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Climate change is predicted to severely affect the agricultural sector, and diversification at both crop genetic and system level is vital in the development of climate resilient agro-systems. The tropical cash crop vanilla is facing a number of threats that are jeopardizing its future supply. Being an important crop for many smallholder farmers around the tropics and a highly appreciated spice used in a range of products, there is an urgent ...

Plant and Vegetation Ecology and Global Changes. University of Antwerp

Reinhart Ceulemans

Plant and Ecosystems (PLECO) - Ecology in a time of change

The overarching theme of the Centre of Excellence is the study of the effects of global changes, in the broadest meaning of the term, on plants and vegetations. This long-term goal is being realized a.o. by studying the responses of plants and vegetations to the, sometimes manipulated, abiotic environment over a continuum of hierarchical scales, ranging from the individual leaf to the continent. Original experimental research and long-term ...

Upstream regulators of the plant energy sensor SnRK1 KU Leuven

Filip Rolland

Department of Biology, Molecular Biotechnology of Plants and Micro-organisms

Plants arguably are the most crucial organisms to support life on Earth because of their conversion of electro-magnetic energy (sunlight) into chemical energy (energy-rich carbohydrates) by photosynthesis and the associated release of oxygen. In addition, they produce innumerable renewable food, feed, fiber and fuel products and resources for mankind. Unlike most other organisms, autotrophic plants have a sessile (rooted) lifestyle. It is ...

Microfauna - microflora - plant interactions: extending the soil U+201Cmicrobial loop conceptU+201D of nitrogen mineralization Ghent University

Stefaan De Neve

Department of Environment

It is assumed that an important part of N mineralization in soils is due to the activity of microfauna. The microbial loop concept at this moment includes only protists, but we will extend the concept to nematodes and will experimentally quantify the contribution of protists and nematodes (microfauna) to N mineralization in realistic conditions.

Phytostabilization of mine soils using native aromatic plant species suitable for promoting regional micro-economies. Hasselt University

Jaco VANGRONSVELD

Environmental Biology

The exploitation of mineral resources unavoidably pollutes soils and sediments with trace elements, which accumulate in the environment and affect human health and ecosystem services. Conventional remediation methods are expensive and detrimental for soil structure and fertility. Phytoremediation therefore comes into focus as a "green" alternative to stabilize, detoxify or remove pollutants from soil through a low cost and environmentally ...

Plants as intelligent sensors for precision agriculture Ghent University

Francis wyffels

Department of Electronics and information systems

Plants are complex non-linear dynamical systems that interact with their environment. I propose that this interaction can be modelled by means of physical reservoir computing. A framework will be designed that captures embodied plant intelligence using a limited set of sensors. This framework
will then be employed to perform greenhouse climate control, optimising crop growth conditions for precision agriculture.

Vaginal lactobacilli in the prevention of HSV-2 infection. KU Leuven

Jos Vanderleyden

Centre of Microbial and Plant Genetics

Humans live in symbiosis with a tremendous number of bacteria, collectively referred to as the microbiota, that play a key role in several host physiological processes and health. While the gut microbiota has received plenty of attention the past decades, the vaginal microbiota is only recently gaining interest as a crucial player in female and reproductive health. The vaginal microbiota of most healthy women is generally dominated by ...

The grain size of light penetration in forests and the evolution of timing Ghent University

Dries Bonte

Department of Biology

The scale of environmental heterogeneity relative to gene flow determines the U+201Cgrain sizeU+201D of the habitat and is hypothesised to drive the evolution of adaptive strategies. In fine grained environments, where spatial heterogeneity is large, the evolution of adaptive phenotypic plasticity is expected. However, under homogeneous conditions, so coarse grained environments, populations are expected to locally adapt to the prevailing ...

ERC Professorship: PASTFORWARD Ghent University

Kris Verheyen

Department of Environment, Department of Forest and water management

The last decades are characterized by an upsurge of research on the impacts of global environmental changes on forests. Climate warming, atmospheric deposition of acidifying and eutrophying pollutants and land-use change are three of the most important threats to biodiversity in temperate forests. However, most studies focused on the effects of single factors over short time periods, such that our ability to predict the combined effects of ...

Seed bank potential and germination of pioneer species on coal mine spoil heap ecosystems Hasselt University