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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

Management of agricultural diffuse pollution to water remains a challenge and is influenced by the complex interactions of rainfall-runoff pathways, soil and nutrient management, agricultural landscape heterogeneity and biogeochemical cycling in receiving water bodies. Amplified cycles of weather can also influence nutrient loss to water although they are less considered in policy reviews. Here, we present the development of climate-chemical indicators of diffuse pollution in highly monitored catchments in Western Europe. Specifically, we investigated the influences and relationships between weather processes amplified by the North Atlantic Oscillation during a sharp upward trend (2010– 2016) and the patterns of diffuse nitrate and phosphorus pollution in rivers. On an annual scale, we found correlations between local catchment-scale nutrient concentrations in rivers and the influence of larger, oceanic-scale climate patterns defined by the intensity of the North Atlantic Oscillation. These influences were catchment-specific showing positive, negative or no correlation according to a typology. Upward trends in these decadal oscillations may override positive benefits of local management in some years or indicate greater benefits in other years. Developing integrated climatechemical indicators into catchment monitoring indicators will provide a new and important contribution to water quality management objectives.

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Abstract

In cold climate regions a significant fraction of annual soil erosion in agricultural land occurs during snowmelt and rain on partially frozen soils. Physically based and spatially distributed soil erosion models have proved to be good tools for understanding the processes occurring at catchment scale during rainfall erosion. However, most existing erosion models do not account for snow in a suitable way. A combination of the UEBGrid snow pack model and the LISEM erosion model was therefore used in this study. The aim was to test and validate this model combination and to assess its utility in relation to quantification and process understanding. Applying this model combination to simulate surface runoff and soil erosion showed that, in principle, it is possible to satisfactorily simulate surface runoff and observed soil erosion patterns during winter. The values for the calibration parameters were similar for the two chosen winter periods when the rainfall and snowmelt episodes occurred. However, the calibration procedure showed that the utility of this combination had several limitations. It is hoped that this study can help to improve existing models and trigger new developments in including snow pack dynamics and soil freezing and thawing in soil erosion models.

Abstract

Monitoring changes in forest height, biomass and carbon stock is important for understanding the drivers of forest change, clarifying the geography and magnitude of the fluxes of the global carbon budget and for providing input data to REDD+. The objective of this study was to investigate the feasibility of covering these monitoring needs using InSAR DEM changes over time and associated estimates of forest biomass change and corresponding net CO2 emissions. A wall-to-wall map of net forest change for Uganda with its tropical forests was derived from two Digital Elevation Model (DEM) datasets, namely the SRTM acquired in 2000 and TanDEM-X acquired around 2012 based on Interferometric SAR (InSAR) and based on the height of the phase center. Errors in the form of bias, as well as parallel lines and belts having a certain height shift in the SRTM DEM were removed, and the penetration difference between X- and C-band SAR into the forest canopy was corrected. On average, we estimated X-band InSAR height to decrease by 7 cm during the period 2000–2012, corresponding to an estimated annual CO2 emission of 5 Mt for the entirety of Uganda. The uncertainty of this estimate given as a 95% confidence interval was 2.9–7.1 Mt. The presented method has a number of issues that require further research, including the particular SRTM biases and artifact errors; the penetration difference between the X- and C-band; the final height adjustment; and the validity of a linear conversion from InSAR height change to AGB change. However, the results corresponded well to other datasets on forest change and AGB stocks, concerning both their geographical variation and their aggregated values.

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Abstract

The sentinel plants concept responds to the need for new strategies to identify and study potential plant pests (including pathogens) and assess associated risks before their introduction to other continents. However, even if very promising, this tool is not yet implemented on a large scale, partially because it requires adequate planning, long-term funding, strong local links and reliable collaborators. In addition, a wider implementation of sentinel plantations and sentinel nurseries requires knowledge of regulations and procedures regarding the possibilities for their establishment in different countries. In order to achieve this objective, a questionnaire survey was conducted in 2016, to which more than 40 countries around the world responded. The results reveal that many countries have few regulations specifically concerning the import of propagation material, making import of this relatively low-risk material easier than the import of larger living plants that may have been more exposed to pests in the exporting country. The planting of alien woody plants in the environment is possible for scientific purposes in most countries as exemption from general phytosanitary import requirements, but the import and planting of alien plant species may be regulated by different government departments. We will present the outcomes of this study, which will be useful to facilitate the selection of locations for future sentinel plants and may provide guidance on the rules for import of plant propagation material for the establishment of sentinel plants and sentinel nurseries in different countries.