Chinas government has a multifunctional program for a more sustainable forestry since 2000. This six key forest programs goal is to develop a more sustainable forest sector but also take environment consideration. The state forest administration in China has decided to create 5.8 million hectare of fast growing and high yield forest. Eucalyptus has showed to have good properties for pulp and timber production and therefore Eucalyptus plantations are under development in costal areas in southern China. By adding extra nutrients, growth can be enhanced in Eucalyptus plantations.

The fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear accident resulted in large deposits of caesium, iodineand strontium as well as noble gases in various parts of Sweden. 137Cs has a radioactive halflifeof about 30 years and is therefore one of few radio-fission products remaining inmeasurable quantities in the Swedish soil. Radiocaesium behaves similarly to potassium insoil-plant systems and is easily absorbed by plants. It is important to understand how 137Csbehaves in different ecosystems in order to minimize the risk toward humans.The aim of this study was to determine how potassium Fertilization influences radiocaesiumcontent in different forest plants and fungi. Potassium fertilizer was spread once in 1992 withapproximately 200 kg KCl per ha.

Ovarian stimulation in assisted reproduction often leads to the production of a high number of oocytes. After Fertilization of these oocytes, the resulting embryos can be cryopreserved for later use. Vitrification is a recently introduced method for cryostoring embryos, showing high survival rates for both cleavage stage embryos and blastocysts. Characteristic of vitrification are high concentrations of cryoprotectants and ultra fast freezing which makes the material glassily. A major concern with vitrification has been the direct contact of the cryo-solutions with liquid nitrogen.

Due to excess precipitation that cause runoff, all soils in Sweden naturally leaches nitrogen.High leaching from arable land is an environmental problem when the runoff reacheswaters. In the international agreement, Baltic Sea Action Plan, the aim is to reduce therunoff of nutrients. Sweden has agreed to reduce its load of e.g. nitrogen to the Baltic Sea.One of the proposed measures is an increased use of site-specific N-Fertilization, which hasbeen shown to increase nitrogen use efficiency and therefore also reduce the nitrogen runoff.Either yields are increased with the same total amount of nitrogen, or the total quantityof nitrogen is reduced with preserved yield levels, which is profitable for the farmers.The dynamics of nitrogen leaching differs between top dressing applications above orbelow the economical optimum. There is a consensus about a difference in the dynamics,but not about its magnitude.

The purpose with this report was to compare three commonly occurring methods for measuring plant available nitrogen in soils. The methods extraction, incubation and Plant root simulator (PRS) probe - an ion exchange membrane (Western Ag Innovations, Inc., Saskatoon, Canada) method were used and comparison between these methods were conducted. A full factorial experiment were set up in northern Finland with the treatments excluding herbivores, warming and Fertilization to see how the inorganic nitrogen content in the soil was effected by the treatments. Soil cores were taken and from them a subsample was incubated for 18 days and thereafter analyzed for inorganic N in laboratory. PRS- probes were in the ground for 1 month.

Forest Fertilization had its peak in the late 60´s, when almost 200 000 ha was fertilized annually. The silviculture of today has high demands for timber production at the same time as the demand for nature conservation increases. It means that it?s necessary to produce more volume in smaller areas in the future. The use of DGPS equipment has in modern forestry in Sweden become more and more common.

In Sweden there are about 4 million hectares of bare peat (mire). This land has great potential to be transformed into productive forest land, provided drainage is carried out and, in some cases, even Fertilization with ashes. Drainage of mires is necessary because the high groundwater table prevents trees from growing due to reduced oxygen availability. Some of the key nutrients that trees need to grow appear in too small quantities in mires, especially potassium (K) and phosphorus (P). Ash from the combustion of biomass contains these elements and is therefore suitable as a fertilizer.

Reindeer husbandry and Forestry are both area related industries and will in big extent use the same lands. Conflicts often arise because of that the industries have different interests. Many of the activities done by the forestry influences the reindeer husbandry in an undesirable way, simultaneously as the reindeer husbandry activities can have negative consequences for the forestry. One such forestry activity is Fertilization. It was during the 1960´s forest Fertilization began to be practiced and the reason was that the increase in growth that the Fertilization gave could be able to cover for the future shortage in wood many feared. During the 1970´s when the fertilizing activities were most intensive about 200 000 ha was fertilized annually.

Fertility is of central interest in the dairy production but has during the last decades declined. Increased milk yield has resulted in high pressure on the metabolism of the dairy cows that are supposed to manage the transition from dry cows to lactating cows within a few weeks around the parturition. Much indicate that metabolism and fertility are closely linked, with insulin playing a substantial part. There are many studies suggesting that the main part of gestation loss can be found during the early embryo development, a period which can be studied in vitro. The aim of this study was to test the effect of insulin during maturation in vitro and to evaluate two different fluorescent stainings on oocytes and embryos; a nuclear stain and a staining of apoptotic cells through the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL)-method. Bovine cumulus-oocyte-complexes (n=991) were aspirated from abattoir-derived ovaries.

The fungus Gremmeniella abietina causes damage to conifers that can lead to tree death. In 1999 and 2001 the pathogen caused severe attacks in Sweden, where about 500 000 ha of pine forest were affected. Trees of all ages were attacked, but mainly forests between 30-60 years that were ready for their first commercial thinning. After recommendations from the forest agency, sanitary fellings were made to trees that had more needle loss than 85%, a total of about 50 000 ha. Economic losses have been estimated to more than one billion SEK.

Large areas of Lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia) were planted in the 1970s - and '80s. The purpose of the fast-growing species was to increase growth and with short rotation periods allow a rapidly increased harvest level. Today a large proportion of the young forests owned by Holmen Skog, Iggesund are covered by Lodgepole pine and an active forest management is required to spread the harvested volume over time which is desirable by a market perspective. The purpose of this essay is to investigate the possibility of spreading the harvested volume of Lodgepole pine over time.

Eutrophication is an environmental problem that affects more than ten percent of Swedish lakes. Excess nutrients increase the growth of algae, and cause major problems in the ecosystem through oxygen-free bottoms, fish kills, and at worst dead bottoms. Agriculture accounts for 44% of human emissions of phosphorus to lakes and rivers. Leaching occurs of particle bound phosphorus and of dissolved phosphate. The amount of phosphate in the soil solution that may be leached is partly due to the prevailing pH in the soil solution. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the relationship between phosphate solubility and pH was affected by liming.

Simplicity, intimacy, freedom and one single threadcharacterize the knitting technique.In my project, I have studied ways of creating three-dimensional shape and structure using single threads and various knitting techniques. I applied my ideas in a collaboration with the singer Sofia Karlsson. The focus has been to design a portable object that can be used in pictures for the cover and promotion of her upcoming album.The material I studied, processed and used in creating the three-part object was linen. In the center stands a collar, that changes expression depending on how it is worn and which side is turned towards the outside. The collar interacts with a cylinder for her hands and a hairnet.

Agricultural soils constitute the base in human food production and soil content of organic matter and plant nutrients together with soil microbial activity are all important parameters for high crop yield of good quality. These parameters are dependant on proper Fertilization.Anaerobic digestion of organic wastes for biogas production generates a liquid residue called biogas residue (BR). It contains organic material and plant nutrients which makes ita potential fertilizer for arable cropping. However, it also contains heavy metals and toxic organic compounds and it is therefore in need of evaluation before usage.Microbial tests were performed aiming to evaluate the agronomic traits of four different BR and to find a viable procedure for evaluating slurry fertilizers. Two experiments where soil respiration and soil potential denitrification activity (PDA) was measured at fertilizer addition were performed.

In this trial we used QualispermTM as an objective method of measuring stallion semen. Samples of semen were analyzed before and after centrifugation. Motility and concentration were statistically analyzed. During the trial all the objective mesaurments were compared to a subjective method. The advantages of QualispermTM compared to older CASA- systems is it´s ability of measuring a greater amount of spermatozoa while it also grades them into different subpopulations. These subpopulations have different qualities that decides their capacity of Fertilization. The results showed that this objective method might be used practically. Although, there are still some disadvantages, such as high costs and the necessarity of accurat training of the handler. If it´s possible to prove further relevant results that also are statistically correct, this could prove the usefulness of QualispermTM as an objective measurment method in the daily work at gestuts and stallion stations, thus giving the staff a reliable instrument in assisting the work for an improved horse breeding in Sweden, improving both in quality and economically..