wire - news in brief

Introduction: Anthony Herrel (UAntwerp) studied a population of lizards before and after the passage of two hurricanes.

Million-year old soils prove their impact on a successful climate agreement To drive back global warming to below 2°C, carbon storage in soils plays an important part, since soils can store a notable share of the human CO2 emissions.

Introduction: A study by Rebecca Van Coppenolle shows that, among others, the Niger and Mississippi delta benefit strongly from 'nature-based' protection of land and people. Low-lying river deltas worldwide are vulnerable to coastal flooding, and the risk is growing as coastal population density and projected storm surge intensity increase.

Introduction: Last week it was announced which new fellows will initiate a FWO-funded PhD or postdoc in the next year.

The university has previously taken measures to reduce its ecological footprint, such as energy reduction procedures in the buildings.

Introduction: Thirteenth Rudi Verheyen Award - worth 10 000 euros - goes to Evi Dons (UHasselt), who analysed individual exposure to air pollution.

A recent study on microorganisms as a source of protein has been awarded as Top Feature Article of 2017 by the American Chemical Society.

To ease the industrial processing of plant biomass into energy, plants are engineered to contain less lignin. Unfortunately, this intervention typically leads to reduced yield. Researchers have now discovered a way to overcome this problem. Moreover, the strategy the researchers at the VIB-Ghent University Center for Plant Systems Biology does not just restore the biomass yield.

Introduction: This is counterintuitive to expectations: a negative effect of the virus on its host potentially diminishes its own spreading capability. To understand and predict the spread of infectious diseases from animal hosts to humans, it is essential to know how parasite transmission relates to host density.

A international team of scientists heads to Antarctica to investigate a mysterious marine ecosystem that's been hidden beneath an Antarctic ice shelf for up to 120,000 years. Marine biologist Ann Vanreusel (Ghent University) is one of them. The iceberg known as A68, which is four times of London, calved off from the Larsen Ice Shelf in July 2017.

Introduction: Researcher UAntwerp and his international colleagues conduct research on Swiss Alps forest species. In the Swiss Alps, the time lag between tree leafing at high and low altitudes has shortened dramatically since the 1960s due to climate change. This is the finding of an international study conducted in collaboration with the University of Antwerp, which has just been published in the journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America).

Ghent university coordinates the CATCO2RE and CO2PERATE project, recently financed by the Flemish Government. Turning waste into a resource The discovery of efficient technologies that enable the use of CO2 as a starting material for chemical synthesis is one of the biggest scientific challenges of our time.

The international research group GO2NE, including its co-chair Marilaure Grégoire , a physicist civil engineer, FRS-FNRS Research Director in the FOCUS Research Unit and ocean modelling specialist, w

A team of German, Belgian, American and Chinese geologists examined climatic cycles in different rock formations to determine the precise timing of the Devonian extinction.

From 2040 onwards, Belgian cities such as Brussels and Antwerp will suffer from extreme temperatures more than 17 days per year, KU Leuven research shows.