The 3D lab

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.

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.

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.

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.

So next year dinitely promises to be interesting!

Posted in France, The research | Tagged Amiens, Architecture, Cathedral, Ecology, France, Meaux, PhD, Photography, Science | 1 Comment

Getting so tired of it

Posted on December 1, 2015 by lembrechtsjonas

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

Posted in France, Photography, Science | Tagged Animals, Belgium, climate change, COP21, Ecology, Fossil fuels, Fossil of the day, Global change, Lion, Nature photography, Photography, Science | 7 Comments

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Posted in France | Tagged Animals, Climate, climate change, Climate conference, COP21, Ecology, Global change, Lemurs, Nature photography, Paris, Photography, Politics, Primates, United Nations, Wildlife, Wildlife photography | 5 Comments

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

Study study study

Posted on November 18, 2015 by lembrechtsjonas

Very helpful pile of books on statistics

I am diving deep into the mysterious worlds of statistics to find my beautiful dataset the special analytic treatment it deserves. Luckily, I do not have to go alone on this adventure towards the very ends of statistical knowledge, there is a pile of helpful books to guide me on my quest.

And the internet, of course, the all-knowing internet, an endless source of answers.

Posted in General, Science | Tagged Books, Ecology, Mathematics, Office, PhD, Photography, Reading, Statistics, Studying, Working | 3 Comments

Open for discussion

Posted on November 17, 2015 by lembrechtsjonas

To know what will happen to ecosystems in a changing world, we need to know the fate of the nutrients within them, like carbon and nitrogen.

As I don’t have pictures of the below-ground processes, I’ll stick to showing fungi, the brave and never failing helpers of decomposition. Pictures from Belgium.

To know the fate of these nutrients, we need to know how they are distributed and divided within such a system, and how the so-called nutrient cycles change in a warming climate.

This is not an easy task, as we miss a lot of information on many fundamental processes within these nutrient cycles, like the decomposition of dead plant parts (litter) in the soil and the release of nutrients from this soil.

We are now working towards a valuable addition to this field: we argue that soil litter decomposition is strongly related to the local climate (mainly temperature and precipitation), more than to biological factors like litter and soil type.

This is extremely useful, as it allows us to create easy and straightforward models to predict this litter decomposition.

We currently work on a paper presenting these models in Biogeoscience Discussions (Portillo-Estrada et al.), a new and open way of reviewing research. In this discussion section, it will be read by at least two reviewers, but also by everybody else interested, and all are invited to comment. Within some months, the discussion will be closed and the paper improved accordingly.

This is an exciting approach, as it means our research is already online and out there, and the whole community can help improving it.

I will keep you updated about the progress!

Reference

Portillo-Estrada et al. (under review). Biological and climatic controls on leaf litter decomposition across European forests and grasslands revealed by reciprocal litter transplantation experiments. Biogeosciences Discussion 12.