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Article Reference Is the southern crab Halicarcinus planatus (Fabricius, 1775) the next invader of Antarctica?
The potential for biological colonization of Antarctic shores is an increasingly important topic in the context of anthropogenic warming. Successful Antarctic invasions to date have been recorded exclusively from terrestrial habitats. While non-native marine species such as crabs, mussels and tunicates have already been reported from Antarctic coasts, none have as yet established there. Among the potential marine invaders of Antarctic shallow waters is Halicarcinus planatus (Fabricius, 1775), a crab with a circum-Subantarctic distribution and substantial larval dispersal capacity. An ovigerous female of this species was found in shallow waters of Deception Island, South Shetland Islands in 2010. A combination of physiological experiments and ecological modelling was used to assess the potential niche of H. planatus and estimate its future southward boundaries under climate change scenarios. We show that H. planatus has a minimum thermal limit of 1°C, and that its current distribution (assessed by sampling and niche modelling) is physiologically restricted to the Subantarctic region. While this species is presently unable to survive in Antarctica, future warming under both ‘strong mitigation’ and ‘no mitigation’ greenhouse gas emission scenarios will favour its niche expansion to the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) by 2100. Future human activity also has potential to increase the probability of anthropogenic translocation of this species into Antarctic ecosystems.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2021
Article Reference Is the Species Flock Concept Operational? The Antarctic Shelf Case
There has been a significant body of literature on species flock definition but not so much about practical means to appraise them. We here apply the five criteria of Eastman and McCune for detecting species flocks in four taxonomic components of the benthic fauna of the Antarctic shelf: teleost fishes, crinoids (feather stars), echinoids (sea urchins) and crustacean arthropods. Practical limitations led us to prioritize the three historical criteria (endemicity, monophyly, species richness) over the two ecological ones (ecological diversity and habitat dominance). We propose a new protocol which includes an iterative fine-tuning of the monophyly and endemicity criteria in order to discover unsuspected flocks. As a result nine « full » species flocks (fulfilling the five criteria) are briefly described. Eight other flocks fit the three historical criteria but need to be further investigated from the ecological point of view (here called « core flocks »). The approach also shows that some candidate taxonomic components are no species flocks at all. The present study contradicts the paradigm that marine species flocks are rare. The hypothesis according to which the Antarctic shelf acts as a species flocks generator is supported, and the approach indicates paths for further ecological studies and may serve as a starting point to investigate the processes leading to flock-like patterning of biodiversity.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Is the vertical distribution of meiofauna similar in two contrasting microhabitats? A case study of a macrotidal sandy beach
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2018
Article Reference Is the vertical distribution of meiofauna similar in two contrasting microhabitats? A case study of a macrotidal sandy beach
Tides are an important forcing factor of macrotidal sandy beaches because they are directly responsible for the local morphodynamic conditions. Macrotidal beaches may harbor different microhabitats such as sandbars and runnels. We evaluated the influence of tides on the vertical distribution of meiofaunal organisms, particularly nematodes, in these two microhabitats at De Panne Beach, on the North Sea coast of Belgium. The 11 meiofaunal groups found were Acari, Amphipoda, Copepoda, Gastrotricha, Nematoda, Oligochaeta, Ostracoda, Polychaeta, Rotifera, Tardigrada and Turbellaria. The nematodes were identified to species level; the 147 species found included 112 in the sandbar and 117 in the runnel. Only turbellarians and nematodes migrated upward during low tide in the sandbar. The response of the nematodes was species-specific; during low tide, they migrated upward in the sandbar and downward toward deeper layers of the sediment in the runnel. These migration patterns were attributed to the feeding strategies in the sandbar (i.e. possible increase of diatom biomass in the surface layer due to high solar incidence), while environmental variables best explained the migration patterns in the runnel (i.e. preferred grain size and amount of total organic carbon). These results suggest a dissimilar vertical migration of the meiofauna over the tidal cycle in the two microhabitats. We attribute the vertical distribution of nematode species and some other meiofaunal groups to active migration toward preferred sites with more food or better environmental conditions. This study also indicated that other variables such as predation and competition, rather than the commonly studied physical variables should be included in future sampling designs of sandy-beach meiofauna assessments, since the environmental variables measured here could not fully explain the vertical distributions of the major meiofaunal groups or the community as a whole.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2017
Article Reference Is vertebral shape variability in caecilians (Amphibia: Gymnophiona) constrained by forces experienced during burrowing?
Caecilians are predominantly burrowing, elongate, limbless amphibians that have been relatively poorly studied. Although it has been suggested that the sturdy and compact skulls of caecilians are an adaptation to their head-first burrowing habits, no clear relationship between skull shape and burrowing performance appears to exist. However, the external forces encountered during burrowing are transmitted by the skull to the vertebral column, and, as such, may impact vertebral shape. Additionally, the muscles that generate the burrowing forces attach onto the vertebral column and consequently may impact vertebral shape that way as well. Here, we explored the relationships between vertebral shape and maximal in vivo push forces in 13 species of caecilian amphibians. Our results show that the shape of the two most anterior vertebrae, as well as the shape of the vertebrae at 90% of the total body length, is not correlated with peak push forces. Conversely, the shape of the third vertebrae, and the vertebrae at 20% and 60% of the total body length, does show a relationship to push forces measured in vivo. Whether these relationships are indirect (external forces constraining shape variation) or direct (muscle forces constraining shape variation) remains unclear and will require quantitative studies of the axial musculature. Importantly, our data suggest that mid-body vertebrae may potentially be used as proxies to infer burrowing capacity in fossil representatives.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2022
Article Reference Octet Stream Is vertebral shape variability in caecilians (Amphibia: Gymnophiona) constrained by forces experienced during burrowing?
Caecilians are predominantly burrowing, elongate, limbless amphibians that have been relatively poorly studied. Although it has been suggested that the sturdy and compact skulls of caecilians are an adaptation to their head-first burrowing habits, no clear relationship between skull shape and burrowing performance appears to exist. However, the external forces encountered during burrowing are transmitted by the skull to the vertebral column, and, as such, may impact vertebral shape. Additionally, the muscles that generate the burrowing forces attach onto the vertebral column and consequently may impact vertebral shape that way as well. Here, we explored the relationships between vertebral shape and maximal in vivo push forces in 13 species of caecilian amphibians. Our results show that the shape of the two most anterior vertebrae, as well as the shape of the vertebrae at 90% of the total body length, is not correlated with peak push forces. Conversely, the shape of the third vertebrae, and the vertebrae at 20% and 60% of the total body length, does show a relationship to push forces measured in vivo. Whether these relationships are indirect (external forces constraining shape variation) or direct (muscle forces constraining shape variation) remains unclear and will require quantitative studies of the axial musculature. Importantly, our data suggest that mid-body vertebrae may potentially be used as proxies to infer burrowing capacity in fossil representatives.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2022
Article Reference Island evolution and systematic revision of Comoran snakes: why and when subspecies still make sense
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Isolation and characterization of ten polymorphic microsatellite loci in Ixodes arboricola, and crossamplification in three other Ixodes species
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Isolation and characterization of microsatellite loci in the dark bush cricket, Pholidoptera griseoaptera (Tettigoniidae)
Twelve novel polymorphic microsatellite loci are presented for the dark bush cricket, Pholidoptera griseoaptera. All loci are polymorphic, with up to 37 alleles per locus. These microsatellites will be useful tools for studying the influence of landscape structure and land use intensity in agricultural landscapes on genetic diversity within and among populations of P. griseoaptera.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Isotopic evidence for dietary ecology of Late Neandertals in North-Western Europe
The Late Pleistocene site “Troisieme caverne ” of Goyet (Belgium) has yielded the broadest set of Neandertal remains in North-Western Europe and is associated with a rich and diverse large mammal assemblage. We reconstructed the dietary ecology at the site using stable isotope tracking (d13C and d15N)of bone collagen. The d13C and d15N values of all species are consistent with those observed in other “mammoth-steppe” sites. The relative contribution of potential prey species to the diet of carnivores (including Neandertals) was evaluated using a Bayesian model. The distribution of individuals from herbivorous species and carnivorous ones was determined through cluster analysis in order to identify ecological niches, regardless of the individual species attribution. The Neandertals within the predator guild and the mammoth and reindeer as representatives of the herbivores occupied the most specific and most narrow ecological niches. The “Troisieme caverne ” of Goyet can be regarded as a key site for the investigation of late Pleistocene Neandertal ecology north of the Alps.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications