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.
2026
Abstract
In Norway, agroclimatic zones (ACZs) are a valuable tool for national analyses in subject areas concerning the optimized management of agricultural land resources. However, current Norwegian ACZs have been criticized for having an outdated standard climate normal (1931–1960), a limited representation of the local climatic variation, a lack of important model parameters, and weak methodological documentation. Therefore, this paper presents new ACZs for Norway that address these weaknesses. The most significant methodological updates are the use of the standard climate normal of 1991–2020, additional weather data variables, the downscaling of weather data to 250 m hexagons, and the incorporation of phenological crop models for spring wheat, spring barley, and forage grass. The grass model was calibrated with the number of grass harvests at research stations, while the grain models were calibrated with subsidy claim data. The modeled zones for the three crops were combined into the general ACZs. Example maps of the crop zones and new ACZs for the selected regions and the whole country are presented. The new ACZs are more robust, agronomically relevant, and better aligned with the current climatic conditions in Norway. The deliberate exclusion of factors other than climate ensures the new ACZs’ national comparability and their applicability in policy development, land-use planning, climate adaptation, and agronomic assessments at the national scale.
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
This study has applied FAO’s resilience assessment tool «SHARP+» to 14 farm enterprises practicing mountain summer farming (stølsdrift) in the Valdres region, representing the first use of this tool in a Norwegian context. The questionnaire was adapted to better capture local agricultural practices and institutional conditions, and structured interviews with farm managers were conducted in November 2025. Technical resilience scores ranged from 4.9 to 7.4 out of 10 (mean 6.2), and self-assessed scores from 5.9 to 7.9 (mean 6.9). The strongest areas were Government and institutional support (9.3) and Education and knowledge (8.5). The weakest were Livestock nutrition (3.5), Reasonably profitable (3.8), and Globally autonomous and locally interdependent (3.2), pointing to structural constraints related to feed self-sufficiency, farm profitability, and dependence on external inputs. Self-assessed scores consistently exceeded technical scores, particularly in production-related modules. Farmers' stated priorities — climate adaptation, infrastructure, farm economy, cooperation, and policy — largely aligned with the weakest areas in the technical assessment. The 2018 drought was the most critical environmental event reported by ten of the fourteen interviewees during their career as farmers.
Authors
Ming Yu Sebastian Kepfer-Rojas Yamina Micaela Rosas Teresa Gómez de la Bárcena Inger Kappel Schmidt Per Gundersen Ludovica D'Imperio Carsten W. Mueller Lars VesterdalAbstract
Afforestation of agricultural land is widely promoted as a nature-based solution to enhance carbon (C) sequestration and mitigate atmospheric CO2 levels. However, the temporal dynamics of soil organic carbon (SOC) after afforestation, particularly in mineral soils, remain uncertain due to the complex interaction of biogeochemical processes and their spatial variability. We investigated changes in SOC sequestration over five decades of afforestation on former cropland by extending the chronosequence approach with three repeated soil inventories in oak (Quercus robur L.) and Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) stands. Aboveground biomass C stocks were also quantified to evaluate the contribution of SOC to post-agricultural ecosystem C stocks. Forest floor C stocks increased rapidly in the early years and stabilized after approximately three decades, with consistently higher accumulation under Norway spruce than oak. In contrast, mineral SOC stocks in 0-25 cm depth increased with forest age by 0.18 ± 0.06 Mg ha−1 yr−1 under oak and 0.44 ± 0.07 Mg ha−1 yr−1 under Norway spruce. These contrasting trends in forest floor and mineral soil indicated a shift in C source-sink strength over time and between species. After 50 years of afforestation, total ecosystem C stocks in afforested stands reached up to 75% of those in a 200-year-old forest, with most new C stored in biomass (84-86%), followed by mineral soil (10-11%) and forest floor (4-5%). Despite higher sequestration of new C in Norway spruce stands, the relative distribution across ecosystem compartments was similar between tree species.
2025
Authors
Teresa Gómez de la Bárcena Tatiana Francischinelli Rittl Eva Farkas Daniel Rasse Christophe Moni Cédric Plessis Loiuse Malot Helge Meissner Trond Henriksen Randi Berland FrøsethAbstract
Background and aims Cover crops are an important measure for carbon (C) sequestration in agriculture. However, little is known about the potential of cover crops to increase C under Nordic conditions and the efficiency of this measure over time. Here, we quantify the potential contribution of different cover crops to soil organic carbon (SOC) and organic matter fractions, and study how this is affected by the origin of the C input (aboveground or belowground residues). Methods We conducted a 13 CO 2 pulse-labelling experiment during the growing season of four cover crops adapted to Nordic conditions, representing different plant functional types. The assimilated 13 C was traced in soil during the following two years. We investigated the fate of cover crop C in two organic matter fractions, Particulate Organic Matter (POM) and Mineral-Associated Organic Matter (MAOM), known to have different persistence in soil. Results Carbon derived from aboveground residues decayed two to three times faster as compared to belowground C. Belowground C inputs were similar among cover crops despite their contrasting root traits and differences in root biomass C. Rhizodeposited-C was consistently the largest belowground C input. Cover crop species affected the quantity of POM-C and MAOM-C, but MAOM-C was preferentially formed from belowground C (ranging from 0.63 ± 0.2 to 0.25 ± 0.1 Mg MAOM-C ha −1 across different cover crops), regardless of the species. Conclusions Cover crop species that can combine large belowground biomass production with root traits that promote physical and physico-chemical protection of OM will contribute most effectively to the long-term SOC pool. These aspects need to be balanced with considerations related to agricultural management.
Authors
Junbin Zhao Holger Lange Christian Wilhelm Mohr Cornelya Klutsch Simon Weldon Jonathan Rizzi Gunnhild Søgaard Hanna Marika Silvennoinen Teresa Gómez de la BárcenaAbstract
Jordrespirasjonsmålinger på Svanhovd og dens modellering
Authors
F Durand-Maniclas H Heinemann F Seidel F Ciulla Teresa Gómez de la Bárcena M Camenzind S Corrado Z Csűrös Zs Czakó D Eylenbosch Andrea Ficke C Flamm J M Herrera V Horáková A Hund F Lüddeke F Platz B Poós Daniel Rasse M da Silva-Lopes M Toleikienė A Veršulienė M Visse-Mansiaux K Yu A Don J HirteAbstract
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.
Authors
Teresa Gómez de la Bárcena Tatiana Francischinelli Rittl Eva Farkas Daniel Rasse Cédric Plessis Helge Meissner Christophe Moni Trond Henriksen Randi Berland FrøsethAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
Peat inversion is a management technique used to reduce emissions and retain carbon in cultivated peatland while allowing for effective forage production. Although maps and land registers document the presence of cultivated peatland that is suitable for peat inversion, these data do not cover all regions of interest. This study explores how an expert system and geostatistical modelling can be used to identify cultivated peatland suitable for peat inversion. The expert system proved to work moderately well for cultivable (but not for cultivated) peatland. Geostatistical modelling, using cultivable peatland as statistical support, gave good results in regions with large, continuous landforms. The results were less accurate in regions with rough, rapidly shifting terrain forms and where peatland was less frequent. The difference could be seen in the range and shape of the semivariograms. Geostatistical modelling can be used to identify cultivated peatland suitable for peat inversion in regions where the semivariogram shows a clear and well-defined spatial autocorrelation structure.
Authors
Ioanna S. Panagea Paul Quataert María Alonso-Ayuso Teresa Gómez de la Bárcena Maarten De Boever Mariangela Diacono Anna Jacobs Johannes L. Jensen Felix Seidel Daria Seitz Heide Spiegel Thijs Vanden Nest Axel Don Greet RuysschaertAbstract
Sustainable land management can play an important role in climate change mitigation by reducing soil organic carbon (SOC)losses or even by sequestering C in soils. This can be achieved through practices that increase C inputs to the soil and/or improve the quality of these inputs, thereby facilitating the removal of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2) and storing it in the soil asSOC. In this study, we investigated the potential of an increased share of legumes in crop rotations to enhance SOC accrual—defined as the increase in SOC stocks at a given land unit compared to the baseline scenario—using data from 30 mid-term(MTEs, 5–20 years) and long-term (LTEs, 20+ years) field experiments across Europe. Our findings indicate that increasing the proportion of forage legumes in rotations (based on 21 experiments and 39 paired comparisons) led to SOC accrual of up to13.25 Mg ha−1 (0.44 Mg ha−1 year−1), while grain legumes (based on nine experiments and 28 paired comparisons) resulted in a decrease in SOC stocks of up to 14.37 Mg ha−1 (−0.48 Mg ha−1 year−1) compared to the reference treatment. For forage legumes,the largest SOC gains were achieved at sites with the smallest reference SOC stocks and greater share of forage legumes in the rotation. Our observations suggested that the duration of crop growth of the forage legumes (annual vs. perennial) did not exert a significant impact on SOC stock increase, while pedoclimatic zone did. Positive effects on SOC stocks were more pronounced in the Atlantic climatic zone in contrast to the Mediterranean climatic zone. For grain legumes, larger SOC losses were observed with a greater share of grain legumes in the rotation. Overall, integrating forage legumes in cropping systems can enhance their sustainability and present a viable option for climate change mitigation. Finally, we present a regression equation to derive emission factors (EFs) for estimating SOC changes due to the increase of the share of forage legumes in a rotation, and another due to the increase of the share of grain legumes in the rotation. The first can be used to support the assessment of management impacts for the purpose of rewarding carbon farming and the estimation of a national-scale SOC accrual potential, while the second can be used for estimating national-scale SOC losses.