Prof. dr. Ivan Nijs and co-workers
Newly emerging rainfall regimes
Prof. dr. Erik Verbruggen and co-workers
Soil food webs and soil health: What do we know and the way forward
Prof. dr. Matteo Campioli and co-workers
Seasonal growth in temperate deciduous forests
Prof. dr. Sara Vicca and co-workers
Enhanced silicate weathering as climate change solution - with Laura Steinwidder
Co-deployment of biochar and enhanced weathering as carbon dioxide removal technologies in agricultural croplands - with Jasper Roussard
Prof. dr. Ivan Janssens
Estimating forest carbon uptake with machine learning and in situ measurements
- with dr. Simon De Cannière and dr. Maarten Op de Beeck
Phenonolgy, climate extremes and carbon uptake in temperate forests
- with dr. Bert Gielen and dr. Arne Iserbyt
Understanding biodiversity and toxicity impacts of applying negative emission techniques to soil - Subject at University of Hasselt
The ‘enhanced weathering’ technique, recently proposed as a tool to capture soil CO2 emissions, entails spreading a silicate rock powder on the soil. The process of rock powder weathering is theoretically expected to capture soil CO2 emissions and to bind carbon into carbonate ions. The latter are expected to be leached via surface waters into the ocean or to form a stable pool of carbon sequestered in soil. While the idea is starting to be seen by scientists, politicians, and practitioners as a potential cornerstone in the effort to mitigate climate change, the realism and effectiveness of this technique have not been fully experimentally tested in a real ecosystem. At the same time, the basalt powder treatment has a potential to strongly affect soil organisms with yet unknown consequences for soil health and ecological functioning. Within an experiment conducted at UHasselt Ecotron, a student will assess impacts of basalt application on soil microbial communities and health of soil animals. The project will be conducted at UHasselt in the team of ecologists and eco-toxicologists, and in a case of success could be considered as (1) a basis of a scientific publication, that student will be a co-author of; and (2) a pilot study of a future PhD project.
Contact: Ivan Nijs, ivan.nijs@uantwerpen.be