The 3D lab

A reward for 2012-me

Posted on February 25, 2016 by lembrechtsjonas

Let’s go back to summer 2012. I am working on my masters thesis in Norway in what was arguably the wettest fieldwork summer till today.

Empetrum hermaphroditum, one of the main species of the native vegetation in our experimental plots.

Aim of the project was at first to get an idea of the distribution of the non-native species along the mountain roads from the Norwegian fjords till the highest elevation.

But when we were on it, sampling plants along these roads for a month, we discovered that many other species showed peculiar patterns as well. Not only the non-native species seemed to be affected by the roads, several native species saw their distributions altered as well.

A discovery that made me very excited, especially because we had not really been looking for it.

And yet, despite all the excitement, we did not have sufficient data at that time to prove what we were observing. I had to be patient, wait for more data – from our MIREN colleagues – and try a more elaborate approach later.

And now, finally, almost 4 years later, we will publish these exciting patterns we observed in 2012. We are finalising the global paper that shows what we wanted to show, and thus, very soon, I will be able to give a beautiful present to 2012-me. A present that will make him very happy.

Posted in Norway, Science | Tagged arctic, Ecology, Landscape photography, Mountains, Nature photography, Norway, Photography, Plants, Publishing, Scandinavia, Science, Travel | 2 Comments

A mildly booming business

Posted on February 23, 2016 by lembrechtsjonas

We have been spending considerable amount of time uploading my pictures on Fotolia, one of the main websites for stock photography.

The Louvre museum in Paris, on my way home after a work visit to Loches, France

It is a lot of work to get them on there, but the occasional reward makes it a lot of fun. You can find my ever-growing portfolio here.

Shakespeares Globe in London, on holiday

I currently have almost 3000 pictures online, and sold more than 350 of them, which makes me mildly proud. It is never gonna make me rich (and you definitely do not want to calculate how very little we earn for an hour of work!), but selling 350 pictures is tremendously more than I would have ever thought possible.

A guanaco in the Chilean Andes, after an experimental field campaign

It is funny to see what kind of pictures sell the easiest. This posts shows some of the bestsellers in my portfolio, and it is immediately clear that exotic travel destinations do very well.

Cows in a Patagonian valley, after a field campaign in Chile

Landscapes, but also famous cityviews are thus high on the list, but they contrast sharply with the dull pictures that seem to get at least as much attention: car parks, traffic signs, spoons, the more ‘normal’ it is, the easier it sells.

Car park of the airport in Bariloche, Argentina, after a meeting with colleagues

But surprisingly, even my work seems to sell, as illustrated by this detail of stress measurements on our university campus.

Measuring fluorescence in colonisers of experimental gaps at the university, Antwerp, Belgium

For someone who likes to make pictures as an extra to his main job in ecological research, selling some pictures through Fotolia is a nice reward. I will never be able to resist the urge to make pictures anyway, so better make the most of it!

Posted in Photography | Tagged Animals, Ecology, Global, Hiking, Landscape photography, Mountains, Nature, Nature photography, Photography, Plants, South America, Travel, Travelling | Leave a comment

Travelling the world

Posted on February 19, 2016 by lembrechtsjonas

… without getting anywhere!

I am working on some very interesting global models now, bringing together all the data from our colleagues in mountain regions all over the world. I aim to bring together all this data to make maps of the distribution of our invasive plants over the world.

It allows me to hop easily from Norway to Hawaii, from Australia to Chile, from Yellowstone to Switzerland. It is nice travelling to all these places, without the burden of taking the plane…

Okay, okay, I admit, not as good as actually being there, but it stays nice to keep the research broader than just my own little village. The patterns we find and will find, are true on a large scale, and that is increasingly important in science.

On the same note: I travelled to India, yet also without getting anywhere. There is a big (the biggest outside of India) Jain temple in Wilrijk, the place where I work, and in the evening sun it looked perfectly suited for every travel website. It took me only a quick stop on my way home, but it gave the real feel of India.

Posted in Belgium | Tagged Architecture, Belgium, Ecology, India, Landscape photography, Modeling, PhD, Photography, Research, Science, Temple, Travel | 1 Comment

A fifteen minutes city trip

Posted on February 17, 2016 by lembrechtsjonas

I am on a roll with my computerwork! With fieldwork being on hold till summer is back, I can thoroughly work on all the data analyses, and that is going very smooth.

With all that working inside, I feared however that I would totally miss the beginning of spring. Luckily, I had the opportunity last week for a fifteen minutes city trip to the ever-amazing city of Antwerp.

The inner tower of Het Steen, the old fortress on the shore of the river Scheldt

Sun was shining, the first hint of warmth was in the air, birds were becoming more active, the first few on my list of anticipated signs of spring could be crossed off.

Beautiful view over the river Scheldt.

By the way, I can truly recommend the concept of the fifteen minutes city trip to everybody! When the sun is out, you do not need more time to breath in the atmosphere of a city. Important is, you should not hurry. Just use one landmark that would shine the brightest in the sun and take in its beauty. In that way, a fifteen minutes citytrip is always better than no citytrip at all.

And after that, it is back to work with a fresh mind and fresh energy to get these awesome papers written!

The statue of Lange Wapper and Het Steen.

Posted in Belgium | Tagged Antwerp, Architecture, Belgium, City, City trip, Fortress, Landscape photography, Photography, Travel, Travel photography, Travelling | 2 Comments

The road to publication

Posted on February 15, 2016 by lembrechtsjonas

Sometimes, the road to publication feels a bit like this:

Muddy road through a field in Loonbeek, close to Brussels

A combination of a nice little sun as a promise for a reward in the far future, and crazy mud that will slow you down for months. Or picture this:

Bunkers filled with mean reviewers shooting with painfully reasonable comments at your troubled brain…

But last week, a major hord was crossed for my next (and currently dearest) paper. ‘The authors have addressed all my points satisfactorily. I don’t have any further suggestions to add.’ What a relief! I got major revisions on that paper and when it took more than a month to get an update on its status, I got worried.

Yet now, when the scary waiting is finally over, I can humbly admit that the review process worked perfect, again: the reviewers pointed out some true flaws in my paper. I adjusted them and made significant improvements to my manuscript. Good for me. Good for science. Good for everybody.

Posted in Belgium, Science | Tagged Agriculture, Belgium, Hiking, Landscape photography, Life, Nature photography, PhD, Photography, Publishing, Science, Winter | Leave a comment

The elegance of tea

Posted on February 12, 2016 by lembrechtsjonas

For the Dutch-speaking people here: I posted a story on tea on scilogs!

It tells the story how I had to buy 280 bags of tea at the local supermarket to participate in the Tea Bag Index, a cheap and elegant solution to measure decomposition rates on a global scale, and thus improve our knowledge of climate change.

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