Research

A full overview of current and previous research projects can be found on the UGhent research explorer.

Current Research Projects

SPACETWIN

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Digital twins for understanding forest disturbances and recovery from space.

Funding: ERC starting grant

TREE4FLUX

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Monitoring trees in intensive, large-scale and long-term inventory plots for scaling eddy covariance carbon dioxide fluxes in Congo basin fluxes (TREE4FLUX)

Funding: ESFRI-FED

FWO-project: Does liana proliferation cool down tropical forests?

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Team: Hans Verbeeck, Felicien Meunier, Kasper Coppieters (UGent) & Marco Visser (ULeiden)

Funding: Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO)

FWO-project: There’s no such thing as “The Tropical Rainforest”: incorporating heterogeneity of tropical forests in a global vegetation model 

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Team: Hans Verbeeck, Pascal Boeckx, Marc Peaucelle, Félicien Meunier, Marijn Bauters Ines Vieira (UGent)

Funding: Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO)

BOF-PhD grant - Louise Terryn

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Winners and Losers: does water availability affect the Structural Economic Spectrum of tropical forests? 2019-2023

Funding: Regional and community funding: Special Research Fund (BOF)

BOF-PhD grant - Franklin Marin

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Disentangling potential drivers of success in ecological restoration along an altitudinal gradient in the Andes, Ecuador; 2021-2025

Funding: Regional and community funding: Special Research Fund (BOF)

Ecuador TEAM - VLIRUOS

Ecuador TEAMS - VLIR-UOS project

Recovery and conservation of Andean tropical mountain forest to benefit livelihood of local communities

2022 - 2027

Funding: VLIR-UOS

CSC - PhD grant - Liu Chang

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Automatic Estimation of Forest Structural Parameters in Multiple Forest Conditions Using Terrestrial Laser Scanning; 2019-2023

Funding: State Scholarship Fund awarded by China Scholarship Council

DG-DEVCO/FWO-project: Congoflux

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Continuous monitoring of atmosphere-ecosystem exchange of greenhouse gasses in the Congo Basin forest: Building a flux tower in the Yangambi Man and Biosphere Reserve;

Funding: DG-DEVCO, FWO-IRI

EU-Interreg2-project: Nature Smart Cities

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Research towards evidence-based business models for greener cities

Funding: European Union’s Interreg 2 

CSC - PhD grant - Xi Peng

xi-peng-project

Structural Traits Relationships and the Structural Economics Spectrum of Woody Plant; 2021-2025

Funding: State Scholarship Fund awarded by China Scholarship Council

CSC - PhD grant - Quan Pan

QPan-project

Mapping plant functional traits in forest; 2021-2025.

Funding: State Scholarship Fund awarded by China Scholarship Council

CSC - Visiting scientist grant - Tao Chen

tao chen project

Research on the spatiotemporal patterns and driving mechanism of carbon and water fluxes in tropical and subtropical forest ecosystems of China; 2021-2022

Funding: State Scholarship Fund awarded by China Scholarship Council

CSC - PhD grant - Mengxi Wang

mengxi project

Integrated use of LiDAR and optical data for structural diversity assessment; 2020-2024

Funding: State Scholarship Fund awarded by China Scholarship Council

CSC - PhD grant - Xingyan Cao

xingyan-project

Impact of lianas on forest structure and function; 2020-2024

Funding: State Scholarship Fund awarded by China Scholarship Council

FWO - SB PhD grant - Barbara D'hont

barbara-project

Better Quantifying Ecosystem Services through Digital Twins of Urban Trees; 2021-2025

FWO PhD fellowship strategic basic research

BEAMS

BEAMS

Biocarbon Europe: Advancing Measurement Standards (BEAMS)

Funding: Climate Solutions Exchange, UK

ICOS Belgium research infrastructure

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ICOS Belgium research infrastructure; 2021-2025

Funding: FWO – FINANCIERING VAN ONDERZOEKSINFRASTRUCTUUR

DAMOCO - BELSPO

DAMACO fluxtower 3D scan TLS

Closing the DAta gap to develop Land Surface MOdels for COngo Basin forests (DAMOCO)

2022 - 2026

Funding: BELSPO

GOA - BOF

Gent University forest 3D scan

Quantifying feedbacks between forest structure, light, microclimate and carbon cycling using distributed photonic sensors

2023 - 2027

Funding: Bijzonder Onderzoeks Fonds UGent

CSC - PhD Grant - Shilin Chen

PhD research Shilin Chen

Assessment of time series dynamics of forest 3D spatial structure based on LiDAR data.

2022 - 2026

Funding: State Scholarship Fund awarded by China Scholarship Council

ICOS - BE

Support for the valorisation of federal components of distributed and virtual of ESFRI research infrastructures

2021 - 2026

Funding: BELSPO

FWO senior postdoc grant - Félicien Meunier

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Will the Congo basin forest hit a tipping point? Estimating the risk of large-scale changes of the Congo Basin forests based on data assimilation in a Land Surface Model

2022-2025

Funding: Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO), senior postdoctoral fellowship

      Previous Research Projects

      MSCA-project: LEAF-2-TBM

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      From Leaf to Terrestrial Biosphere Model: Integrating multi-scale observations of highly diverse tropical ecosystems for global scale simulations; PI: Marc Peaucelle; 2020-2022 (ended in Nov. 2021 when dr Peaucelle was offered a permanent position at INRAE, France)

      Funding: European funding: framework programme, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action

      MSCA-project: 3D-FOGROD

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      Understanding forest growth dynamics using novel 3D measurements and modelling approaches; PI: Kim Calders; 2019-2021

      Funding: European funding: framework programme, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action

      ERC-Starting Grant: TREECLIMBERS

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      Modelling lianas as key drivers of tropical forest responses to climate change

      Funding: European funding: framework programme, ERC Starting Grant

      STEREO-project: 3D Forest

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      Novel in-situ 3D forest structure and biomass estimates to validate air/spaceborne products

      Funding: Federal funding, Belspo STEREO

      BRAIN-project: COBECORE

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      Congo basin eco-climatological data recovery and valorization
      2017-2020 (extended)

      Funding: Federal funding, BELSPO BRAIN

      Publications