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Cloudberry (Rubus chamaemorus L.) is a wild perennial shrub growing on peatland with a circumpolar distribution. The combined berries have a high polyphenol content comprised primarily of ellagitannins. A few commercial cultivars are available, and prebreeding trials on clonal material from different geographical origins are in progress. The objective of this study was to investigate how the content of polyphenols of four different cloudberry cultivars were affected by harvesting time and climatic variations during a 3-yearperiod. Plants were grown outside in plots and berries were harvested when mature. Berries were analyzed for total polyphenols and total anthocyanins by spectrophotometer. Total ellagic acid was identified and quantified using HPLC-MS after hydrolysis of the extracts. Results showed that all measured parameters; total anthocyanins, total polyphenols and ellagic acid are strongly influenced by the genetic background. Although low anthocyanin contents were present in all genotypes, they were highly affected by climatic conditions, being highest at low temperatures. However, the content of ellagic acid was less affected by environmental conditions and showed little response to changing temperatures. In conclusion, ellagitannin content was the most dominating polyphenol group observed in this study and was affected by genetics and is therefore a good breeding criterion for increased health benefit of cloudberry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two field trials with five strawberry cultivars planted on a woven black polyfibre ground cover sheet with or without translucent sheet plant coverage during winter and the growing season as combined treatments were started in 2004 and 2005. In total, nine different cultivars were included in the two fields. One early cv. 'Polka' and one late cv. 'Korona' acted as standard cultivars, while the other cultivars were new, named or labelled selections from Norwegian, Finnish and Swedish breeding programs. Winter survival, spring vigour, earliness, saleable and total berry yield, berry size and berry quality were registered for three years. The cultivars differed in earliness, berry size, yield (gram per plant) and total production (sum of all years). A combination of fibre sheet winter and spring coverage and more open net sheet harvest season coverage showed favourable results for overwintering, earliness and berry yield, and enhanced the ripening process in all cultivars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: European blueberry (E. blueberry; Vaccinium myrtillus L.) is a natural resource demanded by the processing industry with potential of domestication. Therefore an investigation of the possibilities of partial cultivation of native stands was started. OBJECTIVE: To increase knowledge of how E. blueberry react to soil types, climate, mineral nutrition, organic amendments and cutting of tillers. METHODE: Five forest fields with E.blueberry stands in Norway were examined. Besides natural development influenced by soil parameters and climate, effect of fertilization and plant pruning were examined in the municipalities of Bardu in Troms county (68°N) and of Snåsa and Lierne in Nord-Trøndelag county (64°N). Experiments were executed in randomized block designs in forest fields of native E. blueberry stands. RESULTS: The fields that performed best had O-layers close to 7 cm or thicker. The C/N ratios indicate that N was not easily available in any field, and addition of mineral fertilizer containing nitrogen and phosphor show that especially N increased elongation of long shoots and more nodes were developed. However, the effect on number of short shoots per long shoot initiated a growth gain only the last of two years. The positive growth effect of fertilizer was not followed by higher yields throughout the years, and strongest fertilization level (N60P40) reduced yield in average of four years. Adding composted wood chips or wood chips alone increased tiller growth in the birch-field in Bardu both years, but only the first year in the pine-field; this was not reflected in higher yield. Cutting of shoots to the ground reduced yield and full yield potential was not recovered before the third year after cutting. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that by improving growth conditions, especially by securing a thick natural O-layer and adjusting soil macro nutrient composition, growth conditions could be improved; and that fruit yield were down the two first years after pruning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluates the effects of climate change on agriculture in Northern Norway. It is based on downscaled climate projections for six different municipalities combined with interviews with farmers, advisors and administrative personnel in these municipalities. The projections document large climatic differences both between and within the different municipalities. The main predicted climatic changes include increasing temperatures and precipitation as well as increased frequency of certain types of extreme weather events. Despite challenges such as unstable winters, increased autumn precipitation and possibly more weeds and diseases, a prolongation of the current short growth season together with higher growth temperatures can give new opportunities for agriculture here. The impacts are expected to differ both within and between municipalities and will require tailored adaptive strategies. Most of these however should pose no difficulty implementing, having an agronomical basis that farmers are accustomed to cope with. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cloudberry (Rubus chamaemorus) is a dioecious perennial shrub growing on peat land. The berries are a combined fruit with a color ranging from yellow to orange and bright red. Berries are highly valued in the Nordic countries and berries with orange to red color are preferred. Cultivation and breeding has started, and four Norwegian varieties are on the market. These clones were selected on the basis of good shoot production (both sexes), good pollinators (males), and big berries (females). Recently, berry quality has been introduced in breeding programs as a trait for selection. In this study we present the variation in levels of individual anthocyanins and hydroxycinnamic derivates between different clones of cloudberry. Both levels of anthocyanins and hydroxycinnamic derivates varied considerably between the different clones. The most abundant anthocyanin was cyanidin 3-glucoside, followed by cyanidin 3-rutinoside. One single clone (AN1372) from Andøya in Northern Norway had the highest levels of all the analyzed anthocyanins. Among the two analyzed hydroxycinnamic acids, p-coumaric acid presented the highest ratio in all analyzed berries. Differences between different years were relatively high, but not consistent. Levels of caffeic acid did not vary much between clones. The results indicate a genetic basis for the variation between clones, but since numbers of samples were few and sampling only were done during two growth seasons, further analysis will be needed to examine the variation and genetic basis of anthocyanin composition of cloudberry. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As a primary industry, agriculture is directly dependent on natural conditions and therefore potentially vulnerable to the consequences of climate change. In Norway and Northern Norway in particular, the future climatic changes are expected to be overall positive. Still, the consequences for agriculture are not straightforward, but dependent on the interaction between different weather and biological elements, as well as political, economic and social conditions. In this interdisciplinary study we have assessed biological and agronomic effects of climate change, and their interaction with political, economic and social factors, to identify farmers' vulnerability and adaptive capacity to climate change. The assessments are based on downscaled climate change scenarios and interviews with local farmers in the three northernmost counties in Northern Norway (latitude 65.5° to 70°). The study shows that the farmers to a degree are vulnerable to a changing climate, not mainly because of the direct effects of changing growing conditions, but because these changes are an added factor to an already tenuous situation created by Norwegian agricultural policy and socio-economic development in general. We have found that farmers are highly adaptive, to both changing growing conditions and changing agricultural policies. However, changes in policy are currently a greater challenge to farmers than climate change, and such changes are therefore a more salient driver of vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two female and two male cultivars of cloudberry (Rubus chamaemorus L.) have previously been released as a result of clone evaluation at the Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research. Selection criteria have been number of pistils or stamens per flower, number of flowers and number of shoots per m2. Recently two groups of clones have been evaluated with the aim of finding new cultivars for release. The clones were collected at different locations in Norway, as well as in England and at Svalbard. Results from harvesting in 2005 to 2008 show large genetic variation in all evaluated traits and indicate good production potential for some of the tested clones. Previously released ‘Fjellgull’ and ‘Fjordgull’ are confirmed as stable and high producing. Of the clones evaluated for the first time, especially clone 102 and clone 306 are possible contenders for release. In addition to prior selection criteria based on berry yield, berry contents also have been analysed. The results indicate that clones with a northern origin have higher levels of total phenols, total anthocyanins and carotenoids than clones of a southern origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Genetically, SNP that are in complete linkage disequilibrium with the causative SNP cannot be distinguished from the causative SNP. The Complete Linkage Disequilibrium (CLD) test presented here tests whether a SNP is in complete LD with the causative mutation or not. The performance of the CLD test is evaluated in 1000 simulated datasets. Methods: The CLD test consists of two steps i.e. analysis I and analysis II. Analysis I consists of an association analysis of the investigated region. The log-likelihood values from analysis I are next ranked in descending order and in analysis II the CLD test evaluates differences in log-likelihood ratios between the best and second best markers. Under the null-hypothesis distribution, the best SNP is in greater LD with the QTL than the second best, while under the alternative-CLD-hypothesis, the best SNP is alike-in-state with the QTL. To find a significance threshold, the test was also performed on data excluding the causative SNP. The 5th, 10th and 50th highest TCLD value from 1000 replicated analyses were used to control the type-I-error rate of the test at p = 0.005, p = 0.01 and p = 0.05, respectively. Results: In a situation where the QTL explained 48% of the phenotypic variance analysis I detected a QTL in 994 replicates (p = 0.001), where 972 were positioned in the correct QTL position. When the causative SNP was excluded from the analysis, 714 replicates detected evidence of a QTL (p = 0.001). In analysis II, the CLD test confirmed 280 causative SNP from 1000 simulations (p = 0.05), i.e. power was 28%. When the effect of the QTL was reduced by doubling the error variance, the power of the test reduced relatively little to 23%. When sequence data were used, the power of the test reduced to 16%. All SNP that were confirmed by the CLD test were positioned in the correct QTL position. Conclusions: The CLD test can provide evidence for a causative SNP, but its power may be low in situations with closely linked markers. In such situations, also functional evidence will be needed to definitely conclude whether the SNP is causative or not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]