Projects
Biodiversity, biogeography and impact of climate change on moss-associated diatom communities in the Arctic Ghent University
Today, there is consensus that we live in the Anthropocene, a new geological epoch in which human-induced changes have a serious impact on the environment and our climate, especially in polar regions. To evaluate how Arctic terrestrial ecosystems are affected, we need bio-indicators to monitor past, present and future responses. The current project focusses on Arctic moss-associated (MA) diatoms, excellent sentinels for climate change and ...
"With a pinch of salt: habitat variability promoting plasticity and hampering diversification in a hostparasite system?" Hasselt University
Integrating spatial heterogeneity with temporal and demographic inferences, with an application to combating human rabies KU Leuven
Genomic analyses have revealed critical insights into the evolution and spread of pathogens, with spatial diffusion models having been essential to develop a field of research known as phylogeography, where phylogenetic trees are annotated with spatial locations. These diffusion models are however relatively simple, as they do not take into account environmental features when modelling the geographic spread of a pathogen. In this research ...
Genetic history and health in Medieval Europe with the Belgian town of Sint-Truiden as a model KU Leuven
The cross-talk between genomics and humanities in the last decade has revitalized the interdisciplinary study of human past and enables us to address now ever wider range of questions about migration, social structure and health of our ancestors. We can ask questions about them that could not be answered before. While ancient DNA studies have substantially changed our perspectives on European Neolithic and Bronze Age, less progress has been ...
What forest plants feel: incorporating microclimate into species distribution models KU Leuven
Ecological research still heavily relies on coarse-gridded macroclimatic data, which are typically derived from meteorological weather stations. Such stations collect data according to a standardized protocol, where measurements are taken at a height of approximately 2 meters in open landscapes, minimizing any external influence from trees or buildings. As a result, these macroclimate data are representative for free-air temperature ...
Ecological speciation in orchids: the contribution of mycorrhizal divergence to reproductive isolation KU Leuven
The major aim of this research project is to disentangle the absolute and relative contribution of specific adaptations to distinct habitats and mycorrhizal divergence to reproductive isolation in closely related Epipactis species. Adaptive divergence due to habitat differences is thought to play a major role in formation of new species. However the extent to which individual reproductive isolating barriers related to habitat differentiation ...
Disentangling global change effects on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning: from insights to solutions KU Leuven
Global change has increasing large-scale impacts on our natural ecosystems and the provision of ecosystem services. The research group sGlobe aims at developing global change-robust solutions for the biodiversity crisis, one of the biggest challenges in the Anthropocene. Our research is based on fieldwork, long-term research platforms, experimental ecology and computational modelling. With these methods, we aim to improve our understanding of ...
Nutrient analysis of Antarctic and alpine lakes: paleolimnological and biogeographical applications Ghent University
Within this project we aim to analyze the total nitrogen and phosphorous concentrations in Antarctic and alpine lakes using an automatised analyzer. More specifically, we aim to (1) develop inference models for the quantitative reconstruction of changes in nutrient concentrations in sediment cores and (2) assess the importance of ecological versus historical factors in explaining the distribution of microbiota.
Taxonomic turnover in terrestrial and aquatic diatom communities: integration of macroecological, morphological, phylogenetic-evolutionary and ecophysiological approaches Ghent University
This project aims to contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between historical-evolutionary and ecological mechanisms and observed patterns in endemism, latitudinal diversity gradients and regional species turnover in terrestrial and lacustrine diatom floras. To this end, we (1) develop a global taxonomic consistent diatom dataset at the species level and (2) study the phylogenetic distance between model taxa.