The 3D lab

Summer solstice

Posted on June 23, 2014 by lembrechtsjonas

This weekend brought the longest days of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, and we even got blessed with fantastic summer weather.

In the far north, these are the days of the splendid midnight sun, a stunning sun that stays in the sky for days in a row.

This midnight sun truly brings in a surrealistic experience. You can see the sun slowly approaching the mountains on the horizon around midnight, covering the world in an orange-yellow glow, only to see it rise again moments afterwards.

These are good times for the Arctic plant life, because they can profit of 24 undisturbed hours of sunshine. This is however no unnecessary luxury, because the growing season is dangerously short up here. The long days are the only thing allowing them to grow a few centimeters every year.

Sunlight will however come from all directions during the day, and the sun will never rise high above the horizon. The result is a variety of microhabitats with different temperatures and light availability, all more or less suitable for different species.

When we go to Sweden for our field trip in July, we will still have days of 24 hours for a while. When going back at the end of August, the dark winter is again on its way, so the midnight sun will have to give way again to the northern light.

Posted in Sweden | Tagged Abisko, Lapland, midnight sun, north, north pole, Norway, Photography, Plants, Scandinavia, Summer, summer solstice, Sweden, Travel | Leave a comment

Long hours of preparation

Posted on June 20, 2014 by lembrechtsjonas

New post on arctic research!

Long hours of preparation.

Posted in General | Tagged arctic, Fieldwork, north, Plants, Research, Scandinavia, Science, Sweden | Leave a comment

Put it to the test

Posted on June 20, 2014 by lembrechtsjonas

Research equipment should live up to high standards. And that is not only limited to the expensive stuff, everything should be high quality so it will not ruin the results.

Today, I tested some waterproof markers on their ability to survive harsh conditions. I had five different ones, all of them at least claimed to be waterproof and suited for outdoor marking.

I tried them all on the white plant labels that would serve to mark every patch of seeds, so we will be able to find them back next season (so they should be able to survive a summer and a winter).

Then I used the power of my thumb to simulate a ‘harsh condition’. The second one was a complete lie, one soft swipe with my finger and all the letters were gone! The others did much better. Mister Edding 8055 lost most of his color, but the three ‘permanent’ markers came out as quiet permanent.

I decided that the one on the right won the game, and started marking my 1728 labels.

Read my latest post about all these preparations for the field season on the Arctic Research blog!

And take your time to take a look on the right of this blog, were I created a new PHOTO GALLERY of my time in France!

Posted in The research | Tagged Experiment, Fieldwork, markers, outdoor, Science, test, waterproof | 2 Comments

The escape of the morpho’s

Posted on June 18, 2014 by lembrechtsjonas

It sounds like the title of a cheap science fiction movie, but the title roll is played by fragile, beautiful butterflies. The severe hail storms of a few weeks ago damaged the glass dome of the butterfly garden of the Zoo of Antwerp, allowing several blue morpho’s to escape.

They are an impressive sight, with their 15 centimeters of span. Now, they might be bringing a little bit of South-American rainforest to the Antwerp city center.

This escape can serve as a classical example of how alien species appear in our natural system. However, it also shows immediately that not all aliens should be treated with the same fear.

Chances are limited that the morpho’s, with their fragile wings and love for the hot humidities of the rainforest, will follow the same path as, for example, ring-necked parakeets. We can be fairly certain that they will not survive long enough in our climate. The first day of winter will already be impossible to survive.

Ring-necked parakeets managed to establish a large population in Belgium from some escaped couples in the parks of Brussels. They are definitely facilitated by our habit to provide food sources for winter birds.

So: alien species, yes! Introduced by humans, yes! Invasive species? Not very likely. They probably belong to the 99 percent of introduced species that never even manages to establish a population.

But let this story be an example of how easy these introductions occur. We only needed one hail storm to release a completely new species in our ecosystem. In this case still a very visible species, it gets even less controlable with smaller species!

Posted in Belgium | Tagged Animals, butterfly, Ecology, exotic, exotic species, Invasion, morpho, Nature, ontwerp, Science, Zoo | 7 Comments

Stuck in Paris

Posted on June 16, 2014 by lembrechtsjonas

Strikes in France, it seems to be a well-known event… For more than a week, the railway system had been working on reduced power due to striking of the employees. Uncertainty in the provided information tried to ruin what had been an otherwise smooth conference.

Luckily, with the help of a good anticipation of the situation by the organization and a trustworthy minimum service on the tracks, we managed to reach Paris three hours earlier than expected. It took away an important part of my night’s rest, but it also gained me half a day in a sun-drenched city of international beauty.

The latter almost made up for the former, as I decided to take a walk past some of the main attractions of the city.

With the sun at the exact right temperature, the city showed itself from its best side. Thanks to a subway system free of strikes, I managed to see everything from l’Île de la Cité to the Eiffel tower, with impressive old buildings falling over each other around every corner.

I completely regained my love for this city, now I experienced a relaxing stroll along the Seine and through the Jardin des Tuileries.

Definitely a city worth the visit, even when it is involuntary!

Posted in France | Tagged City, Eiffel tower, Europe, France, l'île de la Cité, Louvre, Paris, Sightseeing, Strike, Tourism, Travel, Western Europe | 2 Comments

Hot and alive

Posted on June 13, 2014 by lembrechtsjonas

It is summer in the Loire valley.

The old stones and castles are burning under the sun. Plants and flowers in the city experience dramatically high temperatures as they stubbornly survive between cracks and stones. I am walking through the streets, sneaking from shadow to shadow, breaking my head on why those plants deal way better with the hot sun and stones than I can.

Those plants that battle the city summer provide a nice example of some of the main headlines of the conference here: what are the climatic limits of organisms? What kind of climate extreme kills plants and animals, and even more importantly: which ways do they have to change their own environment to overcome those challenges.

The most important take-home message here is that organisms never experience the climate and environment like we do. The temperatures that they experience might be completely different from what it looks like from our point of view. Moreover, they have an arsenal of opportunities to battle the extremes, even when they are unable to move to the shadow. Those two things combined might actually explain a lot of their surviving powers.

I found myself a cold fresh drink under a sun screen, summarized all the interesting things that were discussed at the conference and promised myself to get to the heart of how plants manage to beat me again and again in dealing with the extremes.