Phosphorus (P) is an essential nutrient but a surplus could lead to eutrophication. Furthermore, the minerals used to produce the mineral phosphate is a non renewable resource. There are in other words several reasons to reduce the leakage of P and the agriculture is one important area to attend. The aim of this work has been to investigate if carbon-rich arable soils content contain more P than arable soils with low carbon content. Moreover it has been calculated if the carbon-rich soils could pose a risk of P leakage by comparing their delivery of P with the plant uptake. The work has consisted of compiling the results from former gathered and analysed soil samples of 130 Swedish arable soils. The fractions of P considered are water soluble P (Pw), ammonium lactate-extractable P (P-AL), hydrochloric acid-soluble P (P-HCl), organic ammonium lactate-extractable P (Porg-AL) and inorganic ammonium lactate-extractable P (Porg-HCl).

This project investigated how elevation and vegetation type influences variation in plant litter phenolic content and protein precipitation capacity among and within common plant species for two different vegetation types, heath and meadow, in a subarctic ecosystem in the Abisko region of northern Sweden. As nutrient availability generally decreases with increasing elevation as a result of decreasing temperature, I hypothesised that phenolic content would increase with elevation and be higher on the heath than the meadow. To test this, the total phenolic content and protein precipitation capacity was estimated in leaf litter from 13 species in both heath and meadow vegetation across an elevational gradient ranging from 500 to 1000 meters above sea level (m.a.s.l.) in the study region. The results showed that elevation and vegetation type both had a strong impact on both variables. Total phenolic concentrations decreased with elevation for the meadow, and were greater for the heath than the meadow.

A titania-supported nickel catalyst was prepared and tested in methanation in order to evaluate its catalytic properties (activity, selectivity and specially, activity loss), and compare it with an alumina-supported nickel catalyst.The titania-supported catalyst did not only show higher stability than alumina, but also presented a different cause of deactivation, carbon formation. In addition, a kinetic model was obtained for the titania-supported catalyst, and a study of the effect of different operating conditions (temperature, composition and partial pressures of synthesis gas and water) on the deactivation rate and carbon formation of this catalyst was performed.

This report describes an investigation of the indoor climate in two different workspaces. Since we a big part of our lives are staying indoors in artificial environments, and more particularly in our workplaces, we think it would be interesting to do this investigation. The technical solutions for air treatment systems began with simple natural systems without fans and where the thermal rise of the air applied. In modern time is technical air treating systems used to take care of the fresh air supply. This type of units can supply filtered air with the right temperature to the building. Well-functioning ventilation is essential to bring clean fresh air to the room and effectively remove impurities without sound- or draught problems. The indoor climate is relevant for the output capacity.

The main environmental problem for aviation is the great amount of exhaust gases, mainly nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons - mostly "greenhouse gases" leading to climate changes. I decided to sort out what is being done to decrease these problems and what regulations there are concerning air pollution by the means of searching the internet and using publications from aviation authorities for current figures. I chose to scrutinize authorities on political, authority and company level, resulting in summarizing the work of UN and EU respectively, ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization), JAA (Joint Aviation Authorities) and LFV (Swedish Civil Aviation Authority), and finally SAS, representing the airline companies. Conclusion that I have drawn are thatthere are regulations for air pollution, written down in ICAO's Annex 16, that are to be followed. Secondly, LFV are environmentally controlling their nineteen airports and since economy is an important reason for not giving priority to environmental issues in aviation emission charge and noise charge are added to the landing fees.

AbstractMotor sports have been around as long as motor vehicles have been. Sports are often seen as costly polluter but in the same time the motor sports have encourages a large part of development, both for vehicles and other industries. Inventions like rear mirror and ABS brakes come from motor sports. One way to once again drive development forward while making motor sports carbon-neutral is to run the race cars on hydrogen. In this thesis, the goal is to convert a spark ignition engine for hydrogen operation.

The increasing threat of climate change has led to a increased need for models to predict future climat. In these models the changes in the soil carbon pools due to changes in microbiel degradation of the organic matter can lead to both positive and negative feedback-effects. There is however a lack of consensues on the temperature respons on degradation soil organic matter. This paper aim to give a better understanding on the factors controlling the temperature respons. The factors studied were the carbon substrate qualitity and the physiological status of the microorganisms.

One key factor in silviculture today is sustainability. In order to achieve sustainability it may be important to restore lost nutrients to the forest after clearcutting. In order to calculate the removal, you need to know how much of different elements you will find in different tree compartments. The aim of this study was to investigate if the concentration of elements in different tree compartments of spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst) were related to the moisture conditions of the site. Five plots at Risfallet (60º 21´ N, 16º 13´ E), was placed along a moisture gradient in a 40- year spruce stand.

This study was conducted to test the hypotheses that a forest managed by selective cutting can store more carbon than a forest managed by clearcutting. The study was carried out as a meta-analysis. The data that was found was analyzed by performing t-tests on the proportional effect that the two silvicultural methods had on the driving factors of CO2-efflux and carbon stores in coniferous boreal forest. In all areas tested, an effect in favor of selective cutting was found, but not all of them significant however. The soil respiration following selective cutting was significantly lower than that of clearcutting, and the primary production of a clearcut area cannot according to reason exceed that of an area post-selective cutting.

This Master Thesis covers the concept of Green Cars. The background to the research area is the high and rapidly growing number of cars, which together with other factors ad to the pollution of the environment. Under the Kyoto agreement the signing members agreed to lower the emissions of green house gases, further on the EU has a 3-pillar strategy on carbon dioxide and cars. Included in the EU strategy is a voluntary commitment from the car industry to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from new cars. The easiest way of lowering the emissions is by using alternative fuels and engines.

In the middle of Australia there is a city called Alice Springs. The city has one of the highest amounts of daily sunshine hours and sun irradiation in the world. The Australian Government runs a project called Solar Cities, and Alice Springs is one of the participators. The main part of the goal with the Solar Cities project is to increase the amount of electricity generated by solar power and by doing that lower the impact on the environment. This thesis examines the possibilities for construction of a large scale solar power plant in Alice Springs. This is done to determine the potential of creating a more sustainable energy system in the city.

The interaction between the driver, the car and the road is essential for the road safety. This case study focuses on the road condition and its effect regarding road safety issues. By studying and isolating the road condition aspect and its contributing role to the accident occurrence, the aim is to explore their relationship, as well as highlight the road parameters that are commonly associated with accident occurrence. This result will be used to develop and increase awareness of the impact of poor road alignment and poor road surface conditions on traffic safety, in order to prevent these accidents from occurring. The road parameters chosen for this study include side friction, cross slope and rut bottom cross slope, road texture, curvature, drainage gradient and rutting.The case study was limited to lv 360 in Va?sterbotten, where all accidents with an unclear cause of the accident were studied, between 2003 and 2012 were carefully studied and assessed based on the condition of the road at the time of the accident.

Syftet med denna uppsats var att studera om det finns en målgradient vid investeringsbedömning som medför en preferens för alternativ med kort återbetalningstid och snabba belöningar. Vi valde att genomföra denna studie med hjälp av en kvantitativ ansats, då vi genomförde ett experiment med studenter vid Blekinge Tekniska Högskola. Detta motiverar vi med att utifrån vårt syfte och vår teoretiska referensram, ger det oss störst möjlighet att generera ett intressant och relevant resultat. Vårt resultat visar tydligt att beslutsfattare föredrar att använda återbetalningsregeln före nettonuvärdesmetoden i en beslutssituation, och därmed ett fokus på tidsaspekten och när en investering är återbetald. 81 % av våra respondenter valde tidsalternativet i minst ett av de två casen.

In the middle of Australia there is a city called Alice Springs. The city has one of the highest amounts of daily sunshine hours and sun irradiation in the world. The Australian Government runs a project called Solar Cities, and Alice Springs is one of the participators. The main part of the goal with the Solar Cities project is to increase the amount of electricity generated by solar power and by doing that lower the impact on the environment. This thesis examines the possibilities for construction of a large scale solar power plant in Alice Springs. This is done to determine the potential of creating a more sustainable energy system in the city.

The projects objective is to find an alternative method of heating (the current method being via electric heating) the sewage treatment plant on the island Utö in Stockholm?s archipelago in order to reduce the energy consumption and ultimately the cost for heating the plant. The project is given by ?Skärgårdsstiftelsen? (The Archipelago Foundation) and is a part of the larger EU-project ?Green Islands?.A model for the plants total heating demand is established in order to get a good perception of how much money can be saved using alternative heating methods. The heating demand model gives an annual heating demand of approximately 32 500 kWh and a maximum heating power demand of around 24,7 kW.