Five steps from the office

Posted on December 10, 2015 by lembrechtsjonas

Another office day. Work was going great, the much anticipated paper was taking shape, the data looked beautiful.

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The channel of the Fort on our university campus, beautiful setting for an ecologist.

But one thing was not feeling right. It took me a while to define the feeling, but then I realised what it was: I was suffering from an acute case of wanderlust.

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A lot of dark office hours, not enough encounters with nature: an unhealthy situation for a mountain ecologist.

Of course, there was not much to do about it. The paper needed to be written, the office hours to be respected. No chance to take a random plane to the Andes at three in the afternoon.

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But there was one tiny solution. I could put a few steps out of the office. A quick shot of sun and nature, a small dose to ease the wanderlust and improve the writing.

So I hurried out for ten minutes, breathing in the fresh air, admiring the beauty of a sunny december day, even at no more than five steps from the office door. Ten intense minutes, six hundred amazing seconds. I am sure they will be visible in the paper.

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The mad scientist tea party

Posted on December 9, 2015 by lembrechtsjonas

Do you know how ecologists have a tea party? They bury their tea in the Arctic and wait a year to give it that perfect soil touch.

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This is the ideal season to stay inside, close to the Christmas tree, with a hot cup of tea and think about the tea bags we buried this summer in the Swedish and Norwegian mountains.

Green hills and blue lightView on our study area, where we want to get an idea of the soil decomposition rates.

Our efforts are part of a global research project, and the first results are coming in! You can find a very interesting summary of the project till now on this website.

There will be much more to tell in the future and I am pretty excited to be part of all of it. But for now, just keep this one warning in mind for the next time you drink tea: green tea decomposes so much faster than rooibos!

Not sure if you should worry though…

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Back to France

Posted on December 2, 2015 by lembrechtsjonas

January will bring a short scientific mission to France, the ever beautiful country of old cities and amazing culture, and recently taking a prominent spot in global news.

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Pictures from Meaux, a city close to Paris.

I will head to Amiens, in the north of the country, where I will visit a colleague. He is a specialist in species distribution modelling, the models that will be the main focus of the second half of my PhD.

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There are some tricks and rules I really need to learn before I feel confident enough to play a role in this part of ecology, and he is the best guide I could imagine.

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There is some big stories to tell about plant invasions in the mountains, and I am lucky enough to have access to exactly the dataset suited to tell these stories, and the help of people who have experience in telling such stories.

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So next year dinitely promises to be interesting!

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Getting so tired of it

Posted on December 1, 2015 by lembrechtsjonas

This lion is getting so tired of your problems, Belgium!

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A huge yawn is the best reaction to the news that Belgium got elected ‘Fossil of the Day’ at the ongoing COP21 conference on Climate Change.

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As we did not manage to get an agreement on how to deal with climate change within our own country, we are basically rolling downhill, while the rest of the world is trying to shift into a higher gear towards the future.

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Yes, indeed, my dear lioness, you heard it correctly: Belgium is one of the only countries in the European Union with a strong lag in its fossil fuel reduction. Alternatives seem to be limited to extending the life of the nuclear power plants. Yes, indeed, I will allow you to make such a face of deep concern.

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Here you go, I will lick your wounds: there is some good news in all of this. This sad award means the situation is at least not as bad in other countries (except maybe New Zealand, today sharing the podium as Fossil of the Day).

So my readers in other parts of the world: I wish you are doing better in battling climate change than we do!

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If you want them to listen

Posted on November 27, 2015 by lembrechtsjonas

If you want them to listen, you should throw food at them.

DSC_0237At least, that is what seemed to work pretty well for the large group of lemurs we met in a French zoo.

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The same might hold true for the whole world in the light of the upcoming global climate top in Paris, and that would mean a different story.

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We might only listen to the desperate cry for a change in the climate policy if we have enough food, or if all our basic needs are fulfilled.

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Or another analogy: not sure if all lemurs gathering in Paris are really there to listen, they might just want to get as much food out of the show as possible.

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We will see what will happen in Paris. We can only hope some important measures will be taken, and that it will not end in a noisy fight for the last piece of carrot.

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New post on Scilogs.be

Posted on November 22, 2015 by lembrechtsjonas

Hier!

Finally a new post on the Belgian science blog website! My loyal readers might know the story already, though, as I published another version of it earlier here.

Posted in General | 2 Comments