The 3D lab

Standing on the shoulders of giants

Posted on June 8, 2015 by lembrechtsjonas

Ekenäs Herrgård is an old mansion in the south of Sweden, close to the village of Flen and on a one hour drive, with a cute old black train, from the capital Stockholm.

Ekenäs Herrgard

We were so lucky to have a meeting there last week, on arguably the most beautiful spring days the whole of Sweden will have ever experienced (at least to my experience).

The ultimate location for a meeting

I have to admit I felt a bit humble in this old mansion, with its books of more than 300 year old and its furniture for which I do not even dare to take a guess of age and value.

Me, barely a quarter of a century on my count, talking science with the ‘big boys’, in a house that has seen generation after generation of visitors.

The history of the queen of Sweden (with a real report on her international travels), a little book from 1689.

And still, I should not worry too much about my own value. I am a scientist, and I am proud of what we are trying to accomplish. We have an important quest in front of us: understanding the future of mountain ecosystems and taking actions for their conservation.

The mansion of the meeting: Ekenäs Herrgård

Old but beautiful

We might make a difference, but we might as well not. Nobody can however argue that we did not try. We had a highly inspiring meeting with a group of enthusiast scientists, all passionated by their subject, and all eager to solve all remaining mysteries.

The mansion seemed to approve of our mission, welcoming us with the best hospitality we could imagine.

Finding inspiration for the future in the beauty of the past

I am sure our hard work will pay off in the end, although it might take some time. And as has always been said (traced back at least to the old Isaak Newton himself): we are standing on the shoulders of giants, adding our small but significant findings to an ever growing mountain of knowledge.

If that is not worth the effort, nothing is.

Posted in General | Tagged Architecture, Ecology, Flen, Mansion, Meeting, Mountains, Nature, PhD, Photography, Plant invasion, Scandinavia, Science, Sweden, Travel, Travelling | 1 Comment

Flen

Posted on June 2, 2015 by lembrechtsjonas

Tomorrow morning I will be on a plane again. A short trip this time, 3 days up and down to the south of Sweden, where we have a meeting with the MIREN-network (all our colleagues from all over the world who study plant invasions in the mountains like I do).

I had a busy time the last weeks preparing as many results as possible for the three main parts of my work that are going to be discussed there, and now I am packing my bags.

I always love these kinds of meetings, as they force me to wrap things up and summarise how far I am with my work. When everything is listed, the summary looks pretty good, but I can see some busy summer months ahead!

But first, I will enjoy the sunny spring weather in Flen, a little village south of Stockholm. And under this nice sun, I will gather plenty of useful ideas for future work and get useful comments on what I have been creating. Just hoping there are not too many interesting things to do!

The associated pictures have nothing to do with Flen, off course, but I just wanted to show the spring feeling from the garden in Belgium, as those pretty flowers seem to fit in the moment.

Posted in Sweden | Tagged Ecology, Europe, Flowers, Garden, Nature, Nature photography, PhD, Photography, Plants, Science, Sweden, Travel, Traveling | 1 Comment

That’s invasive!

Posted on June 1, 2015 by lembrechtsjonas

Science has to keep up with the rest of society, in order to stay meaningful. Luckily, science is all about innovating, so the good ideas are plentiful.

Through the ‘Empowering biodiversity research’ conference in Brussels, Belgium, where big datasets in ecology got the praise they deserve – I stumbled upon a precious little thing that might symbolise the future of large-scale data collection in biodiversity conservation.

That precious little thing is called ‘That’s invasive’ and it is a smartphone app (available for Android ànd iPhone!) to collect data on some major plant and animal invasive species.

Invasive rhododendron, beautiful flowers, but unfriendly against all other plant species. Record its presence through the app.

The app contains 24 highly invasive species from Europe, with clear pictures and explanations. It is very user-friendly (again, that’s part of the future) and allows you to locate the invader on a map, upload pictures and specify the level of invasion . The app contains animals like the American Mink, Canada Goose, Ring-Necked Parakeet and American Bullfrog, together with a bunch of water plants and species like Himalayan Balsam and Giant Hogweed.

Seedling of Japanese knotweed, enough to trigger a whole new invasion! The app could help following these new outbreaks.

With enough community awareness, this app could be the key to follow plant and animal invasions at the front line and as such, it definitely deserves our support and a bit more publicity!

Currently, the app focusses on 24 European invaders, but it could do with some more species and a global scale. Tracking the global expansion of red clover, for example, would be a nice extra.

Find more information on the website of RINSE and start recording your own invasive species!

Posted in Belgium | Tagged Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecology, Europe, Field ecology, future, Gardens, Invasive species, Nature, Photography, Plant invasion, Plants, Science | 3 Comments

University of the Arctic

Posted on May 31, 2015 by lembrechtsjonas

It are the little things that can make someone happy. Some of my Swedish pictures are featured on the website of the University of the Arctic.

That idea is already nice, but I also find it nice to be associated with this initiative. As they say it themselves: the University of the Arctic (UArctic) is a cooperative network of universities, colleges, research institutes and other organizations concerned with education and research in and about the North.

This page shows you a nice map with a bunch of yellow dots, with all the institutes associated with the University of the Arctic. They study a broad range of disciplines, from business to art in their aim to connect everything that is known about the Arctic.

Such a global collaboration effort deserves some support, as it might strengthen the future of this precious cold region.

Posted in Sweden | Tagged arctic, Cold, Ecology, Hike, Mountains, Nature photography, north, Photography, Science, Scientists, Travel, Traveling, University | 3 Comments

Hidden in the woods

Posted on May 26, 2015 by lembrechtsjonas

Underneath the cover of a dense forest canopy behind our office buildings on campus, there hides an old and forgotten greenhouse.

In summer, it is almost invisible from the forest edge, as it is completely overgrown by a wild and dense network of nettles, thistles and sprouting trees. It has been standing there for over 30 years, abandoned and forgotten, slowly deteriorating.

Inside, it is a terrible mess, and the greenhouse might seem totally lost for any purpose, just waiting year after year for its death sentence. The metal construction however perfectly survived the battle against time, and it is that unbeatable quality that will safe its life.

For our experiment this summer on the university campus, I was looking for a rain-out shelter to simulate extreme drought conditions. And despite its bad conditions, this greenhouse might perfectly fit those plans.

So next month, we will dismantle the structure and move it to our experimental field site. The content – a complete mess accumulated over 30 years of non-use – will be thrown away, as will be the useless remainders of the cover.