Luc De Keersmaeker

Research Institute for Nature and Forest

Gaverstraat 4

9500 Geraardsbergen

+32 (0)54 43 61 54

Luc.DeKeersmaeker@inbo.be

I work at the Nature and Forest Research Institute (INBO) of the Flemish Government, as a forest ecologist specialized in vegetation ecology. As a member of ForNaLab until 1998, I studied interactions between forest vegetation and soil nutrients (particularly nitrogen, phosphorus, soil pH). My first research project at INBO combined PNV mapping and mapping of forest cover changes since 1775, to explain the present-day high level of forest habitat fragmentation in Flanders. Since 2000, I am a member of the research unit working on the monitoring programme performed in unmanaged forest reserves. I currently work on a PhD that combines these experiences, and aims to quantify spatial and temporal fragmentation of forest habitat in Flanders. The research is zooming in from a regional scale (the whole of Flanders) covering two centuries, to the scale of a single post-agricultural forest stand that was followed for a decade.