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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.

2011

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submittedVersion This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: Use of Multi-Criteria Involvement Processes to Enhance Transparency and Stakeholder Participation at Bergen Harbour, Norway, which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ieam.182/full. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.

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The Ritland structure is a newly discovered impact structure, which is located in southwestern Norway. The structure is the remnant of a simple crater 2.5 km in diameter and 350 m deep, which was excavated in Precambrian gneissic rocks. The crater was filled by sediments in Cambrian times and covered by thrust nappes of the Caledonian orogen in the Silurian–Devonian. Several succeeding events of uplift, erosion, and finally the Pleistocene glaciations, disclosed this well-preserved structure. The erosion has exposed brecciated rocks of the original crater floor overlain by a thin layer of melt-bearing rocks and postimpact crater-filling breccias, sandstones, and shales. Quartz grains with planar deformation features occur frequently within the melt-bearing unit, confirming the impact origin of the structure. The good exposures of infilling sediments have allowed a detailed reconstruction of the original crater morphology and its infilling history based on geological field mapping.

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The involvement of the public in decision-making is established as a key feature of many planning policies. However, there is evidence from the literature of a prevailing gap between participation rhetoric on paper and participation at the operational level. We assess whether this is also the case with landscape policy and review landscape characterization and assessment initiatives in England, Norway, Slovakia and Malta, focusing on five dimensions of good practice: (i) scope of public participation, (ii) representativeness of those involved, (iii) timeliness of public involvement, (iv) extent to which participation is rendered comfortable and convenient for the public, and (v) eventual influence of public input on decisions. Reviewed reporting results indicate weaknesses in the implementation of public participation, with public involvement largely limited to consultation, with few efforts to ensure representativeness of participants, with predominantly late involvement of the public, and with limited influence of the public on outputs. Furthermore, few efforts appear to be made to facilitate participation for the public. Although the cases studied differ, none of them are fully satisfactory in relation to the European Landscape Convention's participatory targets. The reporting of public participation processes thus suggests that practices may fail to match the rhetoric.

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In Norway spruce, the temperature during zygotic embryogenesis appears to adjust an adaptive epigenetic memory in the progeny that may regulate bud phenology and cold acclimation. Conditions colder than normal advance the timing whilst temperatures above normal delay the onset of these processes and altered performance is long lasting in progeny with identical genetic background. As a step toward unraveling the molecular mechanism behind an epigenetic memory, transcriptional analysis was performed on seedlings from seeds of six full-sib families produced at different embryogenesis temperature?cold (CE) vs warm (WE) under long and short day conditions. We prepared two suppressive subtractedcDNAlibraries, forward and reverse, representing genes predominantly expressed in plants from seeds obtained after CE and WE embryogenesis following short day treatment (inducing bud set). Sequencing and annotation revealed considerable differences in the transcriptome of WE versus CE originated plants. By using qRT-PCR we studied the expression patterns of 32 selected candidate genes chosen from subtractive cDNA libraries analysis and nine siRNA pathways genes by a direct candidate approach. Eight genes, two transposons related genes, three with no match to Databases sequences and three genes from siRNA pathways (PaDCL1 and 2, PaSGS3) showed differential expression in progeny from CE andWEcorrelated with the family phenotypic differences. These findingsmaycontribute to our understanding of the epigenetic mechanisms underlying adaptive changes acquired during embryogenesis.

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Grouse and vole numbers may peak after peaks in the seed crop of bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) because of reduced levels of feeding deterrents in bilberry plants. We predicted that grouse reproduction depends also on summer (June-September) temperatures in the 2 previous years, because bilberry plants will be less exhausted after a high seed crop in or after warm summers, and thus rebuild their chemical defence more quickly. After berry peak years, population indices of capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) and bank vole (Myodes glareolus) in southern Norway were negatively related to summer temperatures in the previous year or previous 2 years. Willow grouse (Lagopus lagopus) chick production in five areas in Norway was negatively related to summer temperatures in the 2 previous years when controlling for vole density. A similar pattern was found for the bilberry-feeding moth (Eulithis populata), an important prey for grouse chicks. In eastern Norway, autumn densities of capercaillie and black grouse (Tetrao tetrix) were more likely to peak in vole peak years at high altitudes, where summer temperatures are low. We conclude that high summer temperatures may limit grouse reproduction through the effect on bilberry plants and that a warm climate thus adversely affects population levels of grouse.