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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.

2025

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The soil organic carbon (SOC) Think Tank has identified and ranked the ten most critical knowledge gaps affecting SOC stocks, based on stakeholder input and iterative validation across multiple events. These prioritized gaps reflect new insights into land use impacts, policy influences, and methodological needs, forming a foundation for targeted research and innovation.

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ABSTRACT Drained cultivated peatlands are recognized as substantial global carbon emission sources, prompting the exploration of water level elevation as a mitigation strategy. However, the efficacy of raised water table level (WTL) in Arctic/subarctic regions, characterized by continuous summer daylight, low temperatures and short growing seasons, remains poorly understood. This study presents a two‐year field experiment conducted at a northernmost cultivated peatland site in Norway. We used sub‐daily CO 2 , CH 4 , and N 2 O fluxes measured by automatic chambers to assess the impact of WTL, fertilization, and biomass harvesting on greenhouse gas (GHG) budgets and carbon balance. Well‐drained plots acted as GHG sources as substantial as those in temperate regions. Maintaining a WTL between −0.5 and −0.25 m effectively reduces CO 2 emissions, without significant CH 4 and N 2 O emissions, and can even result in a net GHG sink. Elevated temperatures, however, were found to increase CO 2 emissions, potentially attenuating the benefits of water level elevation. Notably, high WTL resulted in a greater suppression of maximum photosynthetic CO 2 uptake compared to respiration, and, yet caused lower net CO 2 emissions due to a low light compensation point that lengthens the net CO 2 uptake periods. Furthermore, the long summer photoperiod in the Arctic also enhanced net CO 2 uptake and, thus, the efficacy of CO 2 mitigation. Fertilization primarily enhanced biomass production without substantially affecting CO 2 or CH 4 emissions. Conversely, biomass harvesting led to a significant carbon depletion, even at a high WTL, indicating a risk of land degradation. These results suggest that while elevated WTL can effectively mitigate GHG emissions from cultivated peatlands, careful management of WTL, fertilization, and harvesting is crucial to balance GHG reduction with sustained agricultural productivity and long‐term carbon storage. The observed compatibility of GHG reduction and sustained grass productivity highlights the potential for future paludiculture implementation in the Arctic.

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Abstract Background and aims Understanding the relationship of root traits and crop performance under varying environmental conditions facilitates the exploitation of root characteristics in breeding and variety testing to maintain crop yields under climate change. Therefore, we (1) evaluated differences in root length and surface area between ten winter wheat varieties grown at 11 sites in Europe covering a large pedoclimatic gradient, (2) quantified differences in root response to soil, climate and management conditions between varieties, and (3) evaluated variety-specific relationships of grain yield and root length and surface area under diverse environmental conditions. Methods At each site, we sampled the roots to 1 m soil depth after harvest and determined various root traits by scanning and image analysis. The impacts of soil, climate and management on roots and yield of the ten varieties were analysed by means of multivariate mixed models. Key results Root length averaged 1.4 m root piece−1, 5007 m root m−2 soil, and 5300 m root m−2 soil and root surface area 0.039 m2 root piece−1, 40 m2 root m−2 soil, and 43 m2 root m−2 soil in 0.00–0.15 m, 0.15–0.50 m, 0.50–1.00 m soil depth, respectively. The variation in both traits was 10 times higher between sites than varieties, the latter ranging by a factor of 2 within sites. Irrespective of variety, temperature was a major driver of subsoil root traits, suggesting that warmer climates promoted root growth in deeper soil layers. Other soil and climate variables affected root length and/or root surface area of individual varieties, highlighting different degrees of root plasticity. The varieties displayed distinctly different relationships between yield and root traits under varying pedoclimatic conditions, highlighting genetic differences in yield response to environmentally driven root plasticity. Conclusions These findings suggest that breeding efforts should target flexible root–yield relationships in the subsoil to maintain crop performance under climate change.

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This study assessed the effectiveness of air-assist technology and auxiliary booms compared to conventional ground boom sprayers in disease control and yield enhancement in soybean (Glycine max) crops. Conducted in Campos Gerais, Paraná State, Brazil over two cropping seasons, the experiment used a randomized block design with four treatments and eight replicates: i) control (no fungicide application on soybean plants), ii) conventional ground boom sprayer, iii) air-assist technology booms, and iv) auxiliary booms sprayers. Analyses focused on disease incidence and severity, plant physiological traits, and yield components. Results indicated that plots without chemical control exhibited higher disease incidence and severity, while fungicide application methods showed no significant differences. Additionally, diseases did not markedly influence the physiological characteristics of the plants. The lack of disease control notably diminished yield potential, but neither auxiliary nor air-assist technologies significantly outperformed the conventional sprayer in enhancing crop yield parameters