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Wednesday, May 5, 2021 — New research from a large international group of scientists, including the Physical Geography research group at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel led by Prof Philippe Huybrechts, suggests that sea level rise due to the melting of land ice could be halved this century if we meet the Paris targets to limit global warming to 1.5°C.

During the pollen season, many people with allergies tend to avoid nature. That isn't entirely justified, a new KU Leuven study into biodiversity and health suggests. During the pollen season, many people with allergies tend to avoid nature. That isn't entirely justified, a new KU Leuven study into biodiversity and health suggests.

Solar and wind power could mitigate geopolitical conflict in Northeast Africa Friday, April 9, 2021 — A new study shows that several disagreements between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt around Africa's largest hydropower plant, the new Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), could be alleviated by massively expanding solar and wind power across the region.

A new study shows that several disagreements between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt around Africa's largest hydropower plant, the new Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), could be alleviated by massively expanding solar and wind power across the region. Adapting GERD operation to support grid integration of solar and wind power would provide tangible energy and water benefits to all involved countries, creating regional win-win situations.

VUB FloodCitiSense project brings breakthrough in systematic mapping of flood problems March winds and April showers herald summers of intense downpours, leading to localised pluvial flooding. Accurately estimating this type of flooding is difficult. The FloodCitiSense project, an international participatory research project led by VUB professor of hydrology Boud Verbeiren, aims to remedy this by developing a flood warning service.

Biologists give first insight into distribution of ecologically important mangroves in the West Indian Ocean Mangrove forests are of great ecological and socio-economic importance. They have a permanent place on the international climate agenda because of their extensive carbon storage. Researchers from the Department of Biology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel have now studied the genetic structure and diversity of mangrove forests in the Western Indian Ocean, a region where these aspects have been less studied until now.

River discharge changed significantly around the world in recent decades. An international research team including climate scientist Wim Thiery of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel has now been able to demonstrate that it is not water and land management but climate change that is playing a decisive role in this at a global level.

Researchers find asteroid dust in impact crater that signalled end of dinosaurs VUB professor Steven Goderis and his team have published unique evidence linking the extinction of dinosaurs to the impact of an asteroid 66 million years ago. For the first time, the scientists found evidence of dust remnants from an asteroid in the Chicxulub impact crater itself in Mexico.

The production of ammonia - a very important chemical building block as part of synthetic fertilisers, among other things - is one of the main sources of CO2 emissions. By combining two different technologies, researchers from KU Leuven and the University of Antwerp have now discovered a CO2-free alternative.

UGent and the Portuguese maritime institute CCMAR receive a VLAIO Baekeland grant for research into the sustainable protection of vulnerable coastal areas. Ghent University receives a VLAIO Baekeland grant with support and cooperation from Jan De Nul Group, DEME Group, and the Portuguese marine institute CCMAR for its doctoral study 'PLANT ME'.

Can network theory help unravel the origin of cardiac arrhythmia? How do plants communicate internally about stress? Can we make thermometers with new nanomaterials that can also administer medication? And can traditional concepts of medical ethics keep up with rapidly succeeding innovations in medicine? These are some of the questions that six young Ghent University researchers will be working on in the coming years.

Researchers from the bio-economics department at the KU Leuven investigated the effects of trade on hunger in the world as a result of climate change. The conclusion is clear: international trade can relieve regional food shortages and reduce hunger, particularly where protectionist measures and other barriers to trade are eliminated.

The first-of-its-kind study by UCLouvain and Stanford researchers reveals that subsidies for the planting of commercially valuable tree plantations in Chile resulted in the loss of biologically valuable natural forests and little, if any, additional carbon sequestration Campaigns to plant huge numbers of trees could backfire, according to a new study by researchers at Stanford University, the University of California at Santa Barbara and the University of Concepción in Chile that is the first to rigorously analyze potential effects of subsidies in such schemes.

Caterpillars can consume plastics, but it is not a magic solution. Caterpillars can consume plastics! Back in 2017, the world was getting to know this extraordinary phenomenon by global news coverage of findings of Bombelli et al. Their claims were that larvae of the greater wax moth, Galleria mellonella, consume polyethylene at an extraordinary rate, and moreover produce ethylene glycol as a major metabolite.

Hydropower plants can support solar and wind power, rather unpredictable by nature, in a climate-friendly manner. A new study in the scientific journal  Nature Sustainability  has now mapped the potential for such "solar-wind-water" strategies for West Africa: an important region where the power sector is still under development, and where generation capacity and power grids will be greatly expanded in the coming years.

A new tool maps the threats to the tropical dry forests in Peru and Ecuador.

An interdisciplinary team of bio-engineers and economists from KU Leuven has mapped out how wood could replace petroleum in the chemical industry. They not only looked at the technological requirements, but also whether that scenario would be financially viable. A shift from petroleum to wood would lead to a reduction in CO2 emissions, the researchers state in Science .

Researchers from KU Leuven have discovered that the presence of yeasts can alter the chemical composition and thus the nutritional value of nectar for pollinators such as bees. The study discovered that yeasts can even boost bee health and colony fitness. "Research into the role of microbes in our ecosystem is of vital importance to safeguard bees." It is not widely known that pollen and floral nectar contain yeasts.

Bioscience engineers at KU Leuven have developed a method to measure the snow depth in all mountain ranges in the Northern Hemisphere using satellites. This technique makes it possible to study areas that cannot be accessed for local measurements, such as the Himalayas. The findings were published .

A new study shows that in multiple animal species climate change causes changes in the life cycle, e.g. the timing of the egg hatching, or adaptations in their morphology, e.g. body size. GCE scientists Frank Adriaensen and Erik Matthysen have contributed to a newly published article in the interdisciplinary science.