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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.

2023

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Sammendrag

Climate change has had a significant impact on the tourism industry in many countries, leading to changes in policies and adaptations to attract more visitors. However, there are few studies on the effects of climate change on Sri Lanka’s tourism industry and income, despite its importance as a destination for tourists. A study was conducted to analyze the holiday climate index (HCI) for Sri Lanka’s urban and beach destinations to address this gap. The analysis covered historical years (2010–2018) and forecasted climatic scenarios (2021–2050 and 2071–2100), and the results were presented as colored maps to highlight the importance of HCI scores. Visual analysis showed some correlation between HCI scores and tourist arrivals, but the result of the overall correlation analysis was not significant. However, a country-specific correlation analysis revealed interesting findings, indicating that the changing climate can be considered among other factors that impact tourist arrivals. The research proposes that authorities assess the outcomes of the study and conduct further research to develop adaptive plans for Sri Lanka’s future tourism industry. The study also investigated potential scenarios for beach and urban destinations under two climate scenarios (RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5) for the near and far future, presenting the findings to tourism industry stakeholders for any necessary policy changes. As Sri Lanka expects more Chinese visitors in the future due to ongoing development projects, this study could be valuable for policymakers and industry stakeholders when adapting to changing climate and future tourist behavior. While more research is needed to fully understand the effects of climate change on Sri Lanka’s tourism industry, this study serves as a starting point for future investigations.

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Climate change, urbanization, and many anthropogenic activities have intensified the floods in today’s world. However, poor attention was given to mitigation strategies for floods in the developing world due to funding and technical limitations. Developing flood inundation maps from historical flood records would be an important task in mitigating any future flood damages. Therefore, this study presents the predictive capability of the Rainfall-Runoff-Inundation (RRI) model, a 2D coupled hydrology-inundation model, and to build flood inundation maps utilizing available ground observation and satellite remote sensing data for Kalu River, Sri Lanka. Despite the lack of studies in predicting flood levels, Kalu River is an annually flooded river basin in Sri Lanka. The comparative results between ground-based rainfall (GBR) measurement and satellite rainfall products (SRPs) from the IMERG satellite have shown that SRPs underestimate peak discharges compared to GBR data. The accuracy and the reliability of the model were assessed using ground-measured discharges with a high coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.89) and Nash–Sutcliffe model efficiency coefficient (NSE = 0.86). Therefore, the developed RRI model can successfully be used to simulate the inundation of flood events in the KRB. The findings can directly be applied to the stakeholders.

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Soil nutrient contents and stoichiometric ratios are determinants for soil biogeochemical cycling and functions. Variable rock fragment contents (RFC) may shape the soil nutrient status and availability in mountain ecosystems. We need to better understand how and why soil nutrients and stoichiometry shift across the RFC gradients. To investigate patterns of soil nutrient stoichiometry and underlying mechanisms in rocky soils, we conducted a field experiment involving four RFCs gradients (0%, 25%, 50% and 75%, V/V) and five vegetation treatments (four indigenous species, Artemisia vestita, Bauhinia brachycarpa, Cotinus szechuanensis and Sophora davidii, plus a non-planted treatment). Soil total carbon (C), total nitrogen (N), total phosphorus (P) and their molar ratios were measured. The contents of soil C, N and P, and C:N, C:P and N:P decreased with increasing RFC in all treatments, despite their trends were inconsistent in certain soil layers. The averages of soil N content significantly increased by 13.8% and 14.8% in C. szechuanensis and S. davidii, respectively. A. vestita and B. brachycarpa had higher soil C:N than C. szechuanensis and S. davidii. Soil nutrients and stoichiometry were positively related to soil water content (SWC) and soil capillary porosity, and negatively to bulk density and soil non-capillary porosity in all vegetation treatments, but varying relationships with biomass of plant components. These results demonstrated negative effect of RFC and discrepant effects of the plants on soil nutrients and stoichiometry. Soil structure, SWC and vegetation were the main drivers of variations in soil nutrient stoichiometry. We further concluded that soil nutrient stoichiometry in rocky soils is shaped by two influencing paths; effects of RFC on soil physical properties (SWC and soil structure) and effects of different vegetations. Our findings advance knowledge and mechanisms of soil nutrient stoichiometry in rocky soils and provide theoretical support for improving and restoring nutrient status in stony regions.

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Whether and how to synchronously regulate stream water nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) concentrations and ratios is a major challenge for sustainable aquatic functions. Soil carbon (C):N:P ratios influence soil N and P stocks and biogeochemical processes that elicit subsequent substantial impacts on stream water N and P concentrations and ratios. Therefore, bridging soil and stream water with ecological stoichiometry is one of the most promising technologies for improving stream water quality. Here, we quantified the ecological stoichiometry of soil and stream water relationships across nine catchments. Soil C:P ratio was the main driver of water quality, showing negative correlations with stream water N and P concentrations, and positive correlations with the N:P ratio in P-limited catchments. We revealed that soil C:P ratios higher than 97.8 mol mol−1 are required to achieve the simultaneous regulation of stream water N and P concentrations below the eutrophication threshold and make algal growth P-limited. Furthermore, we found that the relationships between catchment landscape and soil ecological stoichiometry likely provided practical options for regulating soil ecological stoichiometry. Our work highlights that soil ecological stoichiometry can effectively indicate the amount and proportion of soil N and P losses, and can be intervened through rational landscape planning to achieve sustainable aquatic ecosystems in catchments.

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Climate change can have an influence on rainfall that significantly affects the magnitude frequency of floods and droughts. Therefore, the analysis of the spatiotemporal distribution, variability, and trends of rainfall over the Mahi Basin in India is an important objective of the present work. Accordingly, a serial autocorrelation, coefficient of variation, Mann–Kendall (MK) and Sen’s slope test, innovative trend analysis (ITA), and Pettitt’s test were used in the rainfall analysis. The outcomes were derived from the monthly precipitation data (1901–2012) of 14 meteorology stations in the Mahi Basin. The serial autocorrelation results showed that there is no autocorrelation in the data series. The rainfall statistics denoted that the Mahi Basin receives 94.8% of its rainfall (821 mm) in the monsoon period (June–September). The normalized accumulated departure from the mean reveals that the annual and monsoon rainfall of the Mahi Basin were below average from 1901 to 1930 and above average from 1930 to 1990, followed by a period of fluctuating conditions. Annual and monsoon rainfall variations increase in the lower catchment of the basin. The annual and monsoon rainfall trend analysis specified a significant declining tendency for four stations and an increasing tendency for 3 stations, respectively. A significant declining trend in winter rainfall was observed for 9 stations under review. Likewise, out of 14 stations, 9 stations denote a significant decrease in pre-monsoon rainfall. Nevertheless, there is no significant increasing or decreasing tendency in annual, monsoon, and post-monsoon rainfall in the Mahi Basin. The Mann–Kendall test and innovative trend analysis indicate identical tendencies of annual and seasonal rainfall on the basin scale. The annual and monsoon rainfall of the basin showed a positive shift in rainfall after 1926. The rainfall analysis confirms that despite spatiotemporal variations in rainfall, there are no significant positive or negative trends of annual and monsoon rainfall on the basin scale. It suggests that the Mahi Basin received average rainfall (867 mm) annually and in the monsoon season (821 mm) from 1901 to 2012, except for a few years of high and low rainfall. Therefore, this study is important for flood and drought management, agriculture, and water management in the Mahi Basin.