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.
2017
Sammendrag
Consumer resistance against GM crops is still substantial in the United States and Europe. We conducted an internet survey in the United States and Norway with more than 1,000 respondents in each country to estimate consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for GM soybean oil, farmed salmon fed with GM soy, and GM salmon. The differences in WTP for the conventional as compared with the GM alternatives are relatively small. Only between 7 and 13% of the respondents indicated that they were willing to pay more than a 20% premium for each of the conventional alternatives as compared to the corresponding GM alternatives. The average WTP premiums range from 7.5 to 9.2%. This suggests a large similarity in WTP in Norway and the United States and across the three products.
Sammendrag
Aims: Evaluate biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) and its contribution to total N yield in different grass-clover mixtures under a boreal coastal climate and assess how winter conditions affect the survival of clover and its capability to fix nitrogen (N). Methods: Grass-clover mixtures sown with 0, 15 and 30% red and white clover were subjected to two N rates and three levels of tractor trafficking over four years. BNF was estimated by N-difference for each of the two harvests per year, whereas the first harvest was used to estimate the fraction of N derived from the atmosphere (NdfA) and its transfer to grasses by 15N natural abundance. Results: Biological N fixation, mainly by red clover, contributed substantially to total N yield, which was up to 75% greater in grass-clover mixtures than in pure grass stands in the second production year. However, the number of red clover plants and associated BNF decreased dramatically in the third and fourth production year, with N fertilization rate having a more detrimental effect than soil trafficking. Conversely, the amount of biologically fixed N transferred to grass, increased with time, evidencing that some of the biologically fixed N is retained in the system. In the first harvests, NdfA values were generally between 80 and 100%, irrespective of preceding winter conditions. Conclusions: BNF in high latitude grass-clover mixtures can be substantial but is limited by the poor survival of red clover. Variable winter conditions had no measurable effect on winter survival nor on the sward’s capacity to fix nitrogen in spring.
Sammendrag
No abstract has been registered
Sammendrag
Intensive sweet cherry production in tunnel covered orchard systems offer an advantage of reducing rain-induced fruit cracking. In May 2005 four Haygrove multibay tunnel systems were installed on a gentle slope at the experimental farm at Bioforsk Ullensvang, western Norway. In these tunnels, feathered 1-year-old sweet cherry ‘Sweetheart’/Colt trees were planted with two rows at a spacing of 2×4 m in each tunnel. Each tunnel was split into two halves and covered from the end of April to beginning of September with one of two different plastic covers, having different light spectral transmittance; Luminance THB film (absorbing infrared light) and traditional Visqueen clear UV polythene film. Climatic parameters were monitored inside and outside the tunnels from the beginning of May to the beginning of September each year and yield data and fruit quality parameters were recorded. In 2009, from May 7 to September 16 the average temperature measured outside the tunnels was 14.3°C. Temperatures exceed 25°C only on two days. Temperatures inside the tunnels were 0.3°C higher on average during the entire season but exceeded 30°C on the same two hot days. Temperatures under the Luminance film were slightly lower compared to the clear film and especially reduced the temperature build up on sunny days. The harvest period was the second half of August. Average yield tree-1 was 8.8 kg (11 t ha-1) in the fourth leaf and 18.8 kg (23.5 t ha-1) fifth leaf. There were no yield differences between the two different films. Fruit size measurements found that 80% of the fruits were larger than 30 mm in diameter in the fourth leaf and 51% in the fifth leaf. Total soluble solid content was generally high (17-18%) and no significant differences were found between the different films.
Sammendrag
Insulation is an essential component of nest structure that helps provide incubation requirements for birds. Many species of waterfowl breed in high latitudes where rapid heat loss can necessitate a high energetic input from parents and use down feathers to line their nests. Common eider Somateria mollissima nest down has exceptional insulating properties but the microstructural mechanisms behind the feather properties have not been thoroughly examined. Here, we hypothesized that insulating properties of nest down are correlated to down feather (plumule) microstructure. We tested the thermal efficiency (fill power) and cohesion of plumules from nests of two Icelandic colonies of wild common eiders and compared them to properties of plumules of wild greylag goose Anser anser. We then used electron microscopy to examine the morphological basis of feather insulating properties. We found that greylag goose down has higher fill power (i.e. traps more air) but much lower cohesion (i.e. less prone to stick together) compared to common eider down. ese differences were related to interspecific variation in feather microstructure. Down cohesion increased with the number of barbule microstructures (prongs) that create strong points of contact among feathers. Eider down feathers also had longer barbules than greylag goose down feathers, likely increasing their air-trapping capacity. Feather properties of these two species might reflect the demands of their contrasting evolutionary history. In greylag goose, a temperate, terrestrial species, plumule microstructure may optimize heat trapping. In common eiders, a diving duck that nests in arctic and subarctic waters, plumule structure may have evolved to maximize cohesion over thermal insulation, which would both reduce buoyancy during their foraging dives and enable nest down to withstand strong arctic winds.
Forfattere
Patrick Rousset Bilel Mondher Kevin Candellier Ghislaine Volle Janka Dibdiakova Gilles HumbertSammendrag
Charcoal seems one of the most promising bio-reducer because of its high coke replacement ratio in blast furnaces. Nevertheless, biochar materials are subject self-combustion during storage, handling and transport, and need to be studied in order to understand and limit these phenomena. Heat-based methods: were employed to compare and determine the self-ignition parameters of four types of fresh biochar (Quercus pubescens, Cyclobalanopsis glauca, and Trigonostemon huangmosun, Bambusa vulgar) that are used as bioreducers in the silica industry. This study assumed that spontaneous combustion arises from exothermic oxygen chemisorption to fresh biochar surface. Sample mass, heat flow and CO2 desorption were measured. The weight increased very rapidly as soon as the gas stream was changed from N2 to air accompanying the heat generation for each material. Desorption isotherms were found to depend on the nature of the feedstock confirming that bamboo biochar was the most reactive one under air exposure.
Forfattere
Milan Lstibůrek Yousri A. El-Kassaby Tore Skrøppa Gary R. Hodge Jørn Henrik Sønstebø Arne SteffenremSammendrag
No abstract has been registered
Forfattere
Nina Sylvia Liland Irene Biancarosa Pedro Araujo Daan Biemans Christian Guido Bruckner Rune Waagbø Bente Elisabeth Torstensen Erik-Jan LockSammendrag
No abstract has been registered
Sammendrag
No abstract has been registered
Sammendrag
No abstract has been registered