Hopp til hovedinnholdet

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.

2004

Abstract

The quantitative expression and the regulation of chitinase-encoding genes ech30, ech42 and nag1 in Trichoderma atroviride P1 under varying growth conditions were investigated using real-time RTPCR, principle component and multivariate analyses. Twelve media combinations including 0.1% and 3% glucose as carbon source and no (0 mmol/L), low (10 mmol/L) and high (100 mmol/L)ammonium acetate as nitrogen source combined with or without colloidal chitin at 3 time intervals and 2 replications were applied to current study. The real-time RT-PCR analysis showed that the expression of ech30, ech42 and nag1 was regulated by the interaction of nitrogen, glucose and chitin under different growth conditions. The highest and earliest expressions of ech30 were induced by glucose and nitrogen starvation i.e. 0.1% glucose and 10 mmol/L ammonium acetate in the growth media. This was also the case for ech42 and nag1 but at a relatively low level. In contrast, high (3 %) glucose and high (100 mmol/L) ammonium acetate concentrations repressed the expression of all the genes studied. These results were confirmed by principle component and multivariate analyses.The effect of chitin on ech30, ech42 and nag1 expression varied depending on the concentrations of glucose and ammonium acetate.

Abstract

Extensive monitoring of forest health in Europe has been carried out for two decades, based mainly on defoliation and discolouration. Together these two variables reflect chlorophyll amounts in the tree crown, i.e. as an indicator of foliar mass, and chlorophyll concentration in the foliage, respectively.In a current project we try to apply remote sensing techniques to estimate canopy chlorophyll mass, being a suitable forest health variable. So far, we limit this to Norway spruce only. LIDAR data here play an important role, together with optical and spectral data, either from survey flights or from satellites. We intend to model relationships between foliar mass and LIDAR data for sample trees, and then scale up this to foliar mass estimates for the entire LIDAR area.Similarly, we try to scale up chlorophyll concentrations in sample trees, by modelling a relationship between sample tree chlorophyll and hyper-spectral data. The estimates of foliar mass and chlorophyll concentrations are then aggregated to every 10x10 m pixel of a SPOT satellite scene which is also covered by airborne data, providing an up-scaled ground truth. If we are successful with this, it might be a starting point for developing a new nationwide forest health monitoring system in Norway.

To document

Abstract

This study presents empirical insight into organic and conventional cash crop farmers' perceptions of risk and risk management strategies, and identifies socio-economic variables linked to these perceptions. The data originate from a questionnaire survey of farmers in Norway. The results indicate that organic farmers perceived themselves to be less risk aversethan conventional farmers. For both groups, crop prices and yield variability were the two top rated sources of risk, followed by institutional risks. The two groups evaluated risk management strategies quite similarly; favoured strategies weregood liquidity and to prevent and reduce crop diseases and pests. The farmers' evaluation of sources of risk and choice of risk strategies depended onvarious socio-economic variables. The importance of institutional risks implies that policy makers should be cautious about changing policy capriciously and they should consider strategic policy initiatives that give farmers more long-term reliability.