Resilient food production - resilient landscapes. The role of heterogeneity and scale

publishedVersio

Climate change adaptation processes seen through a resilience lens: Norwegian farmers’ handling of the dry summer of 2018

publishedVersio

Climate change adaptation processes seen through a resilience lens: Norwegian farmers’ handling of the dry summer of 2018

Climate change and more frequent extreme weather events are expected to significantly challenge food production and food security worldwide, underlining the need for adaptation within the agricultural sector. Although Norway, as other Nordic countries, potentially benefits from higher temperatures in terms of agricultural production, adaptation will be necessary. Employing resilience as a theoretical lens, this study investigates Norwegian farmers’ handling of the dry summer of 2018, a summer that comprehensively challenged agricultural production throughout Europe. In-depth interviews revealed that farmers’ main strategy was to improve their buffer capacity to be able to ‘bounce back’ (i.e., to get ‘through’ the summer to return to a ‘normal’ situation). Informal and formal networks, access to outfield resources and governmental support played key roles in enhancing the buffer capacity. Structural changes in the agricultural sector seem to challenge future access to the resources needed to improve the buffer capacity in times of crisis. Within the current environmental, social and political framework, farms are considered resilient, and strengthening buffer capacity is reasonable. However, a higher frequency of extreme weather events may require that other capacities, such as adaptive or transformative, be improved. Thus, resilience is not a given state and independent of values but strongly context dependent. To achieve long-term resilience, climate change adaptation needs to be politically encouraged and economically supported. Farmers need flexibility to use local resources. Worries about structural changes may draw farmers’ attention away from making potentially important adaptations to climate change.publishedVersio

Norwegian low-intensity ovine and bovine farming systems—a resilience perspective

publishedVersio

Grazing history affects the tree-line ecotone: a case study from Hardanger, Western Norway

Expansion of subalpine forests and upslope shift of tree-lines are expected in temperate and boreal mountain ecosystems due to global climate change. On a local scale, climatic forces are modified by a number of controlling factors. Site history is of central interest because it impacts on the importance of air and soil temperature vs. other factors. In many mountain areas, the grazing record is an important part of the site history. This study compares the tree and ground coverof two localities having different grazing histories in the tree-line ecotone of Western Norway. Data from the sampling of trees, saplings, seedlings and ground cover, tree age determinations, aerial photographs, interviews and literature research are used. The results show differences in the structure of the tree-line ecotone with regard to tree age, height, circumference and the structure of the understory. Ground cover differs in species composition, mainly with regard to light preferences. Together, the differences stress the importance of site history consideration in order to understand changes in the tree-line ecotone, because dissimilar site histories may create differing local responses to future global and regional climatic changes

The Disturbance-diversity Relationship: Integrating Biodiversity Conservation and Resource Management in Anthropogenic Landscapes

[Doctoral Thesis Review – Anmeldelse av doktoravhandling] Sharma, Lila Nath. 2016. The Disturbance-diversity Relationship: Integrating Biodiversity Conservation and Resource Management in Anthropogenic Landscapes. Dissertation for the degree of philosophiae doctor, October 2016. Department of Geography, University of Bergen. 150 pp. ISBN 978-82-308-3228-8

Elevational treeline and forest line dynamics in Norwegian mountain areas - a review

Purpose Treelines and forest lines (TFLs) have received growing interest in recent decades, due to their potential role as indicators of climate change. However, the understanding of TFL dynamics is challenged by the complex interactions of factors that control TFLs. The review aims to provide an overview over the trends in the elevational dynamics of TFLs in Norway since the beginning of the 20th century, to identify main challenges to explain temporal and spatial patterns in TFL dynamics, and to identify important domains for future research. Method A systematic search was performed using international and Norwegian search engines for peer-reviewed articles, scientific reports, and MA and PhD theses concerning TFL changes. Results Most articles indicate TFL rise, but with high variability. Single factors that have an impact on TFL dynamics are well understood, but knowledge gaps exist with regard to interactions and feedbacks, especially those leading to distributional time lags. Extracting the most relevant factors for TFL changes, especially with regard to climate versus land-use changes, requires more research. Conclusions Existing data on TFL dynamics provide a broad overview of past and current changes, but estimations of reliable TFL changes for Norway as a whole is impossible. The main challenges in future empirically-based predictions of TFLs are to understand causes of time lags, separate effects of contemporary processes, and make progress on the impacts of feedback and interactions. Remapping needs to be continued, but combined with both the establishment of representative TFL monitoring sites and field experiments

20th century Betula pubescens subsp. czerepanovii tree- and forest lines in Norway

The purpose of making re-mapped and georeferenced data of TFLs available was to enable the data's potential for spatiotemporal analyses of TFL dynamics. Specifically the goals were to identify the localities, georeference them, and through GBIF publish re-mapped TFL locations of Betula pubescens subsp. czerepanovii from NorwaypublishedVersio

20th century Betula pubescens subsp. czerepanovii tree- and forest lines in Norway

Background: Georeferenced tree- and forest line data has a wide range of applications and are increasingly used for e.g. monitoring of climate change impacts and range shift modelling. As part of a research project, registrations of previously re-mapped tree- and forest lines have been georeferenced. The data described in this paper contains 100 re-mapped registrations of Betula pubescens subsp. czerepanovii throughout Norway. All of the re-mapped tree- and forest line localities are georeferenced, elevation and aspect are given, elevational and spatial uncertainty are provided, and the re-mapping methods are explained. The published data weremapped for the first time between 1819 and 1963. The same sites were re-mapped between 1928 and 1996, but have until now been missing spatial coordinates. The entries contain 40 x 2 tree lines and 60 x 2 forest lines, most likely presenting the regionally highest registered tree- and forest lines at the given time. The entire material is stored and available for download through the GBIF server. New information: Previously, the entries have been published in journals or reports, partly in Norwegian or German only. Without the provision of the spatial coordinates, the specific locations have been unknown. The material is now available for modelling and monitoring of tree- and forest line range shifts: The recordings are useful for interpretation of climate change impacts on tree- and forest lines, and the locations of re-mapped tree- and forest lines can be implemented in future monitoring projects. Since the recordings most likely provide the highest registered Betula pubescens subsp. czerepanovii locations within their specific regions, they are probably representing the contemporary physiognomic range limits. Keywords: elevation, mountain birch, range limit, re-mapping, spatial coordinates; treelin

Elevational treeline and forest line dynamics in Norwegian mountain areas - a review

Purpose Treelines and forest lines (TFLs) have received growing interest in recent decades, due to their potential role as indicators of climate change. However, the understanding of TFL dynamics is challenged by the complex interactions of factors that control TFLs. The review aims to provide an overview over the trends in the elevational dynamics of TFLs in Norway since the beginning of the 20th century, to identify main challenges to explain temporal and spatial patterns in TFL dynamics, and to identify important domains for future research. Method A systematic search was performed using international and Norwegian search engines for peer-reviewed articles, scientific reports, and MA and PhD theses concerning TFL changes. Results Most articles indicate TFL rise, but with high variability. Single factors that have an impact on TFL dynamics are well understood, but knowledge gaps exist with regard to interactions and feedbacks, especially those leading to distributional time lags. Extracting the most relevant factors for TFL changes, especially with regard to climate versus land-use changes, requires more research. Conclusions Existing data on TFL dynamics provide a broad overview of past and current changes, but estimations of reliable TFL changes for Norway as a whole is impossible. The main challenges in future empirically-based predictions of TFLs are to understand causes of time lags, separate effects of contemporary processes, and make progress on the impacts of feedback and interactions. Remapping needs to be continued, but combined with both the establishment of representative TFL monitoring sites and field experiments