There are a great possibility to shorten the time between mowing and preservation by spreading of ley crops in connection to the conditioning. In this case the cellular respiration (the plants breeding that consume sugar until the crop is ensiled) should not continue as long and the forage will perhaps get a higher nutritional value. The capacity of the next machine could also be higher because the rake gives swaths with a lot of material. There is also a possibility that spreading of ley crops gives the material a more homogeneous content of dry matter and that gives a reduced growth of clostridium. This is particularly important when the method of harvest doesn?t include any mixing of the material like it does with a round baler or silagewagon.

Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr) is just like Norway spruce (Picea abies) a species in thegenus picea. The natural range of Sitka spruce is a narrow strip along the west coast of North America. Itis the most coastal of all picea species, and very dependent on the mild and humid climate along thepacific coast.Sitka spruce has been grown a long time in the countries around the North Sea, particularly in GreatBritain where it currently is the most important species in British forestry. Sitka spruce has not beenplanted in Swedish forests to any large extent before the storm Gudrun in 2005. Several studies indicatethat the production of wood biomass is higher for Sitka spruce compared to Norway spruce.

In recent years it has become more and more evident that man has contributed to much of the climate changes that have taken place during the last century. A major challenge today is to reduce emissions and energy usage at the same time as the global population is growing. To contribute to a better environment, Stockholms Stad has set at target of becoming fossil fuel free by the year of 2050. The construction of new districts is done with this goal in mind; energy efficiency and renewable energy sources are examples of methods to achieve this.Solar energy is considered to be a sustainable energy source and the most common techniques to harvest solar energy in Sweden are solar cells and solar collectors which produce electricity and heat respectively. This report aims to investigate whether an investment in any of these systems would prove to be economically beneficial at Kvarnholmen, a district under construction in eastern Nacka, Stockholm.Since the finished blueprints only cover a small portion of Kvarnholmen, the report examines the possibilities for a house where construction has already begun, Nya Kvarnen.

Stump wood was used between 1850 and 1950 for production of tar and as firewood. In the 1950s the use decreased because of the introduction of the cheap fossil oil. In the 1970s stump wood became an interesting issue again as a raw material for the pulp industry. Stump lifting has today become a possible source for bioenergy. The objectives with this study were to investigate the productivity of stump lifting and stump extraction, and to analyse the economy.

Hammarby Sjöstad is a new district in southern Stockholm. A main objective with the Sjöstad project was to halve the environmental impact compared to other construction work. The environmental goals involve a halved water consumption rate, a local treatment of storm water and trials aiming to extract nutrients from the waste water. Sjöstadsverket is an experimental treatment plant used for testing new treatment processes for domestic waste water from Hammarby Sjöstad. The results are to be compared with the conventional process used at Henrikdals treatment plant today.

Using the Introductory Carbon Balance Model, ICBM, five different crop rotations with rye 1. Rye-Ley-Ley-Rye-Beans-Rye 2. Rye-Rye-Rapeseed-Rapeseed 3. Rye-Ley-Ley-Rye-Potatoes-Rye 4. Rye-Rye-Potatoes-Wheat 5. Rye-Rye-Potatoes-Beans-Wheat-Rye-Potatoes-Rapeseed were tested theoretically in four different cultivation scenarios ? Straw left on the field, biogas digestate added as fertilizer. Labelled ?+straw+BD?. ? Straw left on the field, only synthetic fertilizer. Labelled ?+straw-BD?. ? Straw harvested, biogas digestate added as fertilizer.

The grain market is facing substantial changes. Tradionally, cereal has been a supply-led market i.e. supply conditions have had a major impact on price level or indirectly, through market interventions implemented through the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP). Just a few years ago, Sweden and the EU were not affected so strongly by world market prices for cereals. EU was a surplus-area and to a substantial degree a local market.

Field balances based on supply and removal of trace elements from the topsoil have been calculatedfor farms specialized in crop, dairy and pig production in Sweden. Today's field balances have beencompared with the field balances of 1990 in order to examine if, and then how, the situation haschanged. Studied trace elements are arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu),mercury (Hg), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn).The balance calculations show that the stores of Cu and Zn are depleted with an average rate of -15% and -6 % over a 100-years period on crop farms when only commercial fertilizers are being used.The concentrations of Hg and Pb tend to increase in the topsoil on crop farms with more than 3 % forHg and with 2 % for Pb in 100 years. There is today balance between supply and removal of the traceelements As, Cd, Cr, Mn and Ni. In the south of Sweden, on crop farms with sugar beets in the croprotation, one can see a decrease in the concentration of Cd in the top soil by -6 % over a period of100 years.

The use of fossil fuels such as coal and gas are a contributor to the global warming. The climate change is a worldwide problem with far reaching consequences that is believed to be very expensive. The United Nations has been introducing a framework convention on climate change. One component of the convention is the Kyoto protocol. The protocol is obligating the developed countries to decrease their emissions of greenhouse gases by 5.2 percent during the time period 2008-2012.

Fruit flies (Tephritidae) are serious pests that cause enormous losses for farmers in many countries. The frequent use of insecticides in controlling fruit flies in fruits and vegetable has not resulted in sustainable management of the pest. Problems associated with this complete reliance on chemical control are many residues of insecticides in crops, health problems for farmers, contamination of water and soil, insecticide resistance development and decrease in natural enemy populations. The implementation of control measures that do not imply an added burden to the environment and/or the farmers is urgent. More knowledge about the ecology of fruit flies is the basis for finding new and better ways to control this pest.

The plants in the genus Elatine are characteristic for oligo and mesotrophic lakes. This study focuses on Elatine hexandra one of the four species in Sweden. It is stated as vulnerable by the National Environment Agency and a conservation plan with guidelines to preserve the plant in Sweden is under preparation. There have been a few previous studies investigating this plant in other countries but this is the first one for Sweden. The aim of this study was to investigate the distribution, growth and reproduction of E.

Low stumps represent on their own up to 80% of the dead wood remaining on clear cuts and therefore supply suitable habitat for saproxylic insects i.e. insects depending on dead wood for their survival. Recent stump harvesting activities threaten this substrate of ecological importance and increase the anthropogenic negative impacts on these species. Because of technical and environmental reasons (nutrient leakage, erosion) guidelines for stump harvesting recommend to retain stumps standing in wet parts of clear cuts. However, stumps in wet positions might not be a satisfactory substrate for saproxylic insects and therefore might not be as much used as stumps in dry positions.

The eutrophication of inshore seas, lakes and watercourses is mainly due to leaching of nitrogen and phosphorus (P) from agriculture. Many efforts are made to reduce the lea-kage of phosphorus in Sweden and the Baltic Sea countries. Phosphorus is also a finite resource and the mining of good quality raw material gets more and more difficult. Se-dimentation dams in combination with filters is one relatively new method to separate P from run-off and drainage water from agricultural land. This study was a part of an IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute?s project which tests the capacity and func-tion for separation of phosphorus in four phosphorus filters.

The competition for Norway spruce pulp wood in Central Sweden increases, forcing the supply-structure of Holmen to face two important challenges. Firstly, it is of the outmost strategically importance to secure the long-term supply of Norway spruce pulp wood to the industries. Secondly, Holmen desires to increase the obtainable volume of Norway spruce pulp wood. This would enable the company to choose volumes in the lower price-segments and thereby decrease the dependency of costly marginal volumes. As this work shows, one part in managing these challenges could be to lower the quality standards concerning root rot (Heterobasidium annosum). Facts presented in the work shows that: 1. Technically, the TMP-industry of Braviken can handle a much more rotted pulp wood than that used today, although the cost of refinement increases.

AbstractThe purpose of project is to study the possibility for Borås Energy & Environment to build and run a commercial ethanol production facility in Borås. The project also studies the technology for the production of ethanol using renewable energy, e.g. lignocelluloses with focus on two processes, svag-syra hydrolyse and enzymatic hydrolyse. The technology of the process is based of hydrolysation of biomass (hemicelluloses and cellulose) to sugar and extract it to ethanol. These two techniques will compare with each other to determine which of them that it?s more suitable for ethanol production.