Bente Foereid

Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research | NIBIO · Climate and Environment

The Environmental Effects Assessment Panel of the Montreal Protocol under the United Nations Environment Programme evaluates effects on the environment and human health that arise from changes in the stratospheric ozone layer and concomitant variations in ultraviolet (UV) radiation at the Earth’s surface. The current update is based on scientific a...

Composting and anaerobic digestion are the most common ways to treat organic residues. Sometimes the organic rest after anaerobic digestion is also composted. In this study we investigated greenhouse gas emissions from composting raw food waste compared to composting solid digestate of food waste. Cumulative methane emissions over 3 weeks were foun...

This assessment by the Environmental Effects Assessment Panel (EEAP) of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) provides the latest scientific update since our most recent comprehensive assessment (Photochemical and Photobiological Sciences, 2019, 18, 595–828). The interactive effects between the stratospheric ozone layer, solar ultraviolet...

Aim Anaerobic digestion produces renewable energy, biogas, from organic residues, but also digestate, a valuable organic fertiliser. Previous studies have indicated that digestate contains ample plant available nitrogen (N), but there are also concerns about greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions after application of digestates to soil. The aim of this stu...

Sorption could be a way to concentrate nutrients in diluted waste streams to bring more nutrients back to agriculture. The aim of this work was to model the fate of sorbed NH4 + content in liquid waste streams by adding nitrogen (N) sorbed to a sorbent, zeolite, and study its effect on early growth and potential leaching losses. A pot experiment wi...

Biogas residues, digestates, contain valuable nutrients and are therefore suitable as agricultural fertilizers. However, the application of fertilizers, including digestates, can enhance greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In this study different processes and post-treatments of digestates were analyzed with respect to triggered GHG emissions in soil....

Sorption could be a way to concentrate nutrients in diluted waste streams to bring more nutrients back to agriculture. However, the sorbed nutrients must be plant available. The aim of this work was to investigate how plant available nitrogen (N) added sorbed to zeolite and is compared to conventionally added N. First, 15 N labelled ammonium was so...

Biofertilizers, fertilizers made from organic residues, could replace some mineral fertilizers, reducing energy consumption and resource mining. The main treatment options are composting, anaerobic digestion, drying, pyrolysis and combustion, they can be used alone or in combination. The quality of biofertilizers depend both on the original residue...

Sorption could be a way to concentrate nutrients in diluted waste streams to bring more nutrients back to agriculture. However, the sorbed nutrients must be plant available. The aim of this work was to investigate how plant available nitrogen (N) added sorbed to zeolite and is compared to conventionally added N. First, 15N labelled ammonium was sor...

Purpose: Due to environmental concerns, efforts are made to replace the use of peat in horticultural growth media by organic wastes. Four growth media were prepared with the purpose of achieving adequate physical and chemical properties for plant production. Materials and methods: Growth media prepared from mixtures of coir (C) and paper sludge (P)...

Exposure to sunshine is known to play a role in litter decomposition in some semi-arid areas. The aim of this study was to find out if it also plays a role in higher latitude environments in peat litter decomposition and could contribute to an explanation to the patchy nature of peat litter decomposition. Peat litter from 5 microenvironments (top o...

In this work, experimental and modelling investigations were conducted on biochars pyrolyzed at 350 °C and 600 °C, to determine the effect of pyrolysis temperature, hydrogen peroxide activation and pH on copper and zinc removal, in comparison with commercially available activated carbons. Characterization of biochars was performed by BET surface ar...

Phosphorus (P) should be recycled from organic wastes as much as possible, and input is needed in stockless organic agriculture. Seven organic residues were assessed and compared them to mineral P fertilizer and rock phosphate as fertilizer for barley. P availability in the mixtures and residual P availability were also assessed by diffusive gradie...

We examined the digestate application in field-pot and field experiments with 7 plant species. The digestate was applied at different times and different doses. Phenological observations of plant species were done. The leaching effect was studied in the 0-20 and 20-40 and 40-60 cm soil layers. New studies with bentonite as a clay mineral (montmoril...

Fire is an important ecological factor and what constitutes appropriate fire management is much debated in the US and elsewhere. The role of fire as a source of greenhouse gases has been intensively investigated, but less is known about the production rate of the solid black carbon residue from fires. Black carbon accumulates in soil as it has long...

Biochar, i.e. charred organic material, appears to increase nutrient retention in soil. The mechanism for how this happens is not clear. Here two possible mechanisms, adsorption and microbial immobilisation, are suggested and compared. It is also suggested that we use biochar in wastewa-ter treatment, and so potentially integrate it better into the...

Soil cores from a field growing barley and barley mutants without root hairs under conventional and minimum tillage were sampled. They were X-ray scanned to produce a 3D image and then the roots were washed out and weight and length were determined by conventional means. Root volume and surface area were then calculated from the 3D images using sta...

Soil organic matter (SOM) is the largest store of organic carbon (C) in the biosphere, but the turnover of SOM is still incompletely understood and not well described in global C cycle models. Here we use the Community Land Model (CLM) and compare the output for soil organic C stocks (SOC) to estimates from a global data set. We also modify the ass...

Soil organic matter (SOM) is the largest store of organic carbon (C) in the biosphere, but still the turnover of SOM is incompletely understood and not well described in global C cycle models. Here we use the Community Land Model (CLM) and compare the output for soil organic C (SOC) to estimates from a global data set. We also modify the assumption...

The initial distribution of carbon (C) between model pools can strongly influence predictions of soil C models. Models are often initialized by assuming that C stocks are near steady state, but in many cases this is unrealistic. We explored different ways of initializing the DAYCENT model over the range of soils and climate in England and Wales. We...

Nutrient limitation in agriculture is a big problem in many tropical areas. Much research has focused on the optimal use of crop residues in agriculture. Recent work indicates that plant residue decomposition rates, including nutrient release rates can be increased by pre-exposure to sunlight. This has potential as a technology to manipulate nutrie...

Black carbon (BC), the residue from burning with insufficient oxygen supply, is assumed to be very stable in the environment. Here we present a simple model for BC movement and decomposition in soils based on the assumption that BC consists of two fractions with different turnover time, and that BC can move in the environment as well as decompose....

The question of how climate change will affect carbon storage in grasslands is important, as it could lead to tipping points in the climate system. Most of the carbon in grasslands is stored in the soil, and this is also the most permanent store. The main question is how temperature affects soil organic matter development and decomposition. Some au...

Many field experiments have indicated that litter decomposition in semi-arid areas may be partly or fully controlled by photodegradation. We devised a study to test our hypothesis that light exposure makes plant litter more degradable. Dry, senescent, aboveground plant litter from Miscanthus x giganteus was exposed to light including ultraviolet (U...

The question of how climate change will affect carbon storage in grasslands is important, as it could lead to tipping points in the climate system. Most of the carbon in grasslands is stored in the soil, and this is also the most permanent store. The main question is how temperature affects soil organic matter development and decomposition. Some au...

We simulate the soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics at a chronoseqeunce site in France, using the Rothamsted Carbon model. The site exhibits a transition from C3 plants, dominated by pine forest, to a conventional C4 maize rotation. The different 13C signatures of the forest plants and maize are used to distinguish between the woodland derived carbo...

Extensive agricultural systems have been promoted all over Europe. Most studies of such systems have focused on plant species composition, while few studies have looked at soil effects. We report on an experiment at three upland sites where soil carbon, nitrogen and pH were measured twice a year for 12years. There were four grazing treatments: no g...

Knowledge of the fate of plant assimilate is fundamental to our understanding of the terrestrial carbon cycle, particularly if we are to predict the effects of changes in climate and land management practices on agroecosystems. Pulse-labelling experiments have revealed that some of the carbon fixed by plants is rapidly allocated below-ground and re...

Rhizodeposition represents a relatively large carbon flow from a plant’s root into the surrounding soil. This carbon flow may have important implications for nitrogen mineralisation and carbon sequestration, but is still poorly understood. In this paper we use a simple compartment model of carbon flow in the rhizosphere to investigate the proposed...

To accurately predict the potential environmental benefits of energy crops, the sequestration of carbon in soil needs to be quantified. The aim of this study was to investigate the mineralisation rate of the perennial C4 grass Miscanthus giganteus and Miscanthus-derived soil organic matter under contrasting nitrogen supply. Soils were collected fro...

Decline in carbon content in agricultural soils contributes both to climate change and to soil fertility problems. The CENTURY element dynamics simulation model was tested and adapted for Northern European agricultural conditions using long-term datasets from Askov experimental farm in southern Denmark. The part of the model dealing with decomposit...

A combined food and energy (CFE) producing system was designed to produce biomass using short rotation willow coppice in addition to food and fodder crops. Coppice was grown as strips at both ends of a 200 m long field. The effect of the windbreak on microclimate was measured at 11 points.Results showed that microclimate was modified at a distance...