, and C preservation capacity (CPC). The long-term CC had a significant impact on aggregate dynamics, manifesting in a reduction in macroaggregate mass and SOC content, an increase in CO2 emissions, and a decrease in CPC. While the total SOC stock remained comparable in NV and MC (76 Mg C ha−1), CC led to a 20% SOC loss. Although CC led to an increase in microaggregate C, it failed to counterbalance the loss of macroaggregate C. The ASI, with a reliability of approximately 99% in NV, exhibited a decline of 1% at 10 cm and 2% at 20 cm under MC and CC conditions. Concurrently, WAD reduced by 16% at 10 cm. CSI exhibited higher levels in NV and MC compared to CC at 10 cm depth. CPC in large macroaggregates was highest in NV (21 g kg−1), decreasing by 50% in CC (7 g kg−1) and by 33% in MC (14 g kg−1). At a depth of 20 cm, large macroaggregate mass was 28% lower in CC and 14% lower in MC compared to NV, resulting in a 29% and 21% reduction in macroaggregate C stock, respectively. In summary, the application of MC resulted in the preservation of SOC stocks at levels comparable to those observed in NV, thereby underscoring its capacity to maintain crop sustainability and augment carbon sequestration in tropical sugarcane systems.
Authors
Valentina Sierra-Jimenez Robert J. Macias Jonathan P. Mathews Vincent Carre Sébastien Leclerc Alice Budai Farid Chejne Jimena Castro-Gutierrez Alain Celzard Vanessa Fierro Manuel Garcia-PerezAbstract
This study investigates optimal carbonization conditions for biochar production, focusing on pressure and acid pretreatments to maximize carbon yield and enhance biochar functionality. Over thirty combinations of pressure and acid type were tested, including organic acids (CH3COOH and HCOOH) and inorganic acids (H3PO4 and H2SO4), using hybrid poplar wood as feedstock. The results show that carbon conversion efficiencies up to 72 wt % were achieved with organic acids under pressures ≥ 20 bar. Inorganic acids produced biochar doped with phosphorus (P) and sulfur (S), demonstrating the potential for customizing biochar properties to specific applications. To understand biochar transformations at the molecular level, we employed a range of advanced characterization techniques, such as solid-state 13C NMR, ICP-OES, XPS, BPCA, LDI FT-ICRMS, and ESR, as well as 3D atomistic modeling of up to 13,000 atoms. These methods revealed how pressure and acid pretreatments influence the chemical composition, porosity, and atomistic structure of the resulting biochar. The study provides valuable insights into the relationship between processing conditions and biochar properties, demonstrating that optimized carbonization processes can improve production efficiency and reduce biomass requirements. This scalable approach offers significant potential for reducing carbon emissions and makes biochar a promising material for carbon storage, soil amendment, and other environmental applications.