Projects
Technologies for heat and drought tolerance of tomatoes KU Leuven
In the field, crops often encounter a combination of abiotic stresses that severely limit yields. Seed priming (with for example plant hormones or NaCl) is a promising and cost-effective method to increase the tolerance of crops to abiotic stress like heat and drought including tomatoes. Thus, I will assess the efficacy of different seed priming approaches in alleviating the negative effects of abiotic stress (drought and heat) on tomato ...
Elucidating the role of nutrient availability and mycorrhizae in the drought response of terrestrial ecosystem carbon cycling. University of Antwerp
Elucidating the role of nutrient availability and mycorrhizae in the drought response of terrestrial ecosystem carbon cycling University of Antwerp
Predicting the Impact of Climate Change on Drought in the Scheldt River Basin, Flanders Vrije Universiteit Brussel
the future is crucial. In particular, droughts are becoming more
frequent and intense. The past four years of drought in Flanders are
notable examples of this effect. Hence, to mitigate and/or adapt to
the impact, drought predictions can be useful. Furthermore, a
detailed understanding of drought is crucial for policymakers, water
...
Drought tolerance in Festulolium hybrids: physiological and (cyto)genetic characterization Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
To face climate changes, can we breed grasses that are more tolerant to longer periods of drought? The current assortment of fodder grasses (mainly Lolium) provide high yields of nutritious forage but they are sensitive to drought stress. Festuca grasses are more resilient to drought stress but the cows don’t like the way they taste. Can we use interspecific hybridisations ...
Mining the Musa biodiversity for drought tolerance: allele discovery via integrated phenomics, proteomics and transcriptomics KU Leuven
Banana (Musa spp.) is one of the most produced fruits in the world, the production exceeded 122 million tons in 2013. For optimal production the crop requires: 1200–2690 mm water/year, depending on the agro-ecological zone. The limited genetic diversity in commercial plantations renders the crop extremely vulnerable for (a)biotic stress, like drought. However, worldwide a huge (uncharacterized) biodiversity is available, and we ...
Revealing the dark side of epigenetic adaptation: belowground DNA methylation memories associated with drought stress KU Leuven
Plants can recognize and anticipate recurring drought stress through developing a stress memory. A drought stress memory can be obtained through accumulating DNA methylation marks at specific target sites in the genome. Such an epigenetic memory is particularly beneficial when plants frequently face drought stress, and is thus expected to become increasingly important as climate changes. Quantifying drought stress memories and their ...
Novel light regimes and drought effects on temperate forest plant biodiversity Ghent University
Tree canopies are one of the most recognizable features of forests, providing shelter from external influences to a myriad of species that live in the understorey. Canopy disturbances are now accelerating across European forests, and climate-change induced drought is a key driver. These disturbances are opening the canopy and exposing forest biodiversity to no-analog light regimes and drought – light and drought levels they have never been ...
Assessing the potential of wild banana diversity for drought tolerance: Quantifying dynamic traits to fluctuating environments KU Leuven
Banana (Musa spp.) production ranks among the top 15 crops cultivated worldwide. Optimal production requires continuous and abundant water, which in many cases is scarce and becoming unavailable. With climate change, water requirements in banana-growing regions will even further increase. Improving banana performance for future climate conditions is therefore one of the priorities of banana breeding. The banana wild relatives have ...