The 3D lab

Tales from the field

Posted on August 17, 2020 by lembrechtsjonas

The global pandemic is still restricting lots of our fieldwork, and we have to cancel unfortunately another batch of work planned in northern Norway, but not all of it is going down the drain.

PhD-student Ronja, for example, is having great successes in her experiment in the mountains of central Norway: lots of high-anticipated germination of tiny seedlings, many temperature loggers recovered, ànd the beautiful mountain views that save the soul and are such a critical part of a mountain ecologists’ life.

The lichen-rich mountain vegetation of central Norway, backdrop of a large part of Ronja’s PhD work

Happy to share this success, and looking forward to the results coming out of this!

Digging up temperature loggers! So tiny, yet holding rows and rows of important data.

Posted in General, Norway | Tagged Ecology, Fieldwork, Hiking, Landscape photography, Mountains, Nature, Nature photography, Norway, Outdoors, PhD, Science, Travel | Leave a comment

Scouting locations

Posted on August 17, 2020 by lembrechtsjonas

Scenic pre-WW I mansion in Zemst, with a garden overrun by non-native trees-of-heaven (Ailanthus altissima)

Roamed through Flanders’ villages today in a search for scenic film locations! Stars of the show: our non-native plant invaders that are – secretly ànd out in the open – taking over our urban nature.

The tree-of-heaven is spreading vigorously through Zemst, with seedlings popping up between bricks and mortar.

I got invited by Flanders’ biggest science museum, Technopolis, to walk their broad audience of science enthusiasts through our research, to enthuse them about science. And let that be exactly the kind of opportunities that I like: opening the eyes of children, teenagers and adults to the world of plants on their doorstep is high on my list of goals.

It is not all non-native what loves the city: this wall-rue (Asplenium ruta-muraria) loves the tough live on the rocks.

So I’ll be guiding the film crew along some of my favourite stories in the urban plant realm, trusting they can capture the magic and spark some interest in the unique ecosystem that is the urban world.

Posted in Belgium, General | Tagged Ecology, Fieldwork, Invasive plants, Landscape photography, Nature, Nature photography, Science | 2 Comments

New MIREN website!

Posted on August 16, 2020 by lembrechtsjonas

Exciting news! We made a new website for MIREN, the Mountain Invasion Research Network. It still sits at www.mountaininvasions.org, yet is now a lot more visually attractive. Visit the site for the nice mountain views, stay for the cool mountain ecology!

Heaps of thanks to my wife for her design-skills!

Posted in General | Tagged Ecology, Global change, Mountains, Plant invasion, Science, Website | Leave a comment

Something cooking

Posted on August 14, 2020 by lembrechtsjonas

There is something cooking in the kitchen, and it is looking far from tasty!

It is a nice mixture of hydrogen chloride and hydrogen peroxide, with a pinch of soil added for flavour. The boiling and simmering of this disgusting soup will remove all the organic material from the soil, leaving us with the pure basics: grains of sand, silk and clay.

These, we analyze with the fancily named Grainsizer 2000, a laser-scanner for particles, that will tell us the soil texture of our samples. Important, as it will help us calibrate the soil moisture measurements from our ‘microclimate daggers’.

These green daggers measure the soil moisture, yet their values will vary between different soil types. Our ‘kitchen crew’ is finding out how that looks!

As the grain size of a soil defines how much water it can hold, such a calibration excercise is critical to know what water is truly available in these soils we are looking at. A big job, but the team is on it!

Posted in General | Tagged Acid, Chemistry, Ecology, Labwork, Microclimate, Nature, Science, Soils | Leave a comment

Gezocht: meningen over natuur!

Posted on July 30, 2020 by lembrechtsjonas

Waar ligt voor u de grens tussen natuur en cultuur? Ecologen van de Universiteit Antwerpen willen graag uw* mening over UW definitie van natuur in deze snel veranderende wereld. Beantwoord hun vragen op www.natureornot.be!

*Als je in Vlaanderen of Nederland woont

De coronacrisis heeft in de laatste maanden nog maar eens aangetoond hoe cruciaal natuur is voor onze gezondheid en ons welbevinden. Maar wat is ‘natuur’ eigenlijk? Hoeveel ‘cultuur’ maakt groen onnatuurlijk? Onze meningen hierover zouden wel eens verrassend ver uit elkaar kunnen liggen, stellen onderzoekers Jonas Lembrechts en collega’s van de Universiteit Antwerpen en Luik. Beschouwt u heidegebieden, die enkel blijven bestaan als ze worden beheerd, bijvoorbeeld als natuur? En parken, tuinen en braakliggende stukken grond, vallen die binnen de definitie? En wat met invasieve exoten?

Natuur of niet, dat is de vraag! Vallen de typische Vlaamse heide, landbouwgebieden en braakliggende terreinen voor jou onder de definitie van natuur?

De onderzoekers proberen nu deze verschillen in perceptie in kaart te brengen. Lembrechts legt uit: ‘we kunnen verwachten dat de definitie zal verschillen van persoon tot persoon, afhankelijk van hun ervaringen met het groen om ons heen.’ Zo kan je woonplaats je definitie van natuur sterk beïnvloeden: wie in de stad leeft, heeft een heel ander beeld van groen dan wie zijn hele leven ‘op de boerenbuiten’ heeft doorgebracht. Daarnaast kan ook leeftijd een rol spelen: de oudere generatie herinnert zich bijvoorbeeld nog wel hoe je boven haast elke akker een leeuwerik kon horen kwinkeleren. Voor jongeren is het dan weer een verrassing dat er vroeger géén luidruchtige parkieten door de Brusselse parken vlogen. Vaak zijn we ons nauwelijks bewust van die verschillen in perceptie.

Zolang we die verschillen in perceptie niet duidelijk in beeld brengen, blijven we hangen in onbegrip rond maatregelen die de natuur proberen te versterken. Dat mondt uit in gebakkelei over bomen kappen om heidegebied te herstellen, of in verhitte discussies over het bestrijden van al dan niet aaibare exoten. Ook wordt het moeilijk voor het beleid om natuurbeschermingsmaatregelen in cijfers uit te drukken als we het niet eens zijn over wat we nu exact onder natuur verstaan. Enkel bossen meetellen volstaat niet – al gebeurt dat soms in het kader van koolstofvastlegging. Focussen op al het groen in ons landschap helpt ons ook niet verder. Hoe groen een voetbalveld ook mag zijn, het label ‘natuur’ verdient het niet.

Een beter begrip van wat we als natuur ervaren, kan uitklaren hoe we hopen dat die natuur er in de toekomst uitziet. Nog belangrijker: het geeft natuurbeheerders de kans om in hun beleid en communicatie meer rekening te houden met die waaier aan persoonlijke definities. Zo vergroten we het draagvlak voor broodnodig natuurbeheer. Aan de slag dus! Surf naar www.natureornot.be en vul de vragenlijst in. Je bewijst onze natuur er een serieuze dienst mee.

Het project #NatureOrNot is een initiatief van de Universiteit Antwerpen en Luik. Voor meer informatie, neem contact op met
Jonas Lembrechts (jonas.lembrechts@uantwerpen.be, 032651727) of bezoek de website www.natureornot.be.

Posted in Belgium, General | Tagged Buitenleven, Cultuur, Ecologie, Natuur, Nederland, Vlaanderen | Leave a comment

Wanted: opinions about nature!

Posted on July 30, 2020 by lembrechtsjonas

Where would you draw the line between nature and culture? Ecologists from the University of Antwerp would like your* opinion on YOUR definition of nature in this rapidly changing world. Answer their questions now via www.natureornot.be!

*If you’re living in Flanders or the Netherlands, that is.

The corona crisis has once again shown how crucial nature is to our health and well-being. But what is ‘nature’ really? How much ‘culture’ makes green unnatural? Our opinions on this could be surprisingly far apart, researchers Naomi De VriesJonas Lembrechts from the University of Antwerp and Liège suggest. Would you for example consider heathland areas – which can only exist if they are managed – ‘nature’? And parks, gardens and fallow land, do they fall within the definition? And what about invasive exotic species?

Nature or not, that’s the question! Would you consider the typical Flemish heathlands, agricultural sceneries or fallow land to fall within the definition of nature?

The researchers are now trying to identify these differences in perception. We can expect that the definition will differ from person to person, depending on their experiences with the greenery around us. For example, your place of residence can strongly influence your definition of nature: those who live in the city have a completely different picture of green than those who have spent their whole life ‘on the farm’. In addition, age can also play a role: the older generation, for example, remembers how you could hear a lark chirping above almost every field. For young people, it is a surprise that no noisy parakeets flew through the parks of Brussels. Often we are hardly aware of these differences in perception.

As long as we do not clearly depict these differences in perception, we will remain stuck in a lack of understanding about measures that try to strengthen nature. This results in bickering about cutting down trees to restore heathland, or in heated discussions about combating cuddly exotic species. It also makes it difficult for governments to quantify nature conservation measures if we disagree on what exactly we mean by nature. Just counting forests is not enough – although this sometimes happens in the context of carbon sequestration. Focusing on all the greenery in our landscape does not help us either. However green a football pitch may be, the label ‘nature’ does not deserve it.

A better understanding of what we experience as nature can explain what we hope nature will look like in the future. Even more importantly, it gives nature managers the opportunity to take more notice of this range of personal definitions in their policy and communication. In this way, we increase support for much-needed nature management. So let’s get to work! Surf to www.natureornot.be and complete the questionnaire. You are doing our nature a tremenduous service.

The #NatureOrNot project is an initiative of the University of Antwerp and Liège. For more information, contact Jonas Lembrechts (jonas.lembrechts@uantwerpen.be, 032651727) or visit the website www.natureornot.be.