The 3D lab

Getting in the right mood

Posted on October 4, 2015 by lembrechtsjonas

Overlooking the valley of the river Tay in Perth

Today we climbed the slopes of Kinnoull Hill, the beautiful hill overlooking Perth and its valley, to get in the right mood for the mountain conference that is starting tomorrow. We enjoyed a beautiful morning with a shy sun piercing through the clouds. The hill is only a little bit more than 200 meters above sea level, but its steep cliffs at one side at least brought a bit of mountain feel.

The evening I went for the registration at the conference hall (plenty of friendly and helpful Scottish people there). I got a chocolate for filling in their survey that was sent earlier by e-mail, hooray!

The chocolate was delicious.

Posted in Scotland | Tagged Ecology, Great Britain, Hiking, Mountains, mtns15, Nature, Nature photography, PhD, Photography, Scotland, Travel, Travelling | Leave a comment

Mountains of our future earth

Posted on October 3, 2015 by lembrechtsjonas

Today, I am off to Perth to represent MIREN (and myself) at the mountain conference on Mountains of our Future Earth.

Let's see what is happening to the balance in mountains! Is this a starting avalanche, or will it last a bit longer?

Hoping to learn what will happen to the mountains of our future earth. Is this the start of an avalanche, or will the balance last for a while longer?

I am pretty excited to see Scotland (yes, it will be the Scottish Perth) and even more to explore the unstable balance that is global change in mountains.

Let’s see what we can find out about this balance and in which way it is tipping!

Posted in Scotland | Tagged Ecology, FutureEarth, Mountain ecology, Mountains, mtns15, Nature photography, Photography, Rocks, Science, Scotland, Travel, Traveling | 1 Comment

Done some digging

Posted on September 30, 2015 by lembrechtsjonas

All but two soil temperature sensors dug up, and that is always a big relief!
Two lost probably to some overachieving moles, but overall the success ratio is high…

Posted in Belgium | Tagged Climate, Ecology, Fieldwork, PhD, Photography, Science | Leave a comment

Cleaning out the forest

Posted on September 27, 2015 by lembrechtsjonas

Autumn is behind the corner, and the mushrooms are here to warn us of its arrival.

These diverse and delicate group of decomposers puts in such great effort to clean up our forests and nature after another successful summer.

I feel the arrival of autumn is the perfect moment to submit a paper on litter decomposition, a project in which I participated with a European network of soil scientists to model the speed at which these below-ground cleaning processes function.

It turns out that breaking down plant litter strongly depends on the climate: the longer and warmer the growing season, the faster the litter disappears. I guess decomposers also prefer to do the dirty outdoor jobs when the weather is nice…

I hope to provide more details on this fascinating subject as soon as the paper is out, cause there is of course a lot to tell.

In the meantime, enjoy these pictures of hard-working mushrooms.

Posted in Belgium | Tagged Autumn, Decomposition, Ecology, Forests, Hike, Hiking, Mushrooms, Nature photography, PhD, Photography, Science, Seasons | 4 Comments

New phase

Posted on September 25, 2015 by lembrechtsjonas

Data for three out of my four experiments has now been collected, processed and stored away, meaning my research has steered into a very important new phase: analysing and writing!

Totally ready for my third year that starts next week!

Posted in Belgium | Tagged Ecology, future, PhD, Photography, Science, study, work | 3 Comments

The cotton castle

Posted on September 24, 2015 by lembrechtsjonas

Please, allow my inner mountain enthousiast to be lyrical about some rocks!

Pamukkale is the Turkish word for cotton castle, so I learned from Wikipedia, and it is a world famous hot spring area, with white calcium carbonate (‘travertine’) terraces overlooking a valley. And it is extremely beautiful!

It is just breath-taking and tops every rock formation I have ever seen, and I have roamed through quite some mountains by now.

Misuse during its long history might have stripped the site of part of its unequaled glory, but its much needed promotion to World Heritage Site in 1988 seemed to have saved this geological wonder for future generations.

Off course, the place is crazy touristic. Luckily, the millions of tourists are not allowed directly on the terraces anymore, except for one small spot with a few artificial pools.

This signs seems a bit out of place, but you cannot see the hundreds of tourisms all around this picture…

Conservation is currently fighting to protect the natural colour and state of the terraces, which they manage by regulating the flooding, in order to prevent both ‘too much’ and ‘not enough’ scenarios. This means that a large part of the pools seems to be empty – unlike on some of the most beautiful pictures on the internet, but hey, conservation goes first!

I have not seen any living plant on this terraces (this beautiful oleander was standing on the top), so the plant ecologist part of me had not much to do, but pure geology can definitely be as exciting.

Rocks are beautiful!

It is interesting to think about conservation of a non-living system like this, as I am used to think about ecosystem protection. Conserving a rock type brings in its own challenges and opportunities, and the integration of natural values and tourism is as complicated as in all ecological problems.