This study was carried out at the request of the bio energy company Naturbränsle. The company handles annually 750 000 m3 of chips from logging residues from a large area, from Östergötland in the south to Härjedalen in the north. In that area, about 50 bio fuel plants are customers. When Naturbränsle deliver chips from logging residues to their customers, the moisture content varies from 30 % to 60 %. The aim of the study was to sort out the affecting factors on the moisture content in the chips during handling and storage processes.

In coastal wetlands carbon/organic matter can be stored for long periods of time thanks to, among other things, the presence of water which slows down the decomposition. Because of this, restauration and management of such habitats have the potential to decrease the emission of greenhouse gasses and help mitigate climate. Internationally these environments are called ?blue carbon? ecosystems. In Sweden, alder (Alnus glutinosa and Alnus incanata) covered wetlands along the coast is a nature type that potentially could function as a ?blue carbon? habitat.

Over the past 40 years 600 000 ha of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta ssp. latifolia (Engelm.) Critchf.) has been planted in Sweden (280 000 ha on SCA's forest land alone which represents about 15% of the company's total forest land area). In the early 70's SCA situated a number of experimental stands in order to investigate different aspects of the exotic tree, primarily growth rate. To be able to compare the two species plots with scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), this species was also planted at the same time and under the same conditions. A number of questions should always be raised when exotic species are introduced in an ecosystem. Invasiveness, the pathogen situation and purely ethical issues should be discussed.

Both the German and the Nordic power markets are seeing dramatically changed conditions due to an ongoing process of expanding the share of renewable production in the systems. For the German part this comes from heavy subsidies which have led to an explosive development in installed capacity of photovoltaic and wind based production. After the Fukushima incident it has been decided to shut down all Germanys nuclear plants. This capacity drop is however not of the same magnitude as the increase in renewables, but will impact the stability of the power system. The Nordic power system which already has a surplus of power sees an even further increase, coming mainly from construction of new nuclear plants in Finland and a general increase in wind farms.

Storage of biomass is often associated with problems such as heat development, dry matter losses and reduction of fuel quality. The rise in temperature can potentially cause a risk of self-ignition in the fuel storage. Moreover, emissions from storage piles can cause health problems in the surrounding. The dry matter losses and reduction of fuel quality can have economical effects. The aim of this thesis project is to develop guidelines on how to store large amount of biomass at Vattenfalls heat and power plants in an optimal way.

In a city sometimes conflicts arise between either to save the species-rich vacant lots where many species thrive, or to build new buildings. Green roofs can then serve as a refuge for plants and animals that have had their natural habitat destroyed or diminished. Today we know too little about green roofs contribution to the biodiversity in the cities. We also know very little about how various types of vegetation on roof can increase biodiversity and its ability to attract different species.The aim with this study was to examine how different types of vegetation on the roofs affect the biodiversity of the invertebrate and how species-composition and number of individuals differ between the roof- and groundlevel.This study has been carried out on Augustenborg Botanical Roof Gardens in Malmo, and in an area about 1.5 kilometers away from Augustenborg. Three different types of vegetation on the roof and ground floor were selected: sedum- ruderal and grass.

Tropical rain forests only cover around six percent of the world?s land area and contain around 70 % of the world´s animals and plants. Tropical rainforests have been, and still are, negatively affected by human activities. These activities lead to forest degradation which has negative impacts on production and biodiversity. Between 1970-1980 forests in Borneo, Sabah, Malaysia, was subjected to intense logging.

For an outdoor environment to function optimally as a playarea requires that it is flexible, that is, contains places and elements that give room for the imagination and for own interpetretations, and also that the children in some way can influence and change their surroundings. It is also important to have variety, both in the sense that the playground has a unique character that distinguishes it from other places, and that it allows many different games and activities. There should for example be room for both wild games of running and moving around where many children can participate, and calm corners to withdraw to for rest or quiet play. A good playground should surprise, challenge and encourage children to discover their surroundings. One way to achive this is to use plants and materials from nature, whose irregular forms and structures can become interesting elements to explore. Vegetation also gives sence-experiences of various kinds, materials like twigs and leafs to play with and a place to play house.

District heating covers around 80 % of the heating demand in apartment buildings and 10 % in single-family homes in Sweden. In the year 2010 the total input of energy to the Swedish district heating grids was about 70 TWh, which corresponds to 11 % of the total energy input to the whole energy system in the country. Through the combined production of heat and power the CHP-plants often reaches an efficiency of 90 % from energy in the fuel to produced heat and power. In order to keep the efficiency high it is important for the owners of the plant to have good knowledge about the plants performance at different operation points. Strängnäs Energi AB initiated this diploma work together with FVB Sverige ab in order to come up with a program for short term planning of the production of heat and power at the company´s CHP-plant.The work consists of three main parts.

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.

It is important for today?s farmers to minimize the costs for crop establishment, because of decreased prices and support from the EU. Farmers, who plow in autumn on heavy clay soil, often do some kind of tillage in autumn to get better soil structure before spring seeding. This is especially important when growing small seed crop, e.g. sugar beet and oil plants.

This thesis deals with the possibilities of installing solar panels on a property, the building is owned by Kornhillschurch and called Kornhill. The owners of the property wanted to learn more about potentials for installation of solar panels on the property, therefore we described different types of solar cells and solar cells essential function to generate electricity in the report. Different factors that are limiting the generated energy are mentioned.An investigation of the property?s potential has been made in order to consider different designs. When sites that were considered suitable for solar cells were selected, different design options were made, one for each site.

The pathogenic fungus Rhizoctonia solani causes major economic losses for potato producers in Sweden. The producers, as well as advisors, have reported possible increases in severity of R. solani when free-living plant parasitic nematodes are present and active. There are several examples in the literature of interactions between pathogens where one, or both species, support or increase the damage made by the other organism. These complexes are important to investigate and to be able to forecast, since even low incidences of fungi or nematodes may result in an interaction of significance.

The importance of micropropagation has increased to provide the increasing fields with true to type and healthy plants. Traditional plants are growing on solid agar-based medium but lately liquid medium has become a new opportunity. This study has focused on a new bioreactor, developed on large scale micropropagation. Potato (Solanum tuberosum L. ?Semlo?), raspberry (Rubus idaeus L.

District heating covers around 80 % of the heating demand in apartment buildings and 10 % in single-family homes in Sweden. In the year 2010 the total input of energy to the Swedish district heating grids was about 70 TWh, which corresponds to 11 % of the total energy input to the whole energy system in the country. Through the combined production of heat and power the CHP-plants often reaches an efficiency of 90 % from energy in the fuel to produced heat and power. In order to keep the efficiency high it is important for the owners of the plant to have good knowledge about the plants performance at different operation points. Strängnäs Energi AB initiated this diploma work together with FVB Sverige ab in order to come up with a program for short term planning of the production of heat and power at the company´s CHP-plant.The work consists of three main parts.