Take this proudly walking pigeon in the port of Barcelona as an announcement for next week’s talk about life in the city, which I’ll be giving for the biologist students at the University of Antwerp.

In a session in a series of after-hour events on fauna and flora in our region, I will be introducing them to how climate and land use change together create novel ecosystems, with an unseen combination of climatic, environmental and biotic conditions. A novel ecosystem that requires a lot of flexibility of species trying to survive there.

No better example of that city environment than the built-up mess that is Flanders, where we are studying the effect of the Urban Heat Island on newly introduced species. Tbe students are lucky enough to get a sneak peak on some of our newest results in that regard, on how plant species from a warm origin prefer this city climate and use cities as a gateway to the rest of the country. More on that soon!