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Creatures of the Semiosphere: A problematic third party in the ‘humans plus technology’ cognitive architecture of the future global super intelligence Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Contrary to the prevailing pessimistic AI takeover scenarios, the theory of the Global Brain (GB) argues that this foreseen collective, distributed superintelligence is bound to include humans as its key beneficiaries. This prediction follows from the contingency of evolution: we, as already present intelligent forms of life, are in a position to exert selective pressures onto the emerging new ones. As a result, it is foreseen that the cognitive ...
World city networks and global commodity chains: towards a world-system's integration Universiteit Gent
There are two literatures that explicitly describe spaces of flows that constitute contemporary globalization: world city network analysis and global commodity chain analysis. We explore the possibilities of their integration by returning to their common origins in world-systems analysis. Each model is described and critiqued and it is argued that each can be used to address some of the otherU+2019s limitations. This is illustrated through world ...
Review of the late Quaternary stratigraphy of the northern Gulf of Cadiz continental margin : new insights into controlling factors and global implications Universiteit Gent
Over the past decades, the northern Gulf of Cadiz has been the focus of a wide range of late Quaternary seismic and sequence stratigraphic studies, either addressing the slope contourite depositional system (CDS), or the development of the continental shelf. Yet, high-resolution seismic data bridging between these domains and age information have remained sparse. This study, based on new high-resolution reflection seismic profiles calibrated to ...
Litter quality and stream physicochemical properties drive global invertebrate effects on instream litter decomposition Universiteit Gent KU Leuven
Plant litter is the major source of energy and nutrients in stream ecosystems and its decomposition is vital for ecosystem nutrient cycling and functioning. Invertebrates are key contributors to instream litter decomposition, yet quantification of their effects and drivers at the global scale remains lacking. Here, we systematically synthesized data comprising 2707 observations from 141 studies of stream litter decomposition to assess the ...
Towards a representation of priming on soil carbon decomposition in the global land biosphere model ORCHIDEE (version 1.9.5.2) Universiteit Antwerpen
Priming of soil carbon decomposition encompasses different processes through which the decomposition of native (already present) soil organic matter is amplified through the addition of new organic matter, with new inputs typically being more labile than the native soil organic matter. Evidence for priming comes from laboratory and field experiments, but to date there is no estimate of its impact at global scale and under the current ...
Global genetic diversity status and trends: towards a suite of Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) for genetic composition KU Leuven Instituut voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek
Biodiversity underlies ecosystem resilience, ecosystem function, sustainable economies, and human well-being. Understanding how biodiversity sustains ecosystems under anthropogenic stressors and global environmental change will require new ways of deriving and applying biodiversity data. A major challenge is that biodiversity data and knowledge are scattered, biased, collected with numerous methods, and stored in inconsistent ways. The Group on ...
Global forest carbon uptake due to nitrogen and phosphorus deposition from 1850 to 2100 Universiteit Antwerpen
Spatial patterns and temporal trends of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) deposition are important for quantifying their impact on forest carbon (C) uptake. In a first step, we modeled historical and future change in the global distributions of the atmospheric deposition of N and P from the dry and wet deposition of aerosols and gases containing N and P. Future projections were compared between two scenarios with contrasting aerosol emissions. ...
Global meta-analysis of wood decomposition rates Universiteit Antwerpen
The carbon flux from woody debris, a crucial uncertainty within global carbon-climate models, is simultaneously affected by climate, site environment and species-based variation in wood quality. In the first global analysis attempting to explicitly tease out the wood quality contribution to decomposition, we found support for our hypothesis that, under a common climate, interspecific differences in wood traits affect woody debris decomposition ...
A global database of soil nematode abundance and functional group composition. Instituut voor Landbouw-, Visserij- en Voedingsonderzoek
As the most abundant animals on earth, nematodes are a dominant component of the soil community. They play critical roles in regulating biogeochemical cycles and vegetation dynamics within and across landscapes and are an indicator of soil biological activity. Here, we present a comprehensive global dataset of soil nematode abundance and functional group composition. This dataset includes 6,825 georeferenced soil samples from all continents and ...