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
Jaime Candelas Bielza Lennart Noordermeer Erik Næsset Terje Gobakken Johannes Breidenbach Hans Ole ØrkaAbstract
Tree species composition is essential information for forest management and remotely sensed (RS) data have proven to be useful for its prediction. In forest management inventories, tree species are commonly interpreted manually from aerial images for each stand, which is time and resource consuming and entails substantial uncertainty. The objective of this study was to evaluate a range of RS data sources comprising airborne laser scanning (ALS) and airborne and satellite-borne multispectral data for model-based prediction of tree species composition. Total volume was predicted using non-linear regression and volume proportions of species were predicted using parametric Dirichlet models. Predicted dominant species was defined as the species with the greatest predicted volume proportion and predicted species-specific volumes were calculated as the product of predicted total volume multiplied by predicted volume proportions. Ground reference data obtained from 1184 sample plots of 250 m2 in eight districts in Norway were used. Combinations of ALS and two multispectral data sources, i.e. aerial images and Sentinel-2 satellite images from different seasons, were compared. The most accurate predictions of tree species composition were obtained by combining ALS and multi-season Sentinel-2 imagery, specifically from summer and fall. Independent validation of predicted species proportions yielded average root mean square differences (RMSD) of 0.15, 0.15 and 0.07 (relative RMSD of 30%, 68% and 128%) and squared Pearson's correlation coefficient (r2) of 0.74, 0.79 and 0.51 for Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.), Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and deciduous species, respectively. The dominant species was predicted with median values of overall accuracy, quantity disagreement and allocation disagreement of 0.90, 0.07 and 0.00, respectively. Predicted species-specific volumes yielded average values of RMSD of 63, 48 and 23 m3/ha (relative RMSD of 39%, 94% and 158%) and r2 of 0.84, 0.60 and 0.53 for spruce, pine and deciduous species, respectively. In one of the districts with independent validation plots of mean size 3700 m2, predictions of the dominant species were compared to results obtained through manual photo-interpretation. The model predictions gave greater accuracy than manual photo-interpretation. This study highlights the utility of RS data for prediction of tree species composition in operational forest inventories, particularly indicating the utility of ALS and multi-season Sentinel-2 imagery.
Authors
Åsgeir R. Almås Susanne Eich-Greatorex Trine Aulstad Sogn Tomasgaard Jan Mulder Manoj Kumar Pandey Vincent Dauby David Powlson Roberta Farina Jeroen Watte Daniel RasseAbstract
The main objective of this scoping document, is to deliver an overall roadmap for the EU commission, targeting the soil mission objective “conserving and increasing soil organic carbon stocks”. The objective addresses the importance of maintaining, or in many situations increasing the soil organic carbon stocks. The soil organic carbon stock is often declining, and vulnerable to further losses due to intensive management and climate change. The soil mission objective aims at identifying actions that can limit the current carbon losses from cultivated soils and preferably reverse it to a rate of 0,1 - 0,4% increase per year (European Commission n.d.). The mission's objectives are relevant not only for supporting the aim to improve soil health by 2030, but also for the member states to become carbon neutral by 2050 (European Commission, n.d.). This think tank addresses the importance of maintaining, or in many situations increasing the soil organic carbon stocks by addressing the impacts of: • Management - Forestry management - Agronomic and land use managements - Climate change and adaptation technologies - Biodiversity and soil health • Societal - Urbanization and circular economy - Education and awareness raising - EU-footprints on SOC-stocks outside EU • Technical - Soil carbon measuring and monitoring In general, changes in soil carbon stocks are slow and management effects will vary depending on climate zones and soil types. Dialog and interaction is essential with all relevant stakeholder including those who own or manage land, agronomic advisors (both governmental and commercial), agricultural supply companies, policy makers, those involved in the food supply chain, and others, for the successful implementation of soil carbon management technologies. Practitioners holds essential knowledge and experience about their own land, and mutual knowledge and practice exchange, will facilitate and stimulate the necessary engagement for innovative technology implementation within the various aspects of soil carbon stocks and improvement of soil health in general.
Authors
Nicola Bozzolan Frits Mohren Giacomo Grassi Mart-Jan Schelhaas Igor Staritsky Tobias Stern Mikko Peltoniemi Vladimír Šebeň Mariana Hassegawa Pieter Johannes Verkerk Marco Patacca Aris Jansons Martin Jankovský Petra Palátová Hanna Blauth Daniel McInerney Jan Oldenburger Eirik Ogner Jåstad Jaroslav Kubista Clara Antón Fernández Gert-jan NabuursAbstract
As the overall demand for wood-based products continues to grow, questions arise on how local wood resources and industry characteristics can effectively meet this growing demand. In the European Union (EU) 550 million m3 of wood is harvested annually, and is to a large extent processed by the wood industry. Little is known about the interplay between industrial capacity and the regional availability of timber resources. We compared the capacities from the European Forest Industry Facilities Database (EUFID) with the estimated wood supply from the procurement areas around processing industries, calculated using a spatially explicit resource model (EFISCEN-Space). We found that the estimated total capacity for the available European countries is 427 M m3 roundwood equivalent (rw. Eq.) for pulp and paper (including both virgin and recycled fibres), 102 M m3 for bioenergy (only bioenergy plants), and 153 M m3 for sawmills. We then conducted an in-depth analysis of three case studies: Norway, the Czech Republic, and Germany. Given the current probability of trees being harvested (excluding disturbances) and the hypothetical optimal grading of the logs, the volume for each assortment type is closely aligned with the current capacity of each industry branch, indicating no overcapacity. We found undersupply of softwood of 3.4 M m3 for the Czech Republic, 1.5 M m3 for Norway, and 3.8 M m3 for Germany. At the same time, in Germany, we found an oversupply of hardwood of 3.0 M m3. Additionally, a substantial amount of biomass graded as bioenergy was found for Germany and the Czech Republic, potentially serving as fuelwood in households. Concerning wood procurement areas, we concluded that a fixed radius of 100 km from the facility limited the availability of raw material procurement, particularly for bioenergy and pulp and paper mills, suggesting that these two product chains use a broader procurement basin than sawlogs. This study provides a high-resolution, spatially explicit modelling methodology for assessing the interaction between potential wood harvest and industrial processing capacity, which can support projections of sustainable development of the forest industry.
Authors
Anne Friederike BorchertAbstract
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Authors
Jakob GeipelAbstract
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Authors
Christer Thrane Gudbrand Lien Mehmet Mehmetoglu Ståle StørdalAbstract
We examine the association between beer prices and the inherent characteristics of beers within the traditional price hedonic framework. Using a large-scale Norwegian data set with more than 9000 individual beer products from several production countries, we find that alcohol content has a strong, positive, and significant effect on the retail price of beer. In contrast, the effect of expert quality rating on beer price appears to be of only small to moderate importance. We also find significant and substantially important price differences between production countries. Finally, there is effect heterogeneity (i.e. interaction effects) for both alcohol content and quality rating with respect to production country. For example, the association between alcohol content and price is larger in Norway and Germany than in most of the other production countries in the data.
Abstract
Aquaculture constitutes an important source of protein, essential omega-3 fatty acids and bioavailable micronutrients for humans. The increasing demand for aquatic food products has resulted in more intensive farming practices leading to negative impacts on aquaculture organisms and marine ecosystems. Disease outbreaks cause more than 6 billion USD loss worldwide annually and possess high risks of spreading to the wild fauna especially by viral infections. Vaccination has been proved to be effective to mitigate these problems and widely used as prophylaxis in aquaculture, but available vaccines against viral nervous necrosis (VNN) are limited currently. Plant platforms have several advantages and have been proposed as an alternative biomanufacturing method for vaccine antigens. In the present study, we report: (1) selection and design of recombinant plasmids encoding the capsid proteins (CPs) of two genotypes of NNV, red-spotted grouper nervous necrosis virus (RGNNV) and striped jack nervous necrosis virus (SJNNV); (2) design and optimization of plasmids for transient expression of NNV vaccine antigens in wild type Nicotiana benthamiana, CRISPR/Cas9 genome edited Nicotiana benthamiana and Lactuca sativa; (3) test of different Agrobacterium strains (LBA4404 and AGL1) for effective production of NNVCPs; (4) the expression patterns of NNVCPs over time post infiltration for different plants and cultivars; (5) successful production of NNV antigens in N. benthamiana lines and lettuce cultivars, indicating the potential of the plants as antigen producers in the development of a plant-based vaccine against VNN.