Projects
Understanding the ecology of the Congo Basin forests from space Ghent University
The Congo Basin is the second largest tropical forest in the world, spanning Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial New Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of Congo, yet the distribution of their carbon stocks and biomass is relatively unknown and remains highly uncertain. Given both the size of this region and the multitude of ecosystem services that tropical forests provide, this represents a ...
Impact of drought on understorey communities in fragmented temperate forests in Europe Ghent University
In temperate forests, the understorey harbors the majority of plant biodiversity. Conserving and restoring this understorey diversity is crucial to maintain ecosystem services provided by forests. In this project, I will study the interactive effects of two key global-change drivers on understorey communities: drought and fragmentation. In the past decades, we have witnessed an unprecedented high frequency of extreme drought events. Forest ...
Towards a better model representation of vegetation autumn phenology of temperate -zone deciduous trees. University of Antwerp
Geochemical investigations of environmental perturbations during the Devonian–Carboniferous extinction Vrije Universiteit Brussel
volcanism, continental erosion, and extraterrestrial material. Thus, studying the Os-isotope composition of such sediments can provide important insights into times of major volcanic activity, climate-driven changes in continental weathering rates, and ...
New weather related insurance models for the Flemish hard fruit sector KU Leuven
Pome fruit (apple and pear) is a popular component of healthy nutrition. Pome fruit production constitutes an important contribution to local economies such as in the fruit growing region in the East of the Flanders region of Belgium. However, the commercial production systems are vulnerable to meteorological hazards such as hail, drought and spring frost. The latter led to moderate to full harvest losses in 2017, 2019, 2021, and is the focus ...
BEADS - Benthic fauna as drivers of ice-to-ocean iron transport in Arctic Fjords Ghent University
The ocean is the largest sink of CO2 and regulates the global climate. Marine primary production is a key process for CO2 removal and is limited by iron availability in large parts of the ocean. Marine iron concentrations are directly controlled by their sources to the ocean. Meltwaters from glaciers are considered as significant iron sources. To reach the ocean this glacial meltwater transits through fjords. When iron encounters oxygenated ...