Natural Resources Institute Finland

Jukuri
Not a member yet
    97959 research outputs found

    Integrating policy targets into product environmental impact assessments: A case study with Finnish agricultural products

    Get PDF
    Political objectives aimed at reducing environmental impacts currently face challenges in effectively assessing achievement at product level. Applying the principles of Absolute Environmental Sustainability Assessment (AESA, or Planetary Boundaries-based Life Cycle Assessment, PB-LCA) to these targets could be a way forward to evaluate a product's performance against political targets. Here, we explore the possibilities of assigning emission budgets for agricultural products based on political and scientific targets utilising the principles of PB-LCA. We tested these principles by assessing a few Finnish agricultural products; wheat, peas, milk, and beef. First, we identified national and EU-level political targets relevant to agricultural products produced in Finland. Then these targets alongside scientific planetary boundary targets were translated to emission budgets for products by first sharing the targets equal per capita and then using two different sharing principles; calorie-based and nutrition-based. In the last step, the environmental impacts of the products were compared with the emission budget assigned to each product. The results demonstrated that the method used to assign the emission budgets affects the results, nutrition-based sharing leading to better performance compared to calorie-based sharing. Beef exceeded its budget in almost all impact categories, while the results for milk and peas depended on the sharing principle used. Wheat's impacts were within the budget across all categories. The results show that both political and scientific targets can evaluate a product's sustainability performance, and comparing environmental impacts against political targets can provide new insights for decision-makers

    Root rot increases the vulnerability of Norway spruce trees to Ips typographus infestation

    Get PDF
    Norway spruce (Picea abies) is one of the most economically important tree species in Northern and Central Europe. Root rot caused by Heterobasidion annosum s.l. and the European spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus) are major disturbance agents of Norway spruce and are expected to increasingly affect spruce-dominated forests as the climate warms. This study investigated the direct interaction between root rot and I. typographus, with the aim of examining whether root rot and the stress it causes to a tree increases the risk of subsequent bark beetle attack. In total, 442 Norway spruce trees from nine different mature, even-aged forest stands were studied. First, symptoms caused by I. typographus were evaluated before final felling from each tree based on visual assessments of crown and stem conditions. After the felling, the sample plots were relocated from the clearcut areas, and the stumps of sampled trees were reassessed for root rot. Exploratory analysis and binomial Generalized Linear Mixed Model (GLMM) were used to analyze relationships between explanatory variables and their effect to I. typographus infestation. The best predictors for I. typographus infestation at individual tree level were presence of root rot and to a lesser extent, tree diameter at breast height. Seventy-five percent of root rot-infected trees were also infested with I. typographus, and most of those trees were either dead or severely infested. Results suggest that root rot weakens trees, making them more vulnerable to subsequent I. typographus infestation, especially early in outbreaks when bark beetle population densities are low

    Pilot scale hydrodynamic cavitation and hot-water extraction of Norway spruce bark yield antimicrobial and polyphenol-rich fractions

    Get PDF
    Norway spruce (Picea abies [L.] Karst) tree bark contains high concentrations of polyphenolic compounds with antibacterial, antioxidant, and antiviral properties. While laboratory-scale extraction studies are relatively abundant, the behavior of biomass properties and compound profiles during upscaled processing have remained underexplored. This study addresses the gap by assessing the industrial feasibility of using an industrial-scale assortment of bark biomass obtained directly from a sawmill. It compares two green pilot-scale extraction methods using only water as the solvent: hydrodynamic cavitation and hot-water extraction. The resulting lyophilized and spray-dried extracts were analyzed for their antibacterial, antiviral, and antioxidant activities, as well as their chemical composition, including carbohydrate, stilbene, tannin, and terpene contents. To further evaluate the industrial potential, a technical feasibility analysis was conducted, highlighting material and energy balances for both extraction processes and identifying areas for improvement. The findings indicate that both extraction methods effectively yielded polyphenol-rich extracts with desirable bioactivities. Notably, hot-water extracts, with slightly higher condensed tannin and stilbene content, exhibited higher antioxidant activity and greater efficacy against enterovirus (coxsackievirus A9), while hydrodynamic cavitation products showed higher activity against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. Lyophilization resulted in slightly lower chain-length, but higher concentrations of tannins and stilbenes compared to spray-drying. Overall, this study demonstrates that upscaled processing of spruce bark can effectively and sustainably produce commercially viable extraction products

    Concluding Remarks from the Editors

    Get PDF

    Local population dynamics of gray wolves Canis lupus and Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx exhibit consistency with intraspecific contest competition models

    Get PDF
    In Europe, the gray wolf and Eurasian lynx populations are recovering after various levels of persecution. The two species differ in their social structure and spatial patterns of aggregation. Using model selection, we investigated the consistency of the available time series data on local wolf and lynx sub-populations with a number of single-species population growth models that pertain to two types of intraspecific competition, namely, scramble (SC) and contest competition (CC), and reflect random (R) or aggregated (A) distribution of individuals. The applied models of population growth—the Ricker (SCR), Skellam (CCR), Hassell (SCA), and Beverton–Holt (CCA) models—were all parameterized in terms of intrinsic growth rate and carrying capacity with unified definitions. The projected carrying capacity was allowed to show a temporal trend, which was justified by an observed increase in prey abundance in recent decades. For both species, the models pertaining to contest competition outperformed the scramble competition models, and the Beverton–Holt model had the greatest weight. However, for the lynx, the difference of performance between the scramble and contest competition models was considerably smaller than that for the wolves. In most of the models, when it was meaningful, an optional time lag operator was added to account for a delay in individual maturity and reproduction. However, the models with a time lag had a worse fit than the models without it. This study promotes the application of population models that reflect intraspecific competition for modeling population dynamics in a single- or multi-species framework

    15,387

    full texts

    97,959

    metadata records
    Updated in last 30 days.
    Jukuri is based in Finland
    Access Repository Dashboard
    Do you manage Open Research Online? Become a CORE Member to access insider analytics, issue reports and manage access to outputs from your repository in the CORE Repository Dashboard! 👇