The 3D lab

The ultimate measuring experience

Posted on May 24, 2014 by lembrechtsjonas

They look like tiny batteries, round metal cells that hide a measuring instrument and a little bit of memory-space. They are (relatively) cheap and very robust. They are called iButtons and they are more valuable to me than an iPhone. This is a post about a measurement device, but one that definitely deserves some lyrical reviews.

The best thing about them is their unrivaled survival skill. Just put them a few centimeters beneath the soil surface (maybe wrapped in some parafilm) and let them log the temperature for as long as you want.

We will leave them behind in fields all over the world, from Sweden to Chile and in all my gaps in my Belgian experiment. On their own, these iButtons will help me answer several important research questions about mountain ecology and the effects of disturbance. They can bring my PhD to a whole new level of importance for science!

Just imagine how much they can tell us! They can show the temperature gradient in the mountains, they can reveal the influence of the roadsides on this temperature gradient and they can help tracking the exact perfect location for plants to grow! They cover the whole year, the cold winter snows and the peaks on a sunny summer afternoon. The best thing is: you can leave them behind in the field without any problem as they are strong enough to survive most outside adventures, but cheap enough to survive the losses.

When my PhD becomes successful, it will to a large degree be thanks to them. Some of the most exciting parts of future fieldwork will be to search for these little instruments where I left them behind, to find them back in the vastness of nature and download their important content.

In brief: this iButtons are magical!

Posted in The research | Tagged Climate, climate change, Ecology, equipment, field work, iButtons, measuring, Mountains, PhD, Photography, Science, Temperature | 14 Comments

The fate of the basil

Posted on May 22, 2014 by lembrechtsjonas

I passed the ultimate test to see if I can be a plant ecologist and I am proud of it: I managed to take care of 4 species of basil from seed to maturity, without letting them die!

Of course, there was a bit of luck involved. There were a couple of hot days where they were living on the edge, ruthlessly forgotten (by me!) in the sun behind the window. But it was never closer than almost. Remember from this post how tiny the seedlings were in the beginning, and admire their perfection now!

No better way to celebrate this success story than with a delicious spaghetti with basil leaves. I managed to take a picture of the plate in undisturbed conditions only seconds before I enjoyed this well-deserved dish.

I will not get many scientific publications out of this experiment, but the accomplishment certainly was at least as valuable! And my tummy certainly approves…

Posted in Belgium | Tagged Basil, Cooking, Ecology, Garden, Gardening, Herb garden, Herbs, Kitchen, Kitchen garden, Plant ecology, Spaghetti | 4 Comments

The summer is for fieldwork

Posted on May 20, 2014 by lembrechtsjonas

All of a sudden, it was summer in Belgium. After the horrible cold and boring rains of the beginning of last week, the last days gave us steel-blue skies with for now the brightest sun of the year. Ideal circumstances to spend the day in the field!

I spent a whole day measuring light availability and surface temperature in the field, two factors with major importance for my plants. On a bright summer day like this, the differences are huge. Temperatures range from 15 °C in the shadows of the vegetation to a murdering 45 °C on the dry sand of my disturbed plots, all due to almost hundred-fold changes in light.

I could feel the sun beating on my own head, too. I had to be careful that I would not dehydrate myself, like the soil in the gaps, and every few hours I took a small break to cool down in the shadow and admire the little foal in its bright yellow buttercup field.

All is now in place to start an amazing field season. If everything goes as planned, I will end the summer with data for two papers and installed experiments for at least three more. And that is only the beginning!

Posted in Belgium, The research | Tagged Abiotics, Animals, Ecology, Fieldwork, Foal, Research, Science, Summer, Temperature | Leave a comment

Expanding to the tropics

Posted on May 14, 2014 by lembrechtsjonas

Each year, the bachelor students at my university get the opportunity to go to Tanzania and perform their own small research project there in the context of their Bachelor project. This year, there is finally a group that chose plant ecology (declining the opportunity to work with monkeys, lizards or exotic birds!).

This means I get the chance to supervise a project, which I think is a fantastic opportunity! There is no traveling involved for me, though. I will be in Sweden at the time, but I will help guiding them through preparation and processing of experiment and results. I experienced this fantastic Tanzanian trip myself, back in 2010, and I am happy to revive these glorious days with unforgettable animal-encounters again, albeit from the side-line.

The major win for me is that I will receive some information on the processes occurring in the tropics. The students will look at gap regeneration and microvariation in a savanna grassland, a topic closely linked to my research in Belgium and the subarctic. Their small contribution of data will indicate if comparable processes are going on in the tropics.

You will have to allow me a moment of nostalgia and let me flip through the pages of my photo album once again… At the time, I was less ‘into plants’ than I am now. We studied hand preference in vervet monkeys, adorable little cuties with more opportunistic behavior than fear for people. (They did not always use their both hands, like the one in the picture!)

What made the whole field campaign unforgettable were of course the visits to some of the worlds most impressive national parks. If the students would keep one eye open for vegetation gaps, while using the other to absorb the fantastic environment, I would already be really happy.

I just hope they come back with some nice stories and pictures to share.

Posted in Tanzania, The research | Tagged Abroad, Africa, Animals, Biology, Ecology, Photography, Research, Savannah, Science, Tanzania, Teaching, Travel | 2 Comments

A black-listed ball of fur

Posted on May 12, 2014 by lembrechtsjonas

The raccoon can currently be seen as a winner in the evolutionary race for survival. They seem to spread more and more in their native range in North America, because they can profit from the new niches created by urbanization. But there is more. Since the second half of the 20th century, they have increasingly been recorded from Europe, Russia and Japan. This success-story makes raccoons a fantastic example for my story.

After some deliberate releases in Europe (oh, they are funny to hunt down!) and escapes from zoo’s and households (oh, they are funny to have!), they took some time to adapt to the European environment. It turned out there was no raccoon-like animal in Europe (they now are the only representative of their family on the continent), so the raccoons took their chance. They started spreading steadily to France, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg and many other countries…

Currently, they managed to work their way up to the highest regions of the Belgian alien species watchlist. They are seen as a high environmental hazard, but their range is still restricted, as they only occur in large numbers in the southern part of the country.

All in all, these cute balls of fur are getting very well adapted to the European environment. That is bad news for a lot of other species, because the raccoon eats almost everything in its reach. However, the chance of them munching away a whole bird species is limited. Their ecological damage is hence present, but not dramatic.

Their main danger lies somewhere else: they are carriers of a large set of illnesses. In North-America, raccoons are the main carriers of rabies (there is a possibility that this will occur in Europe too). They also host a variety of worms that can be a serious problem for human health (better stay away from their faeces, you are warned!).

However, it is not the potential impact that intrigues me most. What I find most interesting is the quick adaptation to the urban environment, in such a way that raccoons could expand their range dramatically over the last few decennia. There is a clear parallel with the plant species in my mountain studies, with their perfect adaptations for human disturbances. This helps them all the way up in the mountains, possibly even higher than could ever be expected from their historic distributions.

It is those species that should be watched carefully, as they will most certainly be the future winners in the game of life: the species adapted to the anthropogenically disturbed area, the quickest growing ecosystem in the world.

Pictures from a recent visit to the ZOO.

Posted in Belgium, The research | Tagged Alien, Animals, Ecology, Invasive species, Photography, Raccoon, Zoo | 9 Comments

Next-level gardening

Posted on May 9, 2014 by lembrechtsjonas

I have been shoveling, digging and ploughing like a madman lately (all for this project). I imagine the mare in the neighboring field warning her little baby to stay away from this crazy scientist-gardener, who seemed to be randomly digging circular holes in the field.

That was serious business, as the present vegetation had a dense root network. I tried to remove as many of these roots as possible, as I want to prevent harsh competition of my seedlings with the other vegetation within the gaps. Luckily, I got some help from a local hardworking mole, who had been putting a lot of effort in the building of molehills all over the field.

As these kind of natural disturbances are exactly what I want to simulate with the experiment, I thanked him kindly and added his gaps to my experimental setup.

Now all gaps are set and ready. I installed a first set of soil temperature sensors and quickly checked the effect of the warm spring weather on within-gap variation. Everything seemed to be going as planned. The north-eastern side of my gaps (the sides that face the afternoon sun) quickly heated up to well above 30 °C. I wanna see those gap invaders cope with that!

The gap invaders themselves have to wait one more month before they can show what they are capable off. I need the temperatures to be just that little bit more extreme over a long period to establish a clear difference.