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.
2021
Authors
Selamawit Araya Kidane Solveig Haukeland Beira H. Meressa Anne Kathrine Hvoslef-Eide Danny L. CoyneAbstract
Enset (Ensete ventricosum), is a perennial herbaceous plant belonging to the family Musaceae, along with banana and plantain. Despite wild populations occurring in eastern, central and southern Africa, it is only in Ethiopia that the crop has been domesticated, where it is culturally and agriculturally symbolic as a food security crop. Although an under-researched orphan crop, enset serves as a staple food for about 20% of the Ethiopian population, comprising more than 20 million people, demonstrating its value in the country. Similar to banana and plantain, enset is heavily affected by plant-parasitic nematodes, with recent studies indicating record levels of infection by the root lesion nematode Pratylenchus goodeyi. Enset is propagated vegetatively using suckers that are purposely initiated from the mother corm. However, while banana and plantain suckers have proven to be a key source of nematode infection and spread, knowledge on the infection levels and role of enset suckers in nematode dissemination is lacking. Given the high levels of plant-parasitic nematodes reported in previous surveys, it is therefore speculated that planting material may act as a key source of nematode dissemination. To address this lack of information, we assessed enset planting material in four key enset growing zones in Ethiopia. A total of 340 enset sucker samples were collected from farmers and markets and analyzed for the presence of nematodes. Nematodes were extracted using a modified Baermann method over a period of 48 h. The root lesion nematode P. goodeyi was present in 100% of the samples, at various levels of infection. These conclusive results show that planting material is indeed a key source of nematode infection in enset, hence measures taken to ensure clean suckers for planting will certainly mitigate nematode infection and spread. The effect of nematode infection on yield and quality on enset remains to be investigated and would be a way forward to complement the nematode/disease studies conducted so far and add valuable knowledge to the current poorly known impact of pests and diseases.
Authors
Pia Heltoft Thomsen Gudni Thorvaldsson Anne Mette Dahl Jensen Tatsiana Espevig Karin Juul Hesselsøe Wendy Marie Waalen Torben Kastrup Petersen Trond Olav Pettersen Jan Tangsveen Per Sørensen Tania Gneist Bjarni Hannesson Kristine Sundsdal Trygve S. AamlidAbstract
Seed mixtures with a nurse grass that germinates quickly at low soil temperatures can be an option for faster establishment of Agrostis stolonifera (AS) putting greens after winter damage. From 2015 to 2018 Poa trivialis (PT) ‘Dark Horse’ and Lolium perenne (LP) ‘Chardin’ were evaluated as nurse grasses in comparison with pure AS ‘Independence’ at two experimental sites in each of the two major climatic zones of the Nordic countries. Poa annua (PA) ‘Two‐Putt’ was also included as a nurse grass in the northern zone. As an overall trend, establishment was faster with AS+LP than with AS+PT and AS+PA, which in turn had faster establishment than pure AS. In the northern zone, AS+PT produced better turf quality than pure AS in the seeding year and year after and tended to be superior even on average for the entire trial period (mean value 6.0 vs. 5.8 for pure AS, 5.3 for AS+LP, and 4.6 for AS+PA; scale 1–9 where 9 is the highest quality). In the same zone, AS+PT also suffered less overall winter damage than the other combinations and was less infected with microdochium patch than pure AS. In the southern zone, PT and especially LP were far more persistent than in the northern zone and compromised turfgrass quality compared with pure AS. In conclusion, we recommend PT as a nurse grass for faster establishment of AS putting in the northern zone, but not in the southern zone where AS should rather be seeded in a pure stand.
Abstract
The Norwegian newly bred pear cultivar, ‘Celina/QTee®’, which was launched in 2010, has been released from the Norwegian breeding program. It derived from the combination ‘Colourée de Juillet’ × ‘Williams’. In Norway the flowering is medium to late in May and it ripens in the beginning of September. It has large attractive fruits with red blush and good fruit quality, storability and shelf life. Significant areas of ‘Celina’ cultivars are planted in other countries, mainly Europe. Generally, unfavourable environmental conditions for pear pollination during the Nordic spring can have a very negative effect on the yields in Norwegian pear orchards. Therefore, it is of considerable importance to interplant multiple suitable pollinizer genotypes together with the main cultivar. In order to find the right pollinizers besides following biology of fertilization, pollinizing efficacy using microsatellites were studied at NIBIO Ullensvang, western Norway. In this study, during 2017, seeds from fruits of the pear cultivar ‘Celina’ were extracted. The fruits were randomly harvested from five different orchards located in Ullensvang including NIBIO. Alongside the seeds, leaves were taken from the mother cultivar (‘Celina’) and five pear pollinizer cultivars presented in the orchards (‘Fritjof’, ‘Kristina’, ‘Clara Frijs’, ‘Herzogine Elsa’ and ‘Anna’). Using 11 microsatellite markers, a genetic characterization was conducted on both the seeds and the leaves. The obtained SSR profiles were used for gene assignment analyses. The results of the genetic analyses indicate a very heterogeneous situation regarding pollination. In conclusion, ‘Fritjof’, ‘Kristina’, ‘Clara Frijs’, ‘Herzogine Elsa’ and ‘Anna’ pears had different pollen contributions as pollinizers to ‘Celina’ depending on the investigated orchard. Only one cultivar (‘Herzogine Else’) could be singled out as a major pollen contributor in more than two orchards. Genetic analyses will be repeated in the same orchards, during an additional season, after which more conclusive results will be available.
Authors
Ming Tian Xinmiao He Yanzhong Feng Wentao Wang Heshu Chen Ming Gong Di Liu Jihong Liu Clarke Andre van EerdeAbstract
The demand for animal protein has increased considerably worldwide, especially in China, where large numbers of livestock and poultry are produced. Antibiotics have been widely applied to promote growth and prevent diseases. However, the overuse of antibiotics in animal feed has caused serious environmental and health risks, especially the wide spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which seriously affects animal and human health, food safety, ecosystems, and the sustainable future development of animal protein production. Unfortunately, AMR has already become a worldwide challenge, so international cooperation is becoming more important for combatting it. China’s efforts and determination to restrict antibiotic usage through law enforcement and effective management are of significance. In this review, we address the pollution problems of antibiotics; in particular, the AMR in water, soil, and plants caused by livestock and poultry manure in China. The negative impact of widespread and intensive use of antibiotics in livestock production is discussed. To reduce and mitigate AMR problems, we emphasize in this review the development of antibiotic substitutes for the era of antibiotic prohibition.
Authors
Ida Marie Luna Fløystad Henrik Brøseth Ane-Sofie Bednarczyk Hansen Ingrid Helle Søvik Hans Geir Eiken Snorre HagenAbstract
Gjennom det nasjonale overvåkingsprogrammet for rovvilt i Norge ble det i 2020 samlet inn prøver til DNA-analyse med antatt opphav fra brunbjørn (Ursus arctos) for tolvte år på rad. Av 1361 innsamlede prøver i 2020, ble 1351 inkludert i den genetiske analysen (850 ekskrementprøver, 489 hårprøver, 10 vevsprøver og 2 urinprøver) og 67 % var positive for brunbjørn. Totalt gav 708 prøver (52 %) en godkjent DNA-profil, og det ble fra disse prøvene påvist 150 ulike brunbjørner; 65 hunnbjørner og 85 hannbjørner. Dette var en økning på 1,4 % (2 individer) sammenlignet med 2019. Dette er det høyeste antallet brunbjørn registrert siden 2011. Forekomsten av brunbjørn var, som i foregående år, hovedsakelig konsentrert i fylkene Troms og Finnmark (66), Innlandet (52) og Trøndelag (29). Av det totale antallet brunbjørner påvist i 2020 var 70 % (105 individer) tidligere påvist i Norge, noe som utgjør en økning i gjenfunn med 4 prosentpoeng i forhold til i fjor. Om man inkluderer gjenfunn fra Sverige, Finland og Russland utgjør det totale antallet gjenfunn 112 individer (75 %). Basert på prøver fra påviste hunnbjørner ble det estimert 8,5 ynglinger i Norge i 2020. Dette er det høyeste estimatet på antall ynglinger siden overvå-kingen startet i 2009. De estimerte ynglingene i 2020 fordeler seg med 3,1 i rovviltregion 5 (Inn-landet), 2,9 i region 6 (Trøndelag) og 2,5 i region 8 (Troms og Finnmark).
Authors
Jorunn BørveAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Jorunn BørveAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
Dead greens in spring due to winterkill is common on Nordic golf courses. The objective of this research was to evaluate drop seeding, spike seeding and slit seeding of creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera L.‘007’) and rough bluegrass (Poa trivialis L.) in comparison with an unseeded control treatment for reestablishment of annual bluegrass (Poa annua L.) putting greens after winterkill. Three trials were conducted on golf courses in Central Sweden (60–61° N, 15–16° E 70–170 m a.s.l.); two in 2017 with soil temperatures varying from 6 to 16 °C during the trial period, and one in 2018 with temperatures varying from 13 to 26 °C. On average for the three trials, turfgrass coverage 4 and 6 wk after seeding was better with spike seeding or slit seeding than with drop seeding which was not different from the unseeded control. Creeping bent grass and rough bluegrass coverage did not differ on average for three trials but slit seeded rough bluegrass had better coverage after 4 wk than any of the other treatments on average for the two trials in 2017. Together with the evaluation of seed mixtures in the SCANGREEN program, this research shows that slit seeding of rough bluegrass can be recommended for faster recovery of winterkilled annual bluegrass greens in central and northern parts of the Nordic countries. Rough bluegrass can either be seeded alone to enable faster golf course opening, or it can be seeded in mixture with creeping bentgrass as part of a long-term strategy to replace annual bluegrass with creeping bentgrass.
Authors
Mette Thomsen Tor J. Johansen Eldrid Lein Molteberg Anne-Berit Wold Arne Hermansen Anne-Kristin Løes Hugh RileyAbstract
Several factors may define storability in root crops. In the following paper, preliminary results are presented from two experiments performed to test factors affecting storage quality of carrot. The study have focused on 1) soil loosening/soil compaction and 2) different cultivars of carrot and root age considered by the length of the growing period. The results so far indicate that the soil compaction had few effects on storability of carrot, but did seem to negatively affect the length of the carrot. Soil loosening reduced the occurrence of liquorice rot caused by Mycocentrospora acerina. Large differences were found in storability between the ten tested carrot cultivars and length of growing period tended to be negatively correlated to storability. We conclude that a number of precautions in carrot production may increase storability and thus economic performance.