Wenn Tage So Dahin Plätschern

Cerastoderma Edule Patella Vulgata Mytilus Edulis

Watercolour on paper

Illustrations for the bachelor thesis presentation of my best friend, who analysed rare earth elements in a series of shells including some of these :)

Visit of the Big Bayan Tree parc in the Gaotian village near Guilin. The tree in this parc is apparently about 1400 years old - according to our Chinese friends, you´ll live a 100 years when you walked a loop around it! 

Pseudocythus maculatus  original illustration in “Fishes of the southern ocean”

Baumpilz & Birke im Herbst - watercolour on paper

polypore & birch - it really is fall in Zürich now!

A Paradise Drowning in Trash 

This past semester I got to be part of the ETH transdisciplinary case study, investigating solid waste management on the island of Seychelles. This small island developing state is facing an immense challenge with its trash: almost exclusively relying on landfilling the island is literally filling up. Filling up - in trash. Further, current landfills are absolutely ill-equipped for the amount and types of material deposited; there is currently no capacity for leachate treatment. With various kinds of hazardous materials such as chemical residues, pharmaceutical products, asbestos etc. entering the landfill, the lack of proper lining at Providence I (one of the two main landfills) represents an incredible risk for groundwater contamination.  More info @http://www.tdlab.usys.ethz.ch/teaching/tdcs/former/cs2018.html

The ‘upside-down’ jellyfish (Cassiopea sp.) thrives in near-shore marine habitats. It is commonly found on seagrass beds or in mangrove forests, resting its exumbrella against the sediment - exposing its oral arms to the sunlight. Why this fellow is sunbathing all the time? Its oral arms carry symbiotic zooxanthellae, dinoflagellates (marine algae) of the genus Symbiodinium that assimilate carbon and nitrogen for this gelatinous friend. 

My best friend and I also traveled to China this summer :) This is a sketch I made on our trip to the Great Wall, we hiked from the Mutianyu section towards the wilder part in Jiankou. It was super hot and tiring but the views were incredible and absolutely worth it! We both really loved the day, it's definitely one of those memories that you keep forever. 

Watercolour on paper - Patella Vulgata (the common limpet)

My best friend analyzed rare earth element patterns in a series of shells - including one from the common limpet - for her bachelor thesis, this is an illustration I made for her presentation :)

Oneirodes notius Original illustration in “Fishes of the Southern Ocean”