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Publikasjoner

NIBIOs ansatte publiserer flere hundre vitenskapelige artikler og forskningsrapporter hvert år. Her finner du referanser og lenker til publikasjoner og andre forsknings- og formidlingsaktiviteter. Samlingen oppdateres løpende med både nytt og historisk materiale. For mer informasjon om NIBIOs publikasjoner, besøk NIBIOs bibliotek.

2018

Sammendrag

Norway is strongly committed to the Paris Climate Agreement with an ambitious goal of 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emission by 2030. The land sector, including agriculture and forestry, must critically contribute to this national target. Beyond emission reduction, the land sector has the unique capacity to actively removing CO2 from the atmosphere through biological carbon storage in biomass and in soils. Soils are the largest reservoir of terrestrial carbon, and relatively small changes in soil carbon content can have an amplified mitigation effect on the Earth’s climate. Therefore, improved management of soils for carbon storage is receiving a lot of attention, for example through international political initiatives such as the “4-permill” initiative. However, in Norway, many mitigation measures targeting soil carbon might negatively impact food production and economic activity. For example, soil carbon storage can be increased by shifting from cereal crop production to grasslands, but Norway already has abundant grassland and a comparatively small area dedicated to cereals. Another such issue is cultivation on drained peatland, where food is produced at the expense of large losses of soil carbon as CO2 to the atmosphere. Therefore, there is a need to look for win-win solutions for soil carbon storage, which benefit both food production and climate mitigation. Large-scale conversion of agricultural and forest waste biomass to biochar is such an option, and is considered the activity with the largest potential for soil carbon sequestration in Norway. Biochar has been demonstrated to have a mean residence time exceeding 100 years in Norwegian field conditions (Rasse et al, 2017), and no negative effects on plant and soils has been observed. However, despite the convincing benefits of biochar as a climate mitigation solution, it has not yet advanced much beyond the research stage, notably because its effect on yield are too modest. Here, we will first present the comparative advantage of biochar technology as compared to traditional agronomy methods for large-scale C storage in Norwegian agricultural soils. We will further discuss the need for developing innovations in pyrolysis and nutrient-rich waste recycling leading to biochar-fertilizer products as win-win solution for carbon storage and food production.

Sammendrag

The increase in production and use of Ag and TiO2 nanomaterials has led to their release in wastewater streams and subsequently in the environment. Nanoparticles (NPs) can undergo transformations in environmental media such as wastewaters leading to an alteration in behavior, bioavailability and toxicity that may differ from their pristine counterparts and make predictions challenging. In this context, the overall goal of the study was to elucidate (i) the behavior and transformation of Ag and TiO2 NPs in realistic matrices such as wastewater effluents and activated sludge and (ii) the subsequent effects of transformed particles in comparison to their pristine counterparts. In this study, a laboratory-scale wastewater treatment system was established and combined with a battery of ecotoxicological assays and characterization techniques. The system contained activated sludge and was operated as a pre-denitrification system fed with synthetic wastewater spiked daily with 10 µg Ag NPs/L (PVP coated, 25 nm, nanoComposix) and 100 µg TiO2 NPs/L (nominal primary size of 5 nm, NM-101, JRC) over a period of 5 weeks. During that period the effluents were collected weekly and the excess sludge was stored for the evaluation of terrestrial toxicity. Samples from all reactors and effluents were collected weekly and analyzed by sequential filtration and ICP-MS to determine the partitioning of NPs and their transformation products. Transmission electron microscopy and sp-ICP-MS were performed on selected samples. The effects of aged particles were assessed using a battery of bioassays including freshwater and marine algae (growth inhibition and reactive oxygen species -ROS- formation), crustaceans, as well as in vitro models of relevance for NP toxicity assessement (RTgill-W1 cell line, effects on metabolic activity, epithelial integrity, ROS formation, gene expression). The extent of the observed effects was dependent on the organism exposed, with bottom feeding organisms and algae being more sensitive, while the in vitro model was a good tool for environmental samples. Furthermore, the biosolids generated from the lab-scale continuous system were used in terrestrial microcosm experiments, giving insight into the fate and potential accumulation in a model terrestrial system. Experimental data generated from the continuous-flow operation of the activated sludge system and the targeted batch experiments will be used to model the fate and the removal of NPs.

Til dokument

Sammendrag

Using Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism, this study addresses the potential linkage between toxicity of NM300K Ag nanoparticles (AgNPs), their particle size distribution and the presence of dissolved Ag in the test media. Of the three endpoints assessed (growth, fertility and reproduction), reproduction was the most sensitive, with 50% effect concentration (EC50) ranging from 0.26-0.84 mg Ag L-1 and 0.08-0.11 mg Ag L-1 for NM300K and AgNO3, respectively. Silver uptake by C. elegans was similar for both forms of Ag, while bioaccumulation was higher in AgNO3 exposure. The observed differences in toxicity between NM300K and AgNO3 did not correlate to bioaccumulated Ag, which suggests the toxicity to be a function of the type of exposing agent (AgNPs vs AgNO3) and their mode of action. Before addition of the food source, E. coli, size fractionation revealed that dissolved Ag comprised 13-90 % and 4-8 % of total Ag in the AgNO3 and NM300K treatments, respectively. No dissolved Ag was detectable in the actual test media, due to immediate Ag adsorption to bacteria. Results from the current study highlight that information on behavior and characterization of exposure conditions is essential for nanotoxicity studies.

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Sammendrag

Four lab scale biogas reactors fed with a substrate composition of ensiled fish waste and manure fixed at 13 and 87 vol %, respectively, were operated with HRTs of 20, 25, 30 and 40 days. Biogas process performance and stability were evaluated with regard to CH4 yields, NH4+ accumulation and abundance of NH4+-tolerant microorganisms. Process performance in the reactors operated at different HRTs were compared to process performance in reactors operated with constant HRT, fed with increased ratios of fish waste. The process performance and microbial dynamics were stable in reactors operated at constant amount of fish waste in the feed and with different HRTs. In the reactors added elevated ratios of fish waste, the concentration of NH4+ and abundance of NH4+-tolerant acetate oxidizing bacteria increased. The biogas process failed in these reactors simultaneously with an observed shift in microbial composition. In particular, the bacterium Tepidanaerobacter Acetatoxydans seemed to affect the biogas process stability. The hydrogenotrophic Methanomicrobiales increased in abundance in response to higher fish waste loading and NH4+ concentrations. This study showed that at a loading of 13% fish waste, it is possible to decrease the HRT from 30 to 20 days without markedly inhibiting the process stability.