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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.

2011

Abstract

Forest regrowth in rural districts of Norway is currently leading to extensive landscape changes. We aim to quantify and understand the future impact of outfield forest regrowth following land-use abandonment on red-listed vascular plant species which are supposedly threatened by regrowth in Norway, i.e. species classified to habitats within the semi-natural landscape. Vascular plant species were defined by the Norwegian Red List and presence data was downloaded from the Norwegian GBIF-node, Artskart. A newly developed spatially explicit model of deforested semi-natural heaths and meadows in Norway was used to evaluate the vulnerability of red-listed plants to future forest regrowth. The results show that some red-listed species may be greatly affected, since they have most of their known populations within the modelled areas of future forest regrowth. The study also revealed that there are many methodological challenges in using museum databases for hypothesis testing. However, the use of such databases was clearly hypothesis generating, giving us many ideas for future studies.

2010

Abstract

For almost 40 years the Norwegian Forest and Landscape Institute (Norsk institutt for skog og landskap) has mapped vegetation in Norway. In total, just over 10 % of the country’s land area has been mapped, most of which is in the mountain regions. The resultant vegetation maps are the closest Norway has to an ecological map series. Many secondary map themes can be derived from the vegetation map and the digital format allows a wealth of both spatial and temporal GIS-analyses. Accordingly, there are many user groups and topics of interest. During 2009 the aim is to make the institute’s vegetation maps available to all via the Internet in a seamless database.

Abstract

Extensive landscape and vegetation changes are apparent within southern Norway, specifically the expansion of forests into new areas and to higher altitudes. Two main processes are believed to cause these changes: regrowth after abandoned human utilisation and recent climate changes. The purpose of this article is to elucidate ways of separating the effects of these two processes on spatiotemporal changes in the upper forest limits using examples from southern Norway. Examples from two spatial scales are implemented, a vegetation map study of a mountain region in south-east Norway and a national map-based study of south Norway. The findings show that multiple methods are necessary to understand the forest limit changes and that the research focus should be on the separation of potential drivers, specifically climate improvements and land-use changes.

Abstract

The coastal heath region along the western coast of Norway, dominated by Calluna vulgaris, is undergoing rapid change. Vegetation changes are caused by changes in management, including reduced frequency or abandonment of periodic heath burning and reduced cutting and grazing. The islands of Froan, in the outermost part of Sør-Trøndelag County in mid-western Norway, are dominated by coastal heath in a state of recession due to reduced traditional land use. The coastal heath is acknowledged as vulnerable and valuable by national environmental authorities, and local landscape management is supported by different national subsidies. The authors mapped the vegetation on Froan and used rule-based GIS-modelling to predict the relative potential for future vegetation changes. The model was based on a range of map layers, including management themes such as history of heath burning and peat removal, current practices of sheep grazing, and also themes derived from the vegetation map, such as soil nutrients, soil moisture and present management status. The resulting model output provides relative probabilities of future changes under different land-use scenarios, and highlights where management efforts should be focused in order to maintain the traditional landscape character.

Abstract

The conference «Mapping and Monitoring of Nordic Vegetation and Landscapes» took place in Hveragerði, Iceland from the 16th to the 18th of September 2009. The 105 participants from 15 countries contributed with 50 oral presentations and 19 posters. This special edition of «Viten», published by the Norwegian Forest and Landscape Institute, presents the conference proceedings, containing 32 articles and 13 posters. We wish to thank the participants for their contributions to both the conference and this report! .....

To document

Abstract

Our primary mission is to create an office in Juba with the necessary knowledge, computer equipment, GIS-software and the necessary satellite images. The office and its employees are going to be the independent land cover mapping authority in Southern Sudan. 4 persons from Norwegian Forest and Landscape institute had totally 11 stays in Juba in 2008. Our main task this year was to establish the office with equipment and expertise. The competence of the employees proved to vary a lot and in many cases to be inadequate. We started the transfer of knowledge on a very basic and simple level. The first year was celebrated by making a simple map showing the location of the known Forest Reserves in Southern Sudan at that time. The office had produced their first official map.

To document

Abstract

The primary mission of the project is to create a Land Resource Survey and Information Centre in Juba with the necessary knowledge, computer equipment, GIS-software and the satellite images to map and monitor land resources. The office and its employees will be the independent land cover mapping authority in Southern Sudan. The Norwegian role is to support capacity building in the institution. The actual survey, mapping and monitoring activities should be carried out by the institution itself. The project was a continuation of work started in 2008. In 2009, more advanced training in GPS, digital mapping, remote sensing and production was carried out and a forest inventory was started. The office was upgraded with an installation of a battery backup system witch provide power enough to run the office for 3-5 hours in case of no electricity. A network of contacts with other relevant activities in South-Sudan was also established. The first land cover map produced by the office, covering the area between Yei and Juba, was produced based on interpretation in satellite images and verification in the field. The map “Forest reserves in Sothern Sudan” was upgraded to show the known forest reserves included as polygons with their actual shape and size.

Abstract

AR18×18 is an area frame survey of land resources in Norway, methodologically linked to the Lucas survey carried out by Eurostat (Eurostat 2003). The purpose of the survey is to establish an unbiased and accurate land cover and land use statistic providing a description of the state of land resources in Norway. The survey will also provide a baseline for future reports regarding changes in land resources – a national land resource accounting system. AR18×18 is based on Lucas (Land use/cover agricultural survey), a European area frame survey carried out in the EU countries by Eurostat. The sampling units of Lucas are points located on the intersections of an 18 × 18 kilometer grid mesh throughout Europe. Each of these points is the centre of a Primary Statistical Unit (PSU) of 1500 × 600 meters. The Lucas survey is carried out on ten sample points scattered within each PSU. The Norwegian modification of Lucas is to add a land cover survey of the whole PSU following the Norwegian system for vegetation and land cover mapping at intermediate scale (1: 20,000). [...]

2008

Abstract

The forest limits of south-east Norway have expanded to higher altitudes. Two main processes are believed to cause these changes; re-growth after abandonment of human utilisation and recent climate changes. This article aim at separating the effects of these two processes on the upper forest limits and recent forest expansion. The results show that raised forest limits and forest range expansion often attributed to recent climate change is rather the product of re-growth, a process that was climatically retarded from 1959 to 1995. From 1995 to 2006, the data indicate a preliminary effect of climate change escalating the re-growth and probably pushing the future forest limits to higher altitudes.