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
Authors
Michael Dondrup Atle Ove Martinussen Lisa Karine Haugland Jonas Brandenburg Oya Inanli Abdelhameed Elameen David William Peter Dolan Sushma Nagaraja Grellscheid Snorre Hagen Hannes Schroeder Tor Myking Hans Geir EikenAbstract
The use of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to ferment alcoholic beverages is an ancient tradition, with genetic evidence indicating origins in Neolithic Asia, although the domestication process of the species is not fully understood. Kveik is a group of traditional yeasts used in farmhouse brewing in western Norway preserved through generations of rural brewing practice. While recent studies have highlighted the distinctiveness of kveik, its precise phylogenetic position, genetic diversity, and domestication history remain unclear. We performed whole-genome sequencing on 64 isolates from 25 traditional brewing cultures from Western Norway selected using cultural heritage criteria and generated telomere-to-telomere assemblies for selected strains. Phylogenomic and population genetic analyses reveal that kveik strains form a paraphyletic and early-diverging group with respect to other domesticated S. cerevisiae strains. Most strains exhibit low diversity among isolates from the same brewing culture, strong geographic clustering, and little evidence of gene flow or admixture. Mitochondrial genomes and Ty1 retrotransposon profiles corroborate this distinct lineage history. We further show that previously reported signals of gene flow between kveik and Asian fermentation strains are likely artifacts caused by population structure and selection. Divergence time estimates suggest that the common ancestor of beer, kveik, and other liquid-phase fermenting strains originated from ancestral populations 4,000 to 8,000 years ago. Our genomic resource sheds light on yeast evolution and domestication. Kveik likely comprises some of the oldest domesticated lineages in continuous use until today, connecting intangible cultural heritage to an early genetic origin.
Authors
Marta Benito Garzón Mathilde Agro Eduardo Vicente Marion Carme Benjamin Dencausse Aurelien Kohler Alin-Mădălin Alexandru Camilla Avanzi Francesca Bagnoli Mariya Belovarska Natalija Dovč Bruno Fady Santiago César González-Martínez Jon Kehlet Hansen Marija Kravanja Johan Kroon Francisco Lario Maurizio Marchi Georgeta Mihai Brigitte Musch Tor Myking Jørgen Ødegaard Andrea Piotti Mehdi Pringarbe Christian Rellstab Thomas Sim Gregor Skoberne Emanuel Stoica Jan Stejskal Kathrin Streit Mari Mette Tollefsrud Astor Torano Enno Uhl Marcela Van Loo Marjana WestergrenAbstract
Abstract Key message This dataset reports translocation experiments on 15,774 seeds from 43 populations of Abies alba Mill., Acer pseudoplatanus L., Fagus sylvatica L., Quercus petraea (Matt.) Liebl., Quercus pubescens Willd., and Quercus suber L. It informs ecological and evolutionary processes in early tree stages. Dataset access at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22043408 and metadata accessible at https://metadata-afs.nancy.inra.fr/geonetwork/srv/fre/catalog.search#/metadata/15a31f1d-6658-4264-abed-67b5664b9c12 .
Authors
Marjana Westergren Kathrin Streit Marcela van Loo Ricardo Alía Santiago C. González-Martínez Marta Benito-Garzón Francisco J. Lario Leza José M. Climent Maldonado Georgeta Mihai Tor MykingAbstract
Abstract Key message Maintaining forest resilience under climate change depends on understanding genetic adaptation and preserving diversity. Long-term common garden networks are essential for revealing how species and populations perform across life stages and environments. When strategically designed and deployed across diverse sites, including suboptimal ones, these networks provide critical empirical insights into adaptive capacity of forest tree species under future climate conditions.
Authors
Marta Vergarechea Ignacio Sevillano Arne Steffenrem A. Ahtikoski H. Holmström C. Antón-Fernández C. Anton-FernandezAbstract
Balancing wood production, biodiversity, and climate regulation is increasingly challenging for forest management, particularly as societal demands intensify. Despite growing interest in genetic improvement to enhance forest productivity, its implications for multiple ecosystem services (FES) remain poorly quantified. To address this gap, we assessed how genetically improved regeneration material, combined with alternative management regimes, influences FES provision in Norway. Using National Forest Inventory data, a climate-sensitive single-tree simulator, and multi-objective optimization, we projected 100-year outcomes under three strategies: no genetic gain, growth-focused improvement, and combined improvement in growth and wood quality. The strongest responses occurred when genetic improvement targeted both growth and wood quality. Under this scenario, harvest net value increased, ecological hotspot areas expanded, and larger set-aside areas were maintained while meeting national harvest demands. Carbon storage in harvested wood products also increased, whereas carbon sequestration in living biomass showed no consistent trend. Genetic gain reinforced positive interactions between bioenergy and climate regulation but left most other FES relationships broadly unchanged. Varying genetic gain levels produced only minor differences across most indicators, suggesting that long-term outcomes depend more on how improved material is integrated within a flexible management portfolio than on the exact magnitude of genetic gain. Positive responses in the structural biodiversity indicators should be interpreted cautiously, as these proxies capture only a limited subset of ecological dimensions and likely underestimate broader biodiversity trade-offs. Overall, genetically improved material represents a complementary tool for enhancing forest multifunctionality when integrated with adaptive, landscape-scale management.
Abstract
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Abstract
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Abstract
In boreal and subarctic regions, dwarf shrubs may dominate the ground cover in forests as well as open habitats. Therefore, their contribution to the carbon capture in these areas is important to quantify. The length of the growing season impacts greatly on the carbon capture and is also very variable depending on duration of the snow cover as well as daylenghts and temperatures. In a project studying many ecological aspects of dwarf shrubs in four sites in Norway, we compare a coastal and an inland site in the south and the north of the country. The coastal sites typically have less snow than the inland sites, whereas the southern sites have higher mean air temperatures than the northern sites. The extremes of these four sites are then the southern coastal site where the snowless season with favourable temperatures can come in April, versus the northern continental site where snowmelt and favourable temperatures may come in June when there is midnight sun. If the plants from varying locations are differently adapted to start photosynthesising and producing new leaves, it will impact on the seasonal carbon capture. To compare these abilities between sites, we collected plants from each site and grew them in controlled conditions giving them the same winter and spring startup conditions. The dwarf shrubs Calluna vulgaris and Empetrum nigrum are among the species we studied. Repeated measurements of photosynthesis rate, respiration rate and branch lengths were done to investigate the phenology. This presentation will show how the species differed between sites of origin and the results will be discussed with respect to the normal climate at each site.
Authors
Tor MykingAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Inger Sundheim FløistadAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Ishita Ahuja Arne Steffenrem Irena Fundova Helmer Belbo Torstein Myhre Inger Sundheim FløistadAbstract
When regenerating clearcut areas in Norway and several other countries, tree seedlings are planted adjacent to stumps of harvested trees to reduce snow load and provide shading, despite limited scientific evidence supporting this practice. This study investigated the role of tree-stumps as planting microsites in the establishment of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) seedlings. We assessed the growth and survival of seedlings from two provenances: Undesløs seed orchard (60.7°, 140 m), consisting of tested parents from the lowland around 63–65°N, and seed collected from forests in the M4 provenance (64–65°N, 350–449 m), at two microsite types in Trøndelag County, Norway: beside stumps (Microsites-B) and at a distance from stumps (Microsites-D). Undesløs seedlings exhibited 100% survival at Microsites-B, whereas M4 seedlings showed higher survival at Microsites-D. Provenance had a significant effect on seedling height and diameter, while microsite type had no significant effect on these parameters. In 2022, significant differences in height and diameter were observed between provenances at Microsites-B. Phenotypic variations, including chlorotic, green, and brown needles, occurred in seedlings of both provenances across both microsite types. Overall, this single-site experiment provided no evidence that planting beside stumps improves growth/survival compared with planting at a distance away.