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CMK - Centre for Environmental Sciences, Hasselt University
The Centre for Environmental Sciences (CMK) at Hasselt University in Belgium tackles environmental problems in an integrated, multidisciplinary way. Providing both research infrastructure as well as expertise on the impact of climate change on soil carbon.
Country
Belgium
Type of organisation
Universities
Network
CCoordinator
PPartner
FFunder
Initiative status:
Active
Finished
Not started
More details
Description and outcomes
The Centre for Environmental Sciences (CMK) at Hasselt University in Belgium studies the impact of climate change on plant and soil diversity. The Environmental Biology research group uses the Field Research Centre at the National Park Hoge Kempen and the Ecotron facilities, climate-controlled units for the measurement of complex ecological processes and dynamics.The research on mycorrhiza concentrates on the impact of heavy metal stress on communities and populations of ectomycorrhizae, soil symbiotic fungi that largely contribute to the fitness of plants. The ecophysiology of heavy metal stress in evolutionary adapted species (Suillus spp.), including their functional genetics and genomics are investigated.The study of plant-microbe interactions focuses on the basic aspects of plant-microbe interactions, the effects of environmental stresses (pollution, nanoparticles, drought, ...) on soil and plant-associated microbial communities and how these communities can contribute to assist their host-plants to cope with different types of biotic and abiotic stress.The main focus of the plant oxidative stress research (metal, herbicides, radionuclides/nuclear irradiation) is on responses at different biological organisation levels on oxidative stress. As oxidative stress is an important factor in the balance between cellular damage versus signalling, it is an important regulator in plant adaptation towards environmental challenges, which is translated into plant yield and quality at crop level.
Thematic
Agriculture, Recreational area