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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

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Abstract

Globally, soil organic matter (SOM) contains more than three times as much carbon as either the atmosphere or terrestrial vegetation. Yet it remains largely unknown why some SOM persists for millennia whereas other SOM decomposes readily—and this limits our ability to predict how soils will respond to climate change. Recent analytical and experimental advances have demonstrated that molecular structure alone does not control SOM stability: in fact, environmental and biological controls predominate. Here we propose ways to include this understanding in a new generation of experiments and soil carbon models, thereby improving predictions of the SOM response to global warming.

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Abstract

Gene expression levels (PAL, CCR1, HCT1, and CAD for the phenylpropanoid pathway, PX3 peroxidase, and CHI4 class IV chitinase), lignin, and soluble and cell wall bound phenolic compounds in bark and sapwood of Picea sitchensis clones inoculated with Heterobasidion annosum s.s. were compared before and 3 days after wounding and artificial inoculation, at site of inoculation and 1 cm above the inoculation site. In bark all genes were up-regulated at the site of inoculation but, except for CAD, not in the distal zone. In sapwood all genes were down-regulated, except for PX3 and CHI4; PAL, CCR1, HCT1 and CAD were present at lower levels around the inoculation site than in the distal zone. Compared to wounding only, inoculation with H. annosum triggered different CAD, PX3, and CHI4 levels in bark but not in sapwood. Different concentrations of cell wall bound phenolic compounds (unknown2, unknown3, coniferin, astringin, taxifolin, piceid, and isorhapontin) were found in bark after wounding and inoculation compared to constitutive material (i.e. untreated samples), whereas in sapwood concentrations did not differ following treatment. These results indicate that bark of Sitka spruce has a stronger and earlier response to wounding and pathogen inoculation than sapwood.

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Abstract

The occurence of Armillaria species was assessed in Norway, enabling the northern-most distribution of this genus to be determined in Europe. Four Armillaria species were found in Norway. Armillaria borealis was the most common species occurring on woody vegetation to the permafrost zone (ca. 69°N). Armillaria cepistipes was present in southern and central Norway, but was not found further than 66°N. Armillaria solidipes and Armillaria gallica were rare, found at only one locality each; 59°40′ and 59°32′, respectively. Armillaria species were found on 14 hosts, but there was no significant difference between occurrence of A. borealis and A. cepistipes on declining and dead trees. Phylogenetic analyses separated each species into separate clades. All isolates of A. borealis, except one, and most isolates of A. solidipes were in separate clades. However, a subclade within the A. borealis clade was formed of two A. ostoyae and one A. borealis isolates. Two small A. cepistipes genets were found in a declining oak stand.

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Abstract

A rapid increase in the frequency of Dutch elm disease (DED), a wilting disease of elm trees caused by bark-beetle vectored fungi, was observed in the early 1990s on several wych elm stands around Oslofjord, southern Norway. To examine the current status of the disease and its impacts on elm population, disease frequency and size distribution of elms were recorded at four locations. Northern parts of Lier, a municipality most affected by DED in Norway 15 years ago, showed in the survey season 4% disease frequency, whereas 13.8% of trees were dead, the dead trees having accumulated over several years in the unmanaged stands. In southern parts of the municipality the mean disease and death percentages were 1.9 and 2.4%. Compatible with their low disease incidence in early 1990s, the other two areas now examined, municipality of Larvik and district of Grenland, showed comparably low frequency of DED. Northern part of Lier showed significantly higher overall density of elm trees per hectare than the other examined areas, and also the small elms below 5 cm in d.b.h. were most frequent in this region. In contrast, the density of large trees was lower in northern Lier than in the other examined areas. These data suggest that regeneration of the tree is not prohibited owing to the disease but that the large trees have been locally reduced in frequency as a result of DED. The superior general density of elm trees in northern Lier, owing to the exceptionally rich soil in the warm southern slopes of the region,> may have contributed to the rapid increase of DED in the area 15 years ago and to the subsequent settlement of the disease outbreak as a chronic stage.

Abstract

In ecosystem research, data-driven approaches to modeling are of major importance. Models are more often than not shaped by the spatiotemporal structure of the observations: an inverse modeling approach prevails. Here, I investigate the insights obtained from Recurrence Quantification Analysis of observed ecosystem time series. As a typical example of available long-term monitoring data, I choose time series from hydrology and hydrochemistry. Besides providing insights into the nonstationary and nonlinear dynamics of these variables, RQA also enables a detailed and temporally local model-data comparison.