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.
2013
Authors
William White Anders Lunnan Erlend Nybakk Biljana KulisicAbstract
The renewable energy sector (RES) often receives financial, institutional or educational support from the government. A significant challenge for the actors in the RES field is policy consistency. When investments are carried out, a prognosis for future policies must be made. If the future is uncertain, larger risk margins should be included in the investment appraisals. Sudden, unexpected policy changes are one type of uncertainty that makes it more difficult to attract capital. In this article, we discuss the consequences of discontinuities in policy support using a case study approach. In Ontario, feed-in tariffs were introduced in 2009 and resulted in a large uptake in the programme. In 2010, the subsidies were drastically cut, resulting in the RES community losing confidence that the government would offer consistent support to the sector. In Norway, a large new biodiesel plant was opened by the Minister of the Environment only a few weeks before the government announced a major change in the bioenergy policy. As a result, the new plant was closed and restructured, and the investors lost nearly all of their investments. The government lost political credibility, making it difficult to raise private capital for new investments in this sector in Norway. We do not argue that policies should not be changed, but the manner in which policies are changed plays an important role. Our study shows that large, unexpected changes in policies increase uncertainty and may have a negative impact on investments. This topic should be further researched.
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No abstract has been registered
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Authors
Alina Danielewska Nicholas Clarke Janusz Olejnik Karin Hansen Wim de Vries Lars Lundin Juha Pekka Tuovinen Richard Fischer Marek Urbaniak Elena PaolettiAbstract
Of a wide variety of international forest research and monitoring networks, several networks are dedicated to the effects of climate change on forests, while the effects of anthropogenic pollutants on forests have been a major area for both monitoring and research for decades. The large amounts of data already obtained within existing monitoring programmes and large-scale international projects can be used to increase understanding of the state and potential of forest mitigation and adaptation to climate change in a polluted environment, and a major challenge now is to evaluate and integrate the presently available databases. We present a meta-database with the main goal to highlight available data and integrate the information about research and monitoring of selected European Research and Monitoring Networks (ERMNs). Depending on the selected ERMNs, the list of variables and the measurement units differ widely in the databases. As a result, activities related to the identification, evaluation and integration of the presently available databases are important for the scientific community. Furthermore, and equally important, the recognition of current knowledge gaps and future needed research is made easier. This analysis suggests that: ground-level ozone is under-investigated, although it is one of the pollutants of greatest concern to forests; in addition to CO2, long-term other greenhouse gasses (GHG) flux measurements should be carried out; there is still a need of improving links between monitoring of atmospheric changes and impacts on forests; research-oriented manipulative experiments in the forests are missing.
Abstract
The ingrowth core method is widely used to assess fine root (diameter < 2 mm) production but has many inherent deficiencies. In this study, we modified this method by adopting mini ingrowth cores (diameter 1.2 cm), extending sample intervals to a growing season, and developing new models to quantify the concurrent production, mortality and decomposition, and applied them to a secondary Mongolian oak (Quercus mongolica Fischer ex Ledebour) forest. Annual fine root production, mortality and decomposition estimated by our method were 2.10 ± 0.23, 1.78 ± 0.20 and 0.85 ± 0.13 t ha−1, respectively, and 33.3% of the production was decomposed in the growing season. The production estimate using our method was significantly higher than those using two long-term ingrowth core (sample interval >2 months) methods. However, it was significantly lower than that using the short-term ingrowth core (sample interval <2 months) method, presumably due to the lower root competition and less decomposition occurring in the short-term cores. The fine root estimates using our method in the growing season were generally higher than those using the forward and continuous inflow methods but lower than those using the backward method. Our method reduces the disturbances in roots and soil, minimizes the sampling frequency and improves the quantification of fine root decomposition during the sample intervals. These modifications overcome the limitations associated with the previous ingrowth core methods. Our method provides an improved alternative for estimating fine root production, mortality and decomposition.
Abstract
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Authors
Ole Martin Bollandsås Timothy Gregoire Erik Næsset Bernt-Håvard ØyenAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Franҫois Lefèvre Jarkko Koskela Jason Hubert Hojka Kraigher Roman Longauer Ditte C. Olrik Silvio Schüler Michele Bozzano Paraskevi Alizoti Remigijus Bakys Cathleen Baldwin Dalibor Ballian Sanna Black-Samuelsson Dagmar Bednarova Sándor Bordács Eric Collin Bart De Cuyper Sven M.G. De Vries Thröstur Eysteinsson Josef Frýdl Michaela Haverkamp Mladen Ivankovic Heino Konrad Czeslaw Koziol Tiit Maaten Eduardo Notivol Paino Hikmet Öztürk Ivanova Denitsa Pandeva Gheorghe Parnuta Andrej Pilipovic Dragos Postolache Cathal Ryan Arne Steffenrem Maria Carolina Varela Federico Vessella Roman T. Volosyanchuk Marjana Westergren Frank Wolter Leena Yrjänä Inga ZarinaAbstract
Dynamic conservation of forest genetic resources (FGR) means maintaining the genetic diversity of trees within an evolutionary process and allowing generation turnover in the forest. We assessed the network of forests areas managed for the dynamic conservation of FGR (conservation units) across Europe (33 countries). On the basis of information available in the European Information System on FGR (EUFGIS Portal), species distribution maps, and environmental stratification of the continent, we developed ecogeographic indicators, a marginality index, and demographic indicators to assess and monitor forest conservation efforts. The pan-European network has 1967 conservation units, 2737 populations of target trees, and 86 species of target trees. We detected a poor coincidence between FGR conservation and other biodiversity conservation objectives within this network. We identified 2 complementary strategies: a species-oriented strategy in which national conservation networks are specifically designed for key target species and a site-oriented strategy in which multiple-target units include so-called secondary species conserved within a few sites. The network is highly unbalanced in terms of species representation, and 7 key target species are conserved in 60% of the conservation units. We performed specific gap analyses for 11 tree species, including assessment of ecogeographic, demographic, and genetic criteria. For each species, we identified gaps, particularly in the marginal parts of their distribution range, and found multiple redundant conservation units in other areas. The Mediterranean forests and to a lesser extent the boreal forests are underrepresented. Monitoring the conservation efficiency of each unit remains challenging; however, <2% of the conserved populations seem to be at risk of extinction. On the basis of our results, we recommend combining species-oriented and site-oriented strategies.
Authors
Kerry O'Donnell Alejandro P. Rooney Robert Proctor Daren W. Brown Susan P. McCormick Todd J. Ward Rasmus J. N. Frandsen Erik Lysøe Stephen A. Rehner Takayuki Aoki Vincent A.R.G Robert Pedro W. Crous Johannes Z. Groenewald Seogchan Kang David M. GeiserAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Jonathan Lenoir Bente Jessen Graae Per Arild Aarrestad Inger Greve Alsos William Scott Armbruster Gunnar Austrheim Claes Bergendorff Harry John Betteley Birks Kari Anne Bråthen Jörg Brunet Hans Henrik Bruun Carl Johan Dahlberg Guillaume Decocq Martin Diekmann Mats Dynesius Rasmus Ejrnæs John-Arvid Grytnes Kristoffer Hylander Kari Klanderud Miska Luoto Ann Milbau Mari Moora Bettina Nygaard Arvid Odland Virve Ravolainen Stefanie Reinhardt Sylvi Marlen Sandvik Fride Høistad Schei James David Mervyn Speed Unn Tveraabak Vigdis Vandvik Liv Guri Velle Risto Virtanen Martin Zobel Jens-Christian SvenningAbstract
Recent studies from mountainous areas of small spatial extent (<2,500 km2) suggest that fine-grained thermal variability over tens or hundreds of metres exceeds much of the climate warming expected for the coming decades. Such variability in temperature provides buffering to mitigate climate-change impacts. Is this local spatial buffering restricted to topographically complex terrains? To answer this, we here study fine-grained thermal variability across a 2,500-km wide latitudinal gradient in Northern Europe encompassing a large array of topographic complexities. We first combined plant community data, Ellenberg temperature indicator values, locally measured temperatures (LmT), and globally interpolated temperatures (GiT) in a modelling framework to infer biologically relevant temperature conditions from plant assemblages within <1,000-m2 units (community-inferred temperatures: CiT). We then assessed: (1) CiT range (thermal variability) within 1-km2 units; (2) the relationship between CiT range and topographically- and geographically-derived predictors at 1-km resolution; and (3) whether spatial turnover in CiT is greater than spatial turnover in GiT within 100-km2 units. Ellenberg temperature indicator values in combination with plant assemblages explained 46-72% of variation in LmT and 92-96% of variation in GiT during the growing season (June, July, August). Growing-season CiT range within 1-km2 units peaked at 60-65°N and increased with terrain roughness, averaging 1.97°C (SD = 0.84°C) and 2.68°C (SD = 1.26°C) within the flattest and roughest units, respectively. Complex interactions between topography-related variables and latitude explained 35% of variation in growing-season CiT range when accounting for sampling effort and residual spatial autocorrelation. Spatial turnover in growing-season CiT within 100-km2 units was, on average, 1.8 times greater (0.32°C km-1) than spatial turnover in growing-season GiT (0.18°C km-1). We conclude that thermal variability within 1-km2 units strongly increases local spatial buffering of future climate warming across Northern Europe, even in the flattest terrains.