The 3D lab

Yellow

Posted on September 26, 2016 by lembrechtsjonas

With autumn creeping up on us at home, I’ll bring to you a series on our fieldwork in the amazing autumn of the Arctic in Abisko. This is part I.

Yellow leaves of mountain birch, with lake Torneträsk in the background.

It started off so amazingly beautiful. After we landed in Kiruna airport (the hub to the Swedish Arctic) on the last day of August, we entered a world of yellow, yellow as far as the eye could see.

The colours of the north: red fireweed and yellow mountain birches, with lake Torneträsk on the background

The subarctic is a world of birches, prosaically called Betula pubescens czerepanovii, more poetically called the mountain birch. And in autumn they do what they do best: turn the world into a magical place.

Our first hike in this world of yellow would bring us on to Nuolja, the mountain overlooking the valley of Abisko. A steep climb, I’ll warn you, on a little track that on wet days looks more like a stream in parts, with water tumbling up and over slippery rocks.

The most beautiful hiking trail of the world: Nuolja in Abisko

But the views, oh the views, they make up for the whole effort. You hike right above lake Torneträsk, the immensely long lake that defines the whole water cycle of the area.

At the top, our experiment awaited us. Installed in spring 2015, when we dropped a bunch of seeds in gaps in the vegetation, the plants were now fully grown. We hoped to see variation in their success at different elevations, with all kinds of different factors affecting this success.

Our little experiment on top of the mountain in Abisko, with a view on Lapporten

Long story short, we did find what we were looking for. Imagine the relief if you come back to your experiment after leaving it alone for so long, to see the plants did exactly what they should do, and maybe even better! More on that later, when the data are analysed.

In the meantime, we ended up high above the tree line, but even there the colours did not disappoint. Let me tell you one thing: autumn is easily the best moment to visit the subarctic.

Well, that is a beautiful table with a nice view on lake Torneträsk in Abisko

However, autumn would not be autumn if not for some sudden weather changes.

The steep slope of mount Nuolja on a dramatic looking morning

The nice sunny weather got as easily replaced by scary rain clouds as the other way around. Sun, rain, sun, rain, not very enjoyable during fieldwork, but perfect for the views.

Luckily, there is this nice little trick performed by Mount Nuolja: it blocks of most of the rain clouds rolling in from Norway, sheltering the valley from excessive rain most of the time.

If you are at the correct side of the mountain – and Abisko is – you are thus often protected from the wrath from the West.

The ski lift with a view on Abisko National Park and Lapporten

Our way down, happy because of the first successful day of fieldwork, thus again bathed in a beautiful light.

God, I love the Arctic!

All pictures from this day are also in the picture gallery on the right. Enjoy!

Posted in Sweden | Tagged Hiking, Landscape photography, Mountains, Nature, Outdoors, Photography, Scandinavia, Subarctic, Sweden, Travel | 2 Comments

From Vianden to home

Posted on September 22, 2016 by lembrechtsjonas

On the hill overlooking the beautiful village of Vianden stands a black locust, Robinia pseudoacacia, a North-American tree introduced all over the world for gardening purposes.

With its nice feathered leaves obscuring the view from the viewpoint, it made a very good case for the conference that took place in the same little village: Neobiota, the science of newly introduced species (see more here).

It was good to be part of this conference. Learning about the ideas and projects of your colleagues ensures you keep a broad mind about your own work.

Learning what happens with other species, in other ecosystems and on other spatial and temporal scales shows what is similar, but also very importantly what is different. Which processes work for invasion on a global scale, and where the local story is at play.

It helps you to break down the walls around your own little project, and explore what can work on a larger scale, and what not.

It shows you the view from across the valley, from people with a different understanding of the same story. Sometimes even different truths of the same scientific processes, and yes, even in science that is possible.

And most of all, it creates the feeling that everybody is adding their little brick to a growing construction, a growing understanding of what actually happens in the world of natural invasions in particular, and our whole world in general.

I took all that information home with me, and hopefully I came out a better scientist. Let’s now try to integrate it in all the papers I am hoping to write this winter!

Posted in Luxemburg | Tagged Architecture, Castle, Ecology, History, Invasive species, Luxembourg, Nature, Photography, Science, Travel | Leave a comment

Dinner with a view

Posted on September 16, 2016 by lembrechtsjonas

Inside the castle of Vianden

While my previous post was a shout-out for all the fantastic science being presented here at the Neobiota conference in Luxembourg, this one can be short:

Vianden castle by night

just how amazing is this as a location for a conference dinner!?

Dining between armours, giant tapestries and life medieval local music in an 11th century castle, how not to fall in love with this country?

Guarding the dining room

Luxembourg might be small, but they surely know here how to make an impression!

Posted in Luxemburg | Tagged Architecture, Castle, Conference, History, Luxembourg, Photography, Travel, Vianden | 2 Comments

A gathering of experts

Posted on September 15, 2016 by lembrechtsjonas

Neobiota 2016: the largest gathering of invasion ecologists I have ever seen, all under the watching eye of Vianden’s famous castle.

We joined forces here in Luxembourg with more than 260 ecologists from all over the world for what – up till now – is proving worthy to compete for the best conference I ever visited.

The high levels of all the presentations during this 3-day meeting clearly indicate that invasion ecology has evolved into a mature discipline. As a discipline, we are far past the stage that we remain on our own, looking at our own little specific invasion-related problems.

No, we now have an important role to play, bridging gaps between evolutionary ecology, functional ecology, biogeography, climate change research, management and many more. While we are implementing knowledge from all these disciplines, invasion ecology is also giving back to the rest of ecology: invasive species have proven to be valuable test cases to understand fundamental ecological problems. From biotic interactions, over effects of human disturbances to the impacts of climate change, research on alien species provides major breakthroughs.

And again, as I also said after the Perth conference on mountain ecology in 2015, the fastly increasing success and power of big global collaborations (like our own precious MIREN) and even bigger global datasets is playing an important role in these successes.

There is one more days of talks coming up, but already now the list of good ideas is too long to handle.

Posted in Luxemburg | Tagged Architecture, Castles, Conference, Ecology, Invasion ecology, Invasions, Luxembourg, neobiota2016, Plant invasions, Science, Travel | 2 Comments

Landmark

Posted on September 11, 2016 by lembrechtsjonas

Everywhere you go in the area around Abisko, this impressive landmark jumps to the eye: the Lapporten.

The ski lift that brings you up on Nuolja

This U-shaped valley overlooking the large valley of the Abiskojokka (the Abisko river) and the Abisko National Park, stands as one of the best-known views of Lapland.

View on Lapporten when entering from Norway

It is shaped in this pretty characteristic way by glaciers and freeze-thaw cycles, some of the most destructive – yet slow – natural forces in the north.

It is a true landmark, and most likely even used for ages by the Saami-people as a landmark while they are out to herd their reindeer. Now it marks the National Park, the views at the start of the world-famous Kungsleden multiday mountain hike and, for me, the fieldwork season in the north.

Working with a view, our experiment on Nuolja

But why always here, you might ask? What brings me and all these other scientists back to Abisko year after year?

There is of course the accessibility: close to Kiruna Airport, good road, impressive accommodation for being in such a remote region. It all makes it a whole lot easier to study the Arctic from here.

But there is another factor at play: there is just so much known already about this place. Abisko is the Arabidopsis of the North, the lab rat of the Arctic. Having this hundreds years of research to build upon is just useful and exciting.

Lapporten has been watching so many generations of scientists already, and I am maybe even a bit proud to be one of them.

Posted in Sweden | Tagged Abisko, Hiking, Landscape photography, Landscapes, Lapland, Nature photography, Photography, Scandinavia, Science, Sweden, Travel | 6 Comments

Defeated

Posted on September 5, 2016 by lembrechtsjonas

Like the fellowship of the ring trying to cross the Redhorn Pass, where Saruman sent a snowstorm to throw them back, that’s how we felt today.

Dramatic autumn sceneries in Laktatjakka valley

Our personal Mount Caradras was the Laktatjakka valley, the valley of doom, where a permanent cloud seems to be stationed day in day out. While in the rest of Lapland the sun got plenty of playtime today, we quickly walked into the mist. At 900 meters already, the snow started to fall, while we had to go up to a 1200.

Goodbye beautiful sunny weather (in the valley in the far back), we are ready to enter the cloud!

We tried, I have to say, we tried our very best, but the mountain was too strong. Winter caught up to us in the most dramatic way. I did not want to overdo it, though, there is no reason to freeze of your fingers for a few plots, so better safe than sorry. Luckily, hiking was still perfectly doable- the snow was not that bad, but identifying plants if they are covered in a layer of fresh snow, that is just not the best idea.

Aiming higher, but the snow was not gonna get less

You will have to forgive me though that photographic proof of our adventure is limited, I was just not feeling the urge to take out my camera with the snowflakes beating down at us!