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.
2025
Authors
Alexandro B. Leverkus María Medina Alba Lazaro-Gonzalez Laura Levy Olivia Lorente-Casalini Marino P. Reyes Martín Enrique Andivia Alessandro Bizzarri Henrik Böhlenius Vito E. Cambria Claudia Cocozza Branislav Cvjetkovic Giovanbattista de Dato Lenka Ehrenbergerova Peter Ferus Lorena Gomez-Aparicio Arndt Hampe Kjersti Holt Hanssen Marcin Jakubowski Ivona Kerkez Jankovic Marcin Klisz Wojciech Kowalkowski Klaus Kremer Jelena Lazarevic Dagnija Lazdina Emanuele Lingua Magnus Löf Manuel E. Lucas-Borja Adrian Łukowski Paula Maia Paola Mairota Alberto Maltoni Barbara Mariotti Raffaella Marzano Lucia Mondanelli Antonio Montagnoli Maria Cristina Monteverdi Francisco B. Navarro Reyes Juan A. Oliet Maria S. Patrício Zoran Poduska Vladan Popovic Radosław Puchałka Piotr Robakowski Piotr Sewerniak Carmen Urena-Lara Pedro Villar-Salvador Johanna Witzell Nicolo Anselmetto Inger Sundheim FløistadAbstract
Seedling emergence constitutes a critical recruitment step, and early growth relates to plant competitive ability. Understanding their drivers has implications for forestry and forest ecosystem conservation, restoration, and adaptation to climate change. We seeded 6984 acorns in an experiment with 97 cases at 45 sites in 15 European countries, encompassing 12 oak species. We tested whether the quality of the acorn batch, site-level weather and soil characteristics, year of seeding, and species’ mean specific leaf area (SLA) affected the emergence and early growth of seedlings after the first summer. Germination potential and acorn dry weight, measured under controlled conditions, were positively associated with emergence and early growth. Seedling emergence was negatively associated with the mean monthly temperature and cumulative winter precipitation, and it was higher in the seedling cohort that was spared from the 2021 drought. Additionally, seedling emergence was positively related to soil nutrient concentration and negatively to increasing soil pH, but not to water-holding capacity, and growth was unrelated to soils. Species-level SLA was not related to either response. The four main study species –Quercus cerris, Q. ilex, Q. petraea, and Q. robur– responded similarly to weather but not to soil conditions. We conclude that, at a continental scale, and assuming that species establish within their current distributions, (a) oak seedling emergence and early growth are associated with acorn quality rather than species identity or SLA, (b) they are highest at sites with low winter precipitation and temperature, (c) emergence is reduced in dry years, and d) soil properties play a secondary role at this early recruitment stage.
Authors
Pedro Villar-Salvador Enrique Andivia Barbara Mariotti Juan A. Oliet Jaime Puértolas Claudia Cocozza Vladan Ivetić Marianthi Tsakaldimi Antonio Montagnoli Branislav Cvjetković R. Kasten Dumroese Inger Sundheim Fløistad Eduardo Arellano Jovana Devetaković Julio J. Diez Guolei Li Alberto Maltoni Juan F. Ovalle Fabio Salbitano Roberto Tognetti Maurizio Ventura Alberto Vilagrosa Johanna WitzellAbstract
Seedling functional attributes (i.e., morphological and physiological traits driving water, carbon, and nutrient economy, as well as stress resistance and resilience) influence the early performance of forest plantings. Nursery environment and cultivation practices interact with species ecology to shape these attributes and potential outplanting success. Although extensive literature exists on these topics, studies that have quantitatively synthesized findings to generalize plant quality and nursery cultivation theory are almost nonexistent. This chapter quantitatively reviews the effects of (1) seedling size and shoot-to-root mass ratio (S/R) and (2) several nursery cultivation practices on outplanting survival and growth. Examined practices include stock type (container vs. bareroot (BR)), drought and blackout hardening, container properties in oaks and pines, and growing media alternatives to peat. For this, we developed different databases compiling information at a global scale from scientific and technical literature in different languages. Seedling size significantly enhances outplanting survival when comparing seedlings of the same age, while S/R does not. Stocktype and species-specific leaf area (SLA), a trait related to resource acquisition capacity and stress resistance in plants, modulate the effect of morphology on survival, particularly on arid sites. In dry climates, large seedlings have a survival advantage over small seedlings in low SLA species (i.e., slow growth and high stress resistance plants) cultivated in containers, if water stress is mitigated through intensive soil preparation, and using 1-year-old seedlings. When stock types differ in survival, container plants usually outperform BR stock, especially if soil preparation is performed, and under dry and high weed competition conditions. Drought hardening improves survival, especially in shrubs, but can negatively affect survival in drought-sensitive species on low aridity sites. Blackout reduces field growth, particularly in drought-tolerant species. The effect of container characteristics on survival differs between oaks and pines: for oaks, reducing plant spacing in small to moderate containers (<400 mL) is preferable to maximize survival, while for pines, increasing container depth is more effective. Peat alternatives, including manure, organic waste, and rice hulls, improved survival, whereas sludge performed poorly. Rice was most effective on humid sites, while manure and organic waste showed consistent benefits across climates. Our findings highlight the potential for peat alternatives, with effectiveness depending on local ecological and economic conditions. Based on these results, we provide recommendations to match seedlings’ size and S/R to species' SLA, stocktype, soil preparation intensity, and aridity of the planting site, along with cultivation guidelines for producing such a variety of seedlings.
Authors
Inger Sundheim FløistadAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
The value of genetic resources in agriculture is hard to overestimate as they are decisive for food safety, provide options for adaptation of future diet needs, and underpin a vast amount of biodiversity. To enable an effective conservation of these resources, we need knowledge about where they are located. The EU project GenRes Bridge showed that this knowledge is indeed modest at the European level. A source of genetic resources with particular potential for use in agriculture, e.g. related to the future adaptation to climate change, are crop wild relatives (CWR). Crop wild relatives are plant species categorized as wild relatives of cultivated plants and are used here as an indicator of genetic resources in the landscape. We therefore wanted to explore new ways of identifying hotspots of genetic resources, highlighting the landscape as a starting point. It is well established that landscape heterogeneity is closely related to biodiversity, although to our knowledge studies hitherto have rarely looked at the relation between landscape and genetic resources. Focusing on crop wild relatives, used here as an indicator for genetic resources in the landscape, we wanted to assess whether we could identify how landscape variation in topography and land cover has consequences for the spatial distribution of genetic resources that may be important in the future development of agriculture. Here we report the results from this pilot study where we have tested whether there is a correlation between landscape heterogeneity and agricultural genetic resources, using 5 x 5 km grid cells as spatial units. We used the presence of the crop wild relatives (CWR) which are prioritized for conservation in Norway as indicators of agricultural genetic resource diversity and extracted landscape heterogeneity descriptors from publicly available sources. The results from our study do suggest that landscape diversity could be a path worth following in searching for these resources in the landscape, and thus also important in decision-making on planning and management in these diverse landscapes.
Authors
Arne SteffenremAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Frans-Jan W. Parmentier Alexandra Pongracz Marius Lambert Rosie Fisher Adrian Gustafson Paul A. Miller Sam S. Rabin Ane Vollsnes David WårlindAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Kristian Hansen Benedikte Watne Oliver Zahra Bitarafan Inger Sundheim Fløistad Christian Andreasen Lars Olav BrandsæterAbstract
Background: Giant hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum Sommier and Levier) is a perennial herbaceous plant that can grow to a height of 2-5 m. A single flowering plant can produce more than 20,000 seeds. It is one of Europe’s most widespread and problematic invasive alien species and a severe threat to native biodiversity. Glyphosate is widely used to control H. mantegazzianum. Decades of intensive herbicide spraying have led to environmental pollution, prompting a need to explore new methods to supplement or replace glyphosate. Objective: Non-chemical methods to control H. mantegazzianum were tested and compared with glyphosate application. Methods: In two infested locations in southeast Norway, we compared the efficacy of glyphosate applications with a combination of mechanical cutting of the flowering stem of H. mantegazzianum and hot water treatment (80 °C). Hot water or glyphosate was supplied by foliar application or injection into the root crown. Results: The best method to reduce cover and the number of H. mantegazzianum rosettes and seedlings was achieved with two foliar applications of glyphosate. Cutting the flowering stem and injecting hot water into the root crown was almost as efficient as glyphosate application. Cutting and foliar applications of hot water had the weakest efficacy. Despite the best control and significant growth of grasses after glyphosate treatment, relatively high percentage of bare soil remained in the plots afterwards, increasing the risk of erosion. Conclusions: Cutting and injection of hot water in the root crown may be a viable alternative to glyphosate application in areas where herbicides are undesirable.
Authors
Todora Rogelja Laura Secco Francoise Lefevre Egbert Beuker Marjana Westergren Bruno Fady Santiago C. González-Martínez Tor Myking Luc E. Pâques Christian Rellstab Giuseppe Giovanni Vendramin Thibaud Chauvin Marcela van Loo Ulla Ovaska Jacopo Giacomoni Anže Japelj Anna-Maria Farsakoglou Heino Konrad Sofia Caiolo Aurore Desgroux D. E. Kjær Jo Van Brusselen Mauro MasieroAbstract
Kartlegging av sentrale aktører i forvaltningen av trærnes genressurser
Authors
David Chludil Curt Almqvist Mats Berlin Arne Steffenrem Steven E. McKeand Jiří Korecký Jan Stejskal Jaroslav Čepl Fikret Isik Debojyoti Chakraborty Silvio Schueler Torsten Pook Christi Sagariya Milan LstibůrekAbstract
No abstract has been registered