On October 20, the Earth and Life Institute is pleased to welcome Dr. Alexandre Voinot for a new ELI-Sustainability Talk, followed by a panel discussion.

Abstract

ELI-T seminar: The Secret Life of Metals: Detective Tools for Tracking Critical Mineral Migration from Ore to Ecosystems

Multi-scale approaches (from the ore body to the surface, via the various mineral phases) and multi-technique approaches (isotopes, laser ablation, biogeochemistry, eDNA).
 

Panel discussion: Designing the next generation of metal tracking in response to the critical mineral rush

How should we approach the issue of changes in resource management and exploration, and how can our respective scientific disciplines address the issues and challenges this raises? A discussion of the various potential avenues for interdisciplinary research relevant to this issue.

The guest

Dr. Alexandre Voinot is a research scientist at Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), and Associate Professor at Queen’s University, Canada. 

He's a geochemist specializing in biogeochemistry and metal mobility.

His work as a research scientist focuses on a multidisciplinary innovative approach to answering key geoscience question, such as mineral ore deposit processes or the mobility of metals in the surficial environment.

He specializes in using isotopic proxies (B, Li, Mo, Tl...) combined with innovative methods like metagenomics to study the role of microorganisms in remobilization processes or machine-learning and artificial intelligence techniques for large-scale mineral prospectivity or environmental baseline mapping.

His expertise extends to the development and optimization of purification and measurement methods for various isotope systems, complemented by proficiency in operating advanced analytical instruments such as HR, MC, and Quad-ICPMS, as well as laser ablation units.

Beyond research, his scientific journey has seen him mentor and guide many students (undergraduate and graduate) as well as HQPs. His teaching methodologies are based on hands-on and field-based experimentation, and he aims to instill a deep-seated passion for scientific inquiry in the next generation of scientists.

Practical

When: October 20
- Lunch: 12:15 - 12:55
- Talk: 13:00 - 13:50
- Panel discussion: 14:00 - 15:00

Where: Place Croix du Sud, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
- Lunch: SUD09 hall
- Talk: SUD09 auditorium
- Panel discussion: Ocean room (B.002), de Serres building 

Follow the ELI-T seminar online here. 
Follow the panel discussion online here.

For who: Open to everyone.

Price: Free, but mandatory registration for the lunch.

Registration: Register here by 13 October at the latest if you want to attend the lunch. Registration is mandatory for the lunch. Registration for the talk and/or panel discussion only is appreciated but not mandatory.

Public Thesis Defense of Maëlle Villani 

"Dynamics of biogeochemical processes in permafrost landscapes: insights from the late shoulder season and deep winter"

Summary

Permafrost underlies about 25% of the Northern Hemisphere’s land surface and stores nearly twice as much carbon as the atmosphere. As the Arctic warms, permafrost thaw alters soil hydrology and redox conditions, mobilizing iron (Fe), associated metal(loid)s, and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) toward aquatic systems. Yet, the effects of these redox shifts on Fe, metal(loid)s, and DOC mobility during winter remain poorly constrained. 

This thesis investigates Fe, associated meta(loid)s, and DOC mobilization in soil and river waters at a discontinuous permafrost site in Healy (Alaska, USA) and a sporadic permafrost site in Abisko (Sweden), during the late shoulder season (i.e., the transitional period from the senescence of deciduous plants until the headwaters refreeze and cease to flow) and deep winter. 

We found that progressive soil freezing in Healy during the late shoulder season drives reducing conditions that mobilize metal(loid)s and DOC in soil waters. In Abisko, episodic snowmelt events during the late shoulder season induce water table fluctuations that control Fe and DOC mobilization in soil waters. In rivers, near-freezing soils in Healy reduce soil–river connectivity, whereas milder conditions with near-stagnant river flow in Abisko sustain lateral transfer of Fe and DOC. During deep winter, DOC transfer from lateral taliks to streams increases with warming without detectable increases in stream CO2 and CH4. 

Overall, the late shoulder season and deep winter emerge as biogeochemically active periods with spatially and temporally heterogeneous DOC mobility, underscoring the need to include winter fluxes in Arctic carbon budget models.

Jury members

Supervisor: Pr. Sophie Opfergelt (UCLouvain, Belgium)

President: Pr. Emmanuel Hanert (UCLouvain, Belgium)

Pr. Yannick Agnan (UCLouvain, Belgium)

Pr. Marc Benedetti (IPGP, France)

Dr. Laure Gandois (CNRS and INP Toulouse, France)

Dr. Alexandre Voinot (NRCan Geological Survey and Queen’s University, Canada) 

 Jesus Barreiro-Hurle (Joint Research Centre | European Commission, Seville, Spain) will give this seminar, organized by the ELI-A department. 

Abstract

Despite more than 30 years being part of the policy toolbox of the CAP voluntary programs to foster sustainable practices have failed to gain mainstream acceptance by farmers. 

Interest on whether behavioral informed interventions could shift this trend has emerged in the last years and the Joint Research Centre has provided evidence on how this could be achieved. 

In this presentation I will showcase 4 experiments implemented by the JRC to raise awareness of the potential (or lack thereof) of these interventions to increase farmer participation. 

These experiments focus on how farmers would react to shifting the adoption of sustainable practices from voluntary to mandatory nature and whether nudges could increase adoption of eco-schemes. 

In addition, I will present our research on why interventions that have been proven effective in other domains seem to fail when applied to farmers focusing on their attitudes towards nudges and the issue of lack of salience of this interventions.

Simon Braem (Instituut voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek (INBO), Belgium) will give this seminar, organized by the ELI-V department. 

Public Thesis Defense of Riana Randresihaja 

"Modelling storm surges in the Scheldt-North Sea continuum under present and future climate conditions" 

Summary

TBA

Jury members 

President    
Prof. Marnik VANCLOOSTER (UCLouvain)

Dr. Jonathan LAMBRECHTS, secretary (UCLouvain)
Dr. Olivier GOURGUE (Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences)
Prof. Xavier FETTWEIS (ULiège)
Prof. Emil STANEV (Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon)

Supervisors
Prof Emmanuel HANERT, promotor (UCLouvain)
Prof. Marilaure GRÉGOIRE, promotor (ULiège)

Gilles De Meester (CREAF) will give this seminar, organized by the ELI-V department. 

Mathieu Mahillon (UGent) will give this seminar, organized by the ELI-V department. 

Katharina Meurer (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) will give this seminar, organized by the ELI-E department. 

Abstract 

Extreme weather conditions, such as severe droughts, are expected to become more frequent in a future climate. Water availability controls crop growth, which in turn has a direct and indirect effects on flows of energy, water, carbon, and nutrients in the soil-plant system. Soil-crop models are potentially useful tools to support analyses of the effects of both climate and soil management practices on crop production and the environment. However, the effects of structure dynamics on different soil functions (e.g., hydrology, carbon cycling) at longer time scales are often not considered.

The aim of this presentation is to present  the USSF model that accounts for the interactions between soil structure dynamics, carbon cycling, soil physical and hydraulic properties, soil water balance and crop growth. The importance of soil structure dynamics is illustrated by long-term simulations of soil organic matter storage, soil water balance components and crop yields for a field site in central Sweden under climate change and contrasting management practices (organic amendments and crop varieties with an enhanced allocation of carbon to roots). 

Public Thesis Defense of Apoorva Vardhan 

"Farmer preferences for agri-environmental policy design: experimental and behavioral evidence" 

Summary 

Over the past decades, agriculture has made remarkable progress. Yet, these gains in agricultural productivity have also come with considerable environmental costs. In response, agri-environmental policies and other change agents have sought to encourage farmers to adopt more sustainable practices. Despite these efforts, however, progress towards improving the environmental performance of agriculture has increasingly appeared to stagnate.

There has been growing recognition that overcoming this stagnation may require moving beyond traditional agri-environmental policies, which are largely grounded in rational-choice theory and assumptions of profit maximisation, towards a more behavioural approach to agri-environmental policy design. Translating the shift towards a behavioural agri-environmental policy into practice, however, requires a much stronger empirical basis than currently exists on farmers' preferences for policy design, both during the formulation and implementation stages of the policy cycle. 

This thesis addresses this gap by examining farmers’ preferences for agri-environmental policy design across three sustainable farming systems (SFS) in Flanders, Belgium: biodiversity-friendly agriculture, pesticide-low and pesticide-free systems, and non-inversion tillage. Combining a survey, a discrete choice experiment (DCE), and a randomised controlled trial (RCT), the thesis pursues four objectives. 

First, it examines the acceptability of different categories of policy instruments, classified under the RESET framework (Rules, Education, Support, Engagement, and Tools).

Second, it investigates whether the institutional origin of a scheme (public versus private) influences farmers’ willingness to participate and their preferences for specific scheme attributes, including payment, contract duration, and environmental ambition, using stated preferences elicited in a hypothetical choice setting. 

Third, it evaluates whether communicating sustainable farming practices through single- versus double-sided gain-framed messages influences enrolment in eco-schemes, using revealed preferences in the form of actual adoption. 

Fourth, it identifies the farm structural and farmer-level factors associated with the acceptability of policy instruments, stated preferences for scheme attributes, and actual adoption.

The findings demonstrate substantial heterogeneity in farmers’ preferences for agri-environmental policy design. Both farm structural characteristics and individual farmer factors help explain these differences. By advancing the empirical understanding of how farmers evaluate and respond to different policy designs, this thesis contributes to the development of more behaviourally informed agri-environmental policies.

Jury members 

Prof. Goedele Van den Broeck (UCLouvain) (Supervisor)
Dr. Erwin Wauters (ILVO) (Supervisor)
Prof. Marnik Vanclooster (UCLouvain) (Chairperson)
Prof. Frédéric Gaspart (UCLouvain) (Secretary)
Prof. Philippe Baret (UCLouvain) 
Prof. Liesbet Vranken (KU Leuven)
Dr. Jesus Barreiro-Hurle (JRC-EC)