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Inproceedings Reference Water condition of the Senne river in late medieval Brussels (Belgium)
Within the historic center of Brussels, excavations on a surface of almost 6000 m2 revealed the well preserved remains of a medieval port on the Senne river. This watercourse is inextricably linked with the origin and development of the city. Continuous occupancy at this location is documented from the 10th century onwards. The banks of the river were gradually built in the 12th century and in the 14th-15th century the river was canalised and provided with a boat dock. The Senne river played an important role in the local social and economic development of Brussels. A large amount of archaeological artefacts, including numerous animal remains, have been collected by hand and from sediment samples taken from the east bank and the riverbed. Preliminary results show how the Senne river acted as a waste bin for urban rubbish. This poster will mainly focus on the animal materials from the residues of the sieved sediment samples. These yielded many shells of local freshwater molluscs, which are informative for the river conditions. In addition, the protective cases of the larvae of caddisflies (Trichoptera) have been found. Caddisflies are a group of insects with aquatic larvae and terrestrial adults. The larvae of many species use silk to make protective cases, which are often strengthened with gravel, sand, twigs, plant fragments or other debris. While the cases of many of these species are not identifiable up to genus or species level, the presence of Brachycentrus subnubilus Curtis, 1834 has been established with certainty in the late medieval riverbed of the Senne. The importance of this find is discussed.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2023
Inproceedings Reference Models of the Belgian coastal zone at RBINS
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2019
Inproceedings Reference Transnational and integrated long-term marine exploitation strategies
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2019
Inproceedings Reference Advances in high-resolution paleoclimate reconstructions using growth experiments, age modelling and clumped isotope analyses
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2021
Article Reference Archeobotanische resten van verversactiviteiten en textielbewerking uit laatmiddeleeuwse waterlopen, recente vondsten uit Brussel en Mechelen (Br. & Antw.)
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2023
Article Reference The Freshwater Animal Diversity Assessment (FADA): a taxonomic backbone for global biodiversity databases
Koen Martens works at the Royal Belgian Institute of natural Sciences (Brussels, Belgium). He is guest professor at the UGent and visiting professor at the State University of Maringá (Brazil). His research interests are in aquatic ecology and evolutionary biology. He is editor in chief of Hydrobiologia since 2003. Freshwater covers less than 1% of the Earth’s surface, but 10% of all animals occur only in freshwaters, a discrepancy known as the “paradox of freshwater”. Several global data repositories (such as GBIF) document extant freshwater biodiversity, but require reliable taxonomic backbones. Currently, FADA (created by Koen in 2005) groups more than 125 thousand species and 11 thousand genera of freshwater animals. However, taxonomy is a living scientific discipline, where new taxa are being described and existing taxa are being placed in new taxonomic positions. infraFADA, a three-year BELSPO project, will develop FADA into a research infrastructure that serves as taxonomic backbone for a variety of global biodiversity databases.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2024
Article Reference infraFADA: Upgrading the taxonomic backbone of global freshwater animal biodiversity research infrastructures
The current Freshwater Animal Diversity Assessment (FADA) comprises an extensive set of global taxa lists for freshwater animal groups. At present, more than 125 thousand described freshwater animal species in more than 11 thousand genera have been documented. However, taxonomy is a living scientific discipline, where new taxa are continuously being described, and existing taxa are being placed in new taxonomic positions. Therefore, after a period of relative inactivity, the BELSPO (Belgian Science Policy) project “infraFADA” (2023-2026) re-establishes the global FADA consortium of taxonomic experts, so that all taxa lists will be brought up to date, both technically and in terms of content. infraFADA will develop a living, updated, and global FADA database, fully in open access and according to the FAIR principles. The infraFADA database is intended for use and consultation by the scientific freshwater community, as well as for interested stakeholders, for example, freshwater ecosystem managers, biodiversity conservationists, and others. Most importantly, FADA will also serve as a taxonomic backbone for other global biodiversity data infrastructures, such as the Catalogue of Life (CoL), the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), the Freshwater Information Platform (FIP), and others. As such, FADA will provide a digital and living heritage of freshwater data, building bridges between science and society and helping to sustainably maintain freshwater resources.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2024
Article Reference Environmental factors and UV exposure affect gene activity in the putative ancient asexual ostracod Darwinula stevensoni
The non-marine ostracod Darwinula stevensoni (Ostracoda, Crustaceae) is one of the last remaining examples of an ancient asexual (Schön et al. 2009) and has probably abandoned sexual reproduction approximately 20 million years ago (Straub 1952). In spite of the limited genetic diversity of D. stevensoni, its cosmopolitan distribution in different aquatic habitats indicate that this species can survive asexually in the long-term, possibly because it developed a general purpose genotype (Van Doninck et al. 2002). To unravel the genetic background of this general purpose genotype, we have studied gene activity of D. stevensoni via the RNA sequencing of transcriptomes. The transcriptome is the collection of all active genes which have been transcribed from DNA to RNA under certain conditions. Statistically comparing the genetic composition of transcriptomes allows us to identify differences in active (or expressed) genes, which inform on host adaptations to specific conditions. We characterised transcriptomes of D. stevensoni from natural populations in Spain, England and Belgium. To summarize results in our multi-gene approach, the “gene ontology” (GO) classification system was used which divides genes across groups (“terms”) in accordance to the biological function, molecular pathway or cellular component they affect. Of the 5013 terms which were assessed regarding biological function, 49 were found to have significantly different gene expression between the three different populations. However, none of these terms could be directly linked to temperature-related functions, suggesting that differences in gene expression between natural D. stevensoni populations are more complex and do not only reflect adaptation to varying temperature ranges. Living D. stevensoni individuals from the Belgian population were also exposed to UV-radiation in the lab. In this experiment, we expected to find an increased activity of genes being related to the repair and preservation of DNA countering the effects of UV-radiation. Of the same 5013 analysed gene terms, only 9 showed a significant change in gene expression in response to UV-radiation. None of these gene term had known repair functions, potentially highlighting again more complex gene expression patterns in D. stevensoni than initially expected. More analyses are currently ongoing to unravel the functionality of the activated genes in more detail. We are also planning an experimental set up to directly study gene expression differences of D. stevensoni under different temperatures.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2024
Article Reference infraFADA: Upgrading the taxonomic backbone of global freshwater animal biodiversity research infrastructures
The current Freshwater Animal Diversity Assessment (FADA) comprises an extensive set of global taxa lists for freshwater animal groups. At present, more than 125 thousand described freshwater animal species in more than 11 thousand genera have been documented. However, taxonomy is a living scientific discipline, where new taxa are continuously being described, and existing taxa are being placed in new taxonomic positions. Therefore, after a period of relative inactivity, the BELSPO (Belgian Science Policy) project “infraFADA” (2023-2026) re-establishes the global FADA consortium of taxonomic experts, so that all taxa lists will be brought up to date, both technically and in terms of content. infraFADA will develop a living, updated, and global FADA database, fully in open access and according to the FAIR principles. The infraFADA database is intended for use and consultation by the scientific freshwater community, as well as for interested stakeholders, for example, freshwater ecosystem managers, biodiversity conservationists, and others. Most importantly, FADA will also serve as a taxonomic backbone for other global biodiversity data infrastructures, such as the Catalogue of Life (CoL), the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), the Freshwater Information Platform (FIP), and others. As such, FADA will provide a digital and living heritage of freshwater data, building bridges between science and society and helping to sustainably maintain freshwater resources.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2024
Article Reference High-resolution description of insular and fjordic benthic food webs along the West Antarctic Peninsula
The West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) is one of the most rapidly warming region on Earth. In this context, it is crucial to improve our understanding of the consequences of future changes in the local biotic and abiotic environments on marine ecosystem functioning. Here, we focused on food web structure of shallow-water benthic communities. In February 2023, the TANGO1 expedition, using a sailboat, brought nine Belgian scientists to the WAP. To assess the importance of environmental changes on local food web dynamics, five benthic communities were investigated, focusing on macroalgae forests (n=2) and sedimentary soft bottoms (n=3). These stations were distributed between two contrasted environments, Dodman Island (Grandidier Channel, 66°S) & Blaiklock Island (Bigourdan Fjord, 67.5°S). These two locations differed markedly in terms of sea-ice cover, and in terms of general hydrography (small island exposed to the Grandidier Channel’s currents VS fjord system surrounded by active glaciers). At each station, basal food sources (i.e. sediment-associated POM, water-column POM, macroalgae, microphytobenthos) as well as benthic invertebrates (435 individuals, 64 morphospecies) were sampled quantitatively to assess their biomass, and for later stable isotope analysis. Using stable isotope ratios of carbon, nitrogen and sulphur, and Bayesian tools, we aim to formally represent the communities in isotopic space, and to compare their topologies along the environmental gradient studied. These representations will then be used to test whether differences in food web structure reflect general community characteristics, such as the higher biomass of organisms measured in macroalgae forests, which also display the greatest species diversity.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2024