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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.

2020

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There is an increasing interest in plastics, both as a resource and as a pollutant. In Europe, 25.8 million tons of plastic waste are generated each year, and their effects on climate, economy, human and environmental health are major challenges that society needs to address. Although a lot of emphasis is placed on recycling, the use of recycled plastics is still low in the EU. In this context, climate change and environmental concerns have boosted the development of various types of biodegradable plastics. The use of biodegradable plastics spans from disposable containers for food/drink, serviceware and wipes, via waste bags for organic waste collected for biogas production, to agricultural films used to cover soil during vegetable production. However, biodegradable plastics are rarely degraded so quickly and completely that the products disappear in nature, and the label may encourage people think otherwise, enhancing littering. The aim of our study was to describe the fate of biodegradable materials and products during waste treatment, and more specifically during composting. How long does it take these materials to degrade? What are the conditions for degradation, and ultimately, for obtaining plastic-free compost products? To answer these questions, we selected relevant materials, including compostable serviceware, biodegradable plastic bags used for organic waste collection, and biodegradable agricultural mulch films. Composting experiments were performed both at lab-scale (1.5 L containers with externally applied heating) and larger scale (in 140 L insulated compost tumblers, with natural heating from the composting processes, continuously monitored). The endpoints studied were recovery, mass loss, changes in morphology and composition, and microbial analysis of the various composts. In addition, we assessed the applicability of chemical digestion methods used for sample pretreatment of environmental samples containing conventional plastics to biodegradable plastics. Biodegradable plastics is an umbrella term covering materials with diverse polymeric compositions and thus material properties. This was well demonstrated by our selected materials, which displayed distinct degradation behaviors under similar controlled conditions. The time-course of degradation during composting will be presented for all selected materials, together with the main parameters influencing their degradation rates. In addition, some methodological challenges in this research field will be discussed. Finally, experience from a municipal composting facility receiving biodegradable plastic waste will also be presented to put our laboratory-based results into perspective.

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Potato onions (Allium cepa var aggregatum G. Don) are multiplying or aggregating onions, very similar to shallots and have been historically cultivated throughout Europe. Currently in Northern Europe they are maintained in home gardens and ex situ field collections. Potato onions are primarily vegetatively propagated, however in Estonia, near Lake Peipsi, this species has been propagated by seed since the seventeenth century. There is increasing interest in Northern Europe in utilizing this germplasm in organic and/or sustainable farming systems. The genetic diversity and relationship between and within European potato onion collections is unclear. From historical records it is known that cultivation, exchange and trade of potato onion has occurred throughout Europe for hundreds of years. This study utilised molecular markers to assess genetic diversity, duplication of genotypes and relationships among and between Nordic, Baltic, Czech and Croatian potato onion collections. Of 264 accessions, 80 catalogued as unique had identical genotypes with one or more other accessions, and are putative duplicates. The genetic diversity within two Estonian sexually propagated accessions was comparable to that found in all of the vegetatively propagated accessions. Accessions from the Nordic countries grouped together genetically, as did Latvian and Lithuanian accessions. Croatian accessions were genetically separated. These genetic relationships suggest historical movement of potato onion germplasm in North-Eastern Europe. The results, in conjunction with other passport and characterization data, can assist in the development of potato onion core collections, facilitating the conservation and utilization of valuable potato onion genetic resources.

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Members of the smoothhound shark genus Mustelus display a widespread distribution pattern across ocean basins with a high degree of sub-regional endemism. The patterns and processes that resulted in smoothhound biodiversity and present-day distribution remain largely unknown. We infer the phylogenetic relationships of the genus Mustelus, based on sequence data (3474 bp) from three mitochondrial genes (CR, NADH-2 and 12S-16SrRNA) and a nuclear gene (KBTBD2) from seven species of Mustelus distributed across the eastern Atlantic- and Indo-Pacific oceans. Using the CR and KBTBD2 dataset, we infer the phylogeographic placement of Old World Mustelus, with particular reference to species from southern Africa. Using a near-complete phylogeny of the genus including Old World and New World species of Mustelus and publicly available sequences of the NADH-2 gene, we found supporting evidence indicating a major cladogenic event separating placental and aplacental species. Biogeographical analyses further revealed that the radiation of Mustelus in the southern African region was driven primarily by long-distance dispersal during the upper Miocene to lower Pleistocene. The placement of the placental blackspotted smoothhound Mustelus punctulatus at the base of the placental non-spotted clade suggests the secondary loss of black spots in the genus, and this was also supported by the ancestral state reconstruction. The results furthermore suggest that the Southern Hemisphere species of the genus arose from multiple separate dispersal events from the Northern Hemisphere which is in line with the earliest record of Mustelus in the Northern Hemisphere.

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It is commonly known that the pretreatment of complex substrates yields higher biogas production in anaerobic digestion (AD) by improving hydrolysis. However, it is still questioned whether all solubilized fractions after pretreatment can be used for CH4 production during AD. In this study, the relationship between increased solubilization and AD efficiency in response to different pretreatment conditions of lipid-extracted microalgae waste (LEMW) was investigated. The individual pretreatment (acid and ultrasonic) and combined pretreatment were applied to assess the solubilization of LEMW. A biochemical methane potential (BMP) test was subsequently performed to determine the AD efficiency. Combined pretreatment of LEMW (60 min of irradiation + pH 1) showed the highest performance, achieving CH4 production of 1245 ± 28 mL CH4/L with increased solubilization of 50.4%. However, it was found that increased solubilization did not proportionally increase CH4 productivity. The assessment of the origin of produced CH4 through biomass fractionation supports this finding in that the soluble fraction that does not contribute to CH4 production increased at more severe pretreatment conditions.

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Wheat disease management in Europe is mainly based on the use of fungicides and the cultivation of resistant cultivars. Improving disease management implies the formal comparison of disease management methods in terms of both crop health and yield levels (attainable yield, actual yield), thus enabling an assessment of yield losses and yield gains. Such an assessment is not available for wheat in Europe. The objective of the analysis reported here is to provide an overview of wheat health and yield performance in field experiments in Europe. Data from field experiments in six European countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, and Sweden) conducted between 2013 and 2017 were analysed to that aim. Relationships between multiple disease levels, yield, level of cultivar resistance, level of fungicide protection, and weather patterns were assessed. The analyses included 73 field experiments, corresponding to a total of 447 [fungicide protection level x cultivar] combinations. Analyses across the six countries led to ranking the importance of foliar wheat diseases as follows, in decreasing order: leaf blotch (septoria tritici blotch, septoria nodorum blotch, and tan spot), leaf rust, yellow rust, and powdery mildew. Fusarium head blight was observed in France and Italy, and stem rust was sporadically observed in Italy. Disease patterns, crop inputs (fertiliser, fungicides), and yields widely varied within and across countries. Disease levels were affected by the level of fungicide use, by cultivar resistance, as well as by weather patterns. While this analysis enables a better documentation of the status of wheat health in Europe, it also highlights the critical need for policies in Europe enabling a more judicious use of pesticides. First, common standards for field experiments are needed (experimental designs and protocols; disease assessment procedures and scales; references, including reference-susceptible cultivars); second, assessments in farmers’ fields – and not in research stations – are necessary; and third, there is a need to use available process-based crop models to estimate attainable yields, and so, yield losses.

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