The price trend on rapeseed the latest years has led to an increasing interest to grow the crop among many farmers in Sweden. The price trend has resulted in more than a doubling of the oilseed area since the early 2000s. For many farmers it is an advantage to increase cultivation of rapeseed because of the high proportion of cereals in the crop rotation on many farms, but it is not just benefits. The risk of the fields being infected by clubroot increases within frequent rapeseed cultivation and it often leads to subtantial economic losses. Clubroot is caused by Plasmodiophora brassicae that is a soilborne pathogen in genus Protozoa and its resting spores can be found in the soil for up to 18 years.

The filters used today to purify water are often expensive and the need to find new filter materials is substantial. Studies of pine bark have shown that this is a material that may be used as an alternative to conventional filter materials, such as activated carbon. However, the study of pine bark has shown that a leakage of phenolic compounds may occur when using the material for water purification. Therefore, the purpose of this report is to investigate the release of phenols from pine bark, in order to evaluate the use of pine bark as a filter material. Another assignment is to investigate the amount of metals adsorbed by the filter material.

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.

The purpose of this report is to examine the possibilities to decrease the number of insects and other pathogens in a crop of pak choi (Brassica rapa), grown with different types of cover and living mulches. Included in the report is a study of literature where amongst others, a summary on the vegetable pak choi and theories of living mulches and different kind of covers are to be found. To examine the amount of predators in the field, traps were used. During the autumn 2002 the tests were conducted in Alnarp. The pak choi and the living mulches were planted/sawn at the same time, the different covers were also applied at this time. The total experiment was divided into six different treatments (plus control) of which three were with covers and three were with living mulches. Once a week the number of leaves, the height and damages were read on ten of the plants from each parcel.

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.

The estate of Rämningstorp in the region of Västergötland in southern Sweden is administered by the holding trust company Skogssällskapet i Skövde. In 1999 measures were taken by Skogssällskapet to drain the stream Fredstorpsbäcken as a means to increase the forest productivity of the surrounding lands, which are situated on the estate of Rämningstorp. Almost immediately after the drainage, the streamwater turned turbid and a landowner downstream reported the issue to the county administrative board of the region. The aim of this thesis was firstly to analyse the suspended matter that appeared during summer/autumn and secondly to explain why it came to be. Initial hypotheses for the explanation to the greyish turbid water were that it was either 1) a chemical/biochemical precipitate, or 2) an bacterial/algal blooming.

Lichens are adapted to bright and sparse forests on oligotrophic ground. Due to a slow growth rate and high light demand lichens will suffer from competition in eutrophic environments. Therefore, lichens have disappeared from managed forests where the forest industry has increased the productivity. A reduced abundance of lichens will affect both biodiversity of the forest and the reindeer winter graze lands. It is important to understand how and for how long fertilization affects the abundance and diversity of lichens in order to protect lichen rich ecosystems. We have registered the biomass and number of lichen species in eight plots (four nitrogen rich and four nitrogen deficient) and compared fertilized Sami settlements with their oligotrophic surroundings in the nature reserves of Tjeggelvas.

This study was made as a part of a feasibility study on a polishing wetland at Rimbo wastewater plant (wwp) in Norrtälje municipality. The wwp had to decrease the nitrogen discharge to reach the limit 15 mg tot-N/l. The nitrogen in the outlet was mainly in the form of nitrate, hence the wetland mainly ought to support denitrification. The proposed area for the wetland was situated right next to the wwp and was already in the municipalitys posession. One aim of this study was to examine what spieces of plants needed to achieve highest possible denitrification.

The relatively poor economy in European dairy farming might be improved from efficient feeding systems and dietary management. Increasing herd sizes and transition to loose housing systems in Sweden, increases the possibilities for other feeding systems than separate feeding that is the traditional feeding system in Sweden. Other possible feeding systems are partial mixed ration (PMR) and total mixed ration (TMR), where the TMR system sometimes is associated with overfeeding and thereby increased environmental impact and high feed cost. Diets providing nutrients above or below animal requirements are considered as unbalanced, which in turn are associated with reductions in health, fertility and milk production. On the other hand, a balanced feed ration improves feed efficiency, nitrogen utilization and profitability.

Common species of freshwater mussels may, like the freshwater pearl mussel (Margaritifera margaritifera) have a drastic decline in number and there is several reasons, like sedimentation, a decline of host fishes, introduction of alien species, nutrition leakages from agriculture and pollutants of medic drugs and poison. Ann Gustavsson made in the year of 2007 a study over rejuventation of freshwater great mussels in nine watersystems and considered that the rejuventation within the populations were all along the line poor. This study orients from her work and points to determine if there is a connection between the poor juventation and pollution of nitrogen and phosphorous from industries and private sanitations. The study was performed with the software program ArcGIS9.2 to take out drainage areas for the concerned habitats and contact was made with the concerned authoritys. When it comes to supervision of private sanitations is it the countys and for industries is it the county administrative board.

Protecting the environment has with time grown to take a more central role in the society. Agriculture plays an important role in the society since this sector produces our food. More thorough research on how agriculture affects the environment is therefore motivated. This research can be used to improve the agricultural practice from an environmental point of view. This is something that both the farmers and the consumers can profit from. This study aims to form the basis for creating environmental indicators for use of nitrogen and energy on dairy farms. Twenty-three farmers in western Sweden have been interviewed about their farms, both organic and conventional. They produce milk with different intensity, defined as the amount of milk delivered (sold) per hectare of arable land.

AbstractThe dependency of fossil fuels in the transport sector causes large emissions of carbondioxide. This problem can we reduce by using vehicle gas from digested solid manure and leftover of pasture. I have studied the potential for this in the county of Västernorrland. Thepurpose is to investigate how much vehicle gas that can be extracted.One central, large scale digestion and upgrade plant should be placed in Härnösand. Theamount of pasture and manure that is economical and practical available is enough to produce2,7-3,5 millions Nm3 vehicle gas.

The wastewater treatment plant at GE Healthcare's facility in Uppsala deployed a three step vacuum evaporator in 2007. The purpose of this was to pre-treat wastewater containing amines. The purpose of this thesis was to optimize thisprocess by reducing the amount of concentrate without releasing more nitrogen tothe environment and to examine if density could be used as a measurement of whenthe process should be ended.To create a foundation for optimization six test cycles were conducted with samples taken from all three steps. Both concentrate and condensate were tested as well as the incoming solution. Furthermore, the thesis has been expanded with a benchmarking part examining two different evaporators.

Crop efficiency in utilizing available nutrients is an important factor in increasing produc-tivity and reducing the environmental impact of agriculture. Nitrogen is the nutrient that plants need in the largest quantity and wheat, along with maize and rice, is the world's most cultivated crop. In this work, the Nitrogen Use Efficiency, NUE, during the major growth period, HTP, of twelve different spring wheat varieties, were examined. The NUE was calculated as the product of uptake efficiency of nitrogen, UN, and the conversion effi-ciency of nitrogen to biomass, EN. The purpose of this work was to find if there are varietal differences in NUE and its components among the twelve varieties and to link a high NUE to specific characteristics of the varieties.

A study was made on four environmental ponds in Sölvesborgs municipality. The reason forthis was to see if the ponds had fulfilled some of the questions that was mentioned in theproject ?Rädda Hanöbukten?. The questions were as following; do the environmental pondsdecrease the leakage of nitrogen and phosphorus into Hanöbukten, do the ponds decrease theuse of groundwater in Sölvesborgs Municipality and are there any restrictions on what thewater in the ponds is allowed to be used for. In order to answer these questions aquestionnaire was made and interviews were held.