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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.

2018

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Abstract

Climate impacts of forest bioenergy result from a multitude of warming and cooling effects and vary by location and technology. While past bioenergy studies have analysed a limited number of climatealtering pollutants and activities, no studies have jointly addressed supply chain greenhouse gas emissions, biogenic CO2 fluxes, aerosols and albedo changes at high spatial and process detail. Here, we present a national-level climate impact analysis of stationary bioenergy systems in Norway based on wood-burning stoves and wood biomass-based district heating. We find that cooling aerosols and albedo offset 60–70% of total warming, leaving a net warming of 340 or 69 kg CO2e MWh−1 for stoves or district heating, respectively. Large variations are observed over locations for albedo, and over technology alternatives for aerosols. By demonstrating both notable magnitudes and complexities of different climate warming and cooling effects of forest bioenergy in Norway, our study emphasizes the need to consider multiple forcing agents in climate impact analysis of forest bioenergy.

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Abstract

Ocean warming (OW), ocean acidification (OA) and their interaction with local drivers, e.g., copper pollution, may negatively affect macroalgae and their microscopic life stages. We evaluated meiospore development of the kelps Macrocystis pyrifera and Undaria pinnatifida exposed to a factorial combination of current and 2100-predicted temperature (12 and 16 °C, respectively), pH (8.16 and 7.65, respectively), and two copper levels (no-added-copper and species-specific germination Cu- EC50). Meiospore germination for both species declined by 5–18% under OA and ambient temperature/ OA conditions, irrespective of copper exposure. Germling growth rate declined by >40%·day−1, and gametophyte development was inhibited under Cu-EC50 exposure, compared to the no-added-copper treatment, irrespective of pH and temperature. Following the removal of copper and 9-day recovery under respective pH and temperature treatments, germling growth rates increased by 8–18%·day−1. The exception was U. pinnatifida under OW/OA, where growth rate remained at 10%·day−1 before and after copper exposure. Copper-binding ligand concentrations were higher in copper-exposed cultures of both species, suggesting that ligands may act as a defence mechanism of kelp early life stages against copper toxicity. Our study demonstrated that copper pollution is more important than global climate drivers in controlling meiospore development in kelps as it disrupts the completion of their life cycle.

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Abstract

CRISPR gene-editing has major implications for agriculture and food security. However, no studies have evaluated the public acceptance and valuation of CRISPR-produced food. As such, we conducted a multi-country assessment of consumers’ willingness-to-consume (WTC) and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for CRISPR-produced food compared to conventional and genetically modified (GM) foods, respectively. In the USA, Canada, Belgium, France, and Australia, 56, 47, 46, 30, and 51% of respondents, respectively, indicated they would consume both GM and CRISPR food. We also found that biotechnology familiarity and perceptions of safety were the primary drivers for WTC CRISPR and GM food. Moreover, respondents valued CRISPR and GM food similarly – substantially less than conventional food – which could be detrimental for meeting future food demand.

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Abstract

Virus diseases have been a great threat to production of economically important crops. In practice, the use of virus-free planting material is an effective strategy to control viral diseases. Cryotherapy, developed based on cryopreservation, is a novel plant biotechnology tool for virus eradication. Comparing to the traditional meristem culture for virus elimination, cryotherapy resulted in high efficiency of pathogen eradication. In general, cryotherapy includes seven major steps: (1) introduction of infected plant materials into in vitro cultures, (2) shoot tip excision, (3) tolerance induction of explants to dehydration and subsequent freezing in liquid nitrogen (LN), (4) a short-time treatment of explants in LN, (5) warming and post-culture for regeneration, (6) re-establishment of regenerated plants in greenhouse conditions, and (7) virus indexing.