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.

Nematodes are perhaps the most common animals in the world. Nematode populations can reach densities up to several millions per square meter in the soil. There are many factors which affect nematode communities in arable soil with respect to diversity and population size. Factors like tillage, crop, fertilization, nutrient status and moisture in the soil all have an impact on soil biology and in this way also have effects on the nematode community. This study is based on three different parts, soil samples taken in March 2012 and March 2013, soil samples taken monthly during the growth season of 2013 in bare fallow plots and a pot experiment.

The quality of bread wheat is a large subject to study. The quality rests on two legs. The first one is the inheritance of specific characters, which can be influenced through plant breeding and type of cultivar. The other one is the environmental influences, such as crop rotation, nutrition, harvest and storage. The latter factors are possibly to affect through cultivation practices, while other factors are not possible to influence on for the grower, such as seasonal changes of weather and the soil content.

The company Olofsfors AB manufactures drive belts for forest machinery, known as ECO-Tracks, and abrasion-resistant steel and cutting edges for graders, excavators and tractors, known as Bruxite and SharqEdges. Manufacturing these products requires the steel to be heated and molded, then submerged in water and hardened. The water used in the hardening of steel is pumped to the process from pits below the floor and then pumped back to the pit after it?s been used. Since the temperature of this water rises after being used to harden the steel the temperature of the pumping pit needs to be adjusted to maintain its setpoint of 21°C.

Chlorinated solvent are volatile organic substances that can be harmful for humans and for the environment. Examples of common chlorinated solvents are perchloroethene, PCE, and trichloroethene, TCE. Chlorinated solvents appear as contaminants in soils primarily where they have been used as washing fluids in dry-cleaning facilities or as degreasers in metal industries. Chlorinated solvents are DNAPLs (dense non-aqueous phase liquids), which means that they are not easily dissolved in water and that they sink to the bottom of the aquifer. Adsorption to soils is low so chlorinated solvents are mobile in soils.

Resin-top disease is a rust fungi that occurs both as a host alternating form, Cronartium flaccidum G. Winter., and as a non-host alternating form, Peridermium pini Pers. The host alternating form can use a variety of hosts but the most commonly used species in the boreal forest is Melampyrum sylvaticum. In Scandinavia the Resin-top disease infect Scots pine, Pinus sylvestris L. The fungus infects the needles through the stomata and then grows through the branch to the stem where it strangulates the vessels transporting water and nutrition to the treetop, which kills the top.

The environment that surrounds us affects us all. Research has shown that we feel physically and emotionally best in natural environments with greenery or water elements. Urban environments are likely to be more stressing then natural environments. How we experience specific elements, as water, of an environment is not as much investigated. There is a need of further knowledge for us to fully understand the interplay between our senses and the environment. Human beings have always been depending on water and the search for it has characterized our deeds and doings through out evolution.

Soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks and fluxes in forest ecosystems are influenced by natural and human disturbances. In the tropical regions the highest impacts on disturbance in forest C cycles are related to human activities such as conversion of natural lands to cropland and pasture areas and to forest plantations. The disturbances in the forest C cycles will release CO2 emissions to the atmosphere triggering global warming. In this study the focus was set in subtropical soils in Brazil, south extreme region of Bahia. The aim of the study was to investigate whether reforestation of Eucalyptus plantations under former pasture areas will help mitigate climate change through carbon sequestration.

In the production of pulp, paper and cardboard, a large amount of water is used daily. The water has to be purified in the internal purifying plant before it reaches the receiving body of water. In the biological purifying stage at the Stora Enso Skoghall mill, an aerated basin is used where the microorganisms, using oxygen, oxidize the organic material to carbon dioxide. The air is pumped from the bottom of the basin and the oxygen can then be transported from the air bubbles to the water through diffusion. The problem with aeration of waste water from the forest industry is that wood residues, such as fatty acids, are making the transport of oxygen in water more difficult.

Fuel produced from renewable resources is of big interest. In this project the difference between a few different renewable materials are compared on the matter of environmental load when ethanol is produced. The renewable materials that are compared are Salix, straw and reed canary-grass (rörflen). The cellulose in the material is cut down to small pieces and then hydrolysed so that the sugar from the cellulose can be fermented into ethanol. Tha amount of ethanols that is studied in this work is the smount of ethanol needed to cultivate 1000 ha. The functional unit in the report is 1000 ha.

The basic ingredient of paper is the individual wood fibers. The property of the fibers depends on a variety of factors e.g., method of pulp production and processing. The final sheet quality depends in part on how the fibers interface between each other and therefore factors that affect the fiber size are of interest.The flexibility of the fibers depends in part on the pore water i.e., the fiber swelling. The sheet becomes less flexible at low water content which gives a loss in strength. Thus it becomes desirable to increase the water uptake.The experimental investigation described in this report consists of exposing the wood fibers to different ions and ionic strength and then measure the pore size by thermoporosimetry where a DSC (Differential Scanning Calorimeter) is used.

Following the accident at the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl in 1986, great volumes of137Cs were distributed over large parts of the former Soviet Union and Europe. Over Scotland,radiocaesium was deposited as wet deposition. Due to the relatively long physical half-life of30 years, there are still measurable activity concentrations in the natural environment. Thisstudy was made on two organic soils, Knockandy Hill and Rora Moss, situated in the easternpart of the central highlands of Scotland. At these two sites, studies on migration and transferbetween soil and plants were conducted.

The aim of this essay was to study the nitrogen flow in two willowplantations, at different locations in the south of Sweden, that wereirrigated with sewage. The study was also performed to compare thedifferences in nitrogen flows between two years, 1998 and 1999. The studywas made in three parts. First, the denitrification activity was measuredusing the acetylen inhibition method. Second the nitrogen flow, as well asthe water- and heat flows, were modeled through the SOIL-SOILN-modelThird; the nitrogen flow was calculated to compare with the results fromthe model.The results from the measurements were then compared with the resultsfrom the SOILN-simulations to detect differences in the denitrificationrate.

A well, situated on Listerlandet in the western part of Blekinge in Sweden, has a very high content of nitrate. Water with a too high content of nitrate is hazardous to human health, in particular to small children. The area surrounding the well is mostly drained agricultural land with some larger farms for chicken and mink. The well takes its water from the bedrock and is deeper than most other wells affected by nitrate. The bedrock in the area is dominated by limestone with a relatively high flow of water.This thesis was performed in order to find the source of the nitrate.

Carbon sequestration through restoration of degraded pastoral soils is an advocated way of mitigating global warming, and simultaneously alleviating poverty. An often proposed rehabilitation strategy is fencing of pastures, a method that was introduced to the farmers of Chepareria by the Vi-Agroforestry organization in 1987. The landscape of Chepareria changed from eroded, over-grazed grasslands, to a mixture of open-grazed commons, pastoral enclosures and cultivations. The aim of this study was to investigate (1) if the soil organic carbon (SOC) is higher inside the enclosures than on the open-grazed commons, (2) if SOC is affected by duration of fencing and (3) what effect cultivation of pastures has on the SOC. Estimations of vegetation cover and deep profile (100cm) soil sampling was performed on six clusters containing; (1) open-grazing (OG) (2) 1-5 years of fencing (FENCED(1)), (3) 7-10 years of fencing (FENCED(2)), (4) 15-23 years of fencing (FENCED(3)), (5) maize from OG (A(OG)), (6) maize from fenced pasture (A(FENCED)).