Mountain environments are impressive biodiversity hotspots, important tourist destinations and water resources for a big part of the world’s population. Since these environments are especially sensitive to climate change, the Swiss Alps are rapidly losing its glaciers, permafrost degradation causes rock fall and changes in temperature and precipitation are affecting the unique Alpine flora and fauna.

RE:THINK SWITZERLAND, a UGent-Swiss collaboration, lets you discover the effect of climate change on the alpine environments in a unique dialog between leading scientists from Switzerland and the Geography, Geology and Biology departments at the Faculty of Sciences. This UGent-Swiss collaboration contributes to the ongoing debates on the impact of climate change in mountains environments and help to define solutions to risks and hazards in the Swiss Alps. 

When and Where?

23 January 2020

Het Pand (Ghent University), Onderbergen 1, 9000 Gent 

Programme

15:30 – 16:00 Welcome and registration

16:00 – 18:00 Science talks on ‘Mountains and Climate Change’, introduced by Drs. Hanne Hendrickx (Chair of the Belgian Permafrost Association, Department of Geography, UGent)

- ‘Mountain Permafrost and Moving Slopes’ by Prof dr. Reynald Delaloye (University of Fribourg)

- ‘Mountain Lakes as Archives of Climate Change and Natural Hazards’ by Prof dr. Flavio Anselmetti (University of Bern)

- ‘The Unexplored Alpine Microbiome and their Reactions to Climate Warming’ by Dr. Beat Frey (Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL) 

18:00 – 19:30 Networking reception 

Registration is free of charge but mandatory