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Article Reference Quantification of Cable Bacteria in Marine Sediments via qPCR
Cable bacteria (Deltaproteobacteria, Desulfobulbaceae) are long filamentous sulfur-oxidizing bacteria that generate long-distance electric currents running through the bacterial filaments. This way, they couple the oxidation of sulfide in deeper sediment layers to the reduction of oxygen or nitrate near the sediment-water interface. Cable bacteria are found in a wide range of aquatic sediments, but an accurate procedure to assess their abundance is lacking. We developed a qPCR approach that quantifies cable bacteria in relation to other bacteria within the family Desulfobulbaceae. Primer sets targeting cable bacteria, Desulfobulbaceae and the total bacterial community were applied in qPCR with DNA extracted from marine sediment incubations. Amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene V4 region confirmed that cable bacteria were accurately enumerated by qPCR, and suggested novel diversity of cable bacteria. The conjoint quantification of current densities and cell densities revealed that individual filaments carry a mean current of ~110 pA and have a cell specific oxygen consumption rate of 69 fmol O2 cell-1 day-1. Overall, the qPCR method enables a better quantitative assessment of cable bacteria abundance, providing new metabolic insights at filament and cell level, and improving our understanding of the microbial ecology of electrogenic sediments.
Located in Library / No RBINS Staff publications
Article Reference Quantifying the carbon benefits of ending bottom trawling
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2023
Article Reference Quantitative approach for assessing risks and benefits to the supply of ecosystem services in response to human activities
Escalating human activities threaten ecosystems and the benefits they provide, known as ecosystem services (ES). Despite the recognized importance of ES for both ecological health and human well-being, integrated methods for evaluating ES within decision-making frameworks remain limited. Current environmental assessments, such as ecological risk assessment (ERA), typically focus on risks to specific endpoints such as survival, growth and reproduction of test species without capturing broader ecosystem risks and benefits. This study introduces a novel method designed to quantitatively assess risks and benefits to ES supply by integrating ES as assessment endpoints within ERA. Using cumulative distribution functions, we establish risk and benefit thresholds and calculate the probability and magnitude of exceeding these following human interventions. The method was tested by quantifying risk and benefit metrics for a regulating ES, waste remediation, in three marine offshore case studies: an existing offshore wind farm, a hypothetical mussel longline culture, and a multi-use scenario combining both. The results enabled detailed comparisons of the probability and magnitude of creating risks and providing benefits across scenarios, demonstrating the utility of cumulative distribution functions for both visualizing and quantifying risks and benefits to ES supply. This generic and broadly applicable method can evaluate ES trade-offs regardless of the ecosystem under study, providing a valuable tool to operationalize the integration of ES into decision-making and environmental management frameworks.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2025
Article Reference Quercypsitta-like birds from the early Eocene of India (Aves, ?Psittaciformes)
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Querns and mills during Roman times at the northern frontier of the Roman Empire (Belgium, Northern France, Southern Netherlands, Western Germany): unravelling geological and geographical provenances, a multidisciplinary approach
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2016
Article Reference QWIP: A Quantitative Metric for Quality Control of Aquatic Reflectance Spectral Shape Using the Apparent Visible Wavelength
The colors of the ocean and inland waters span clear blue to turbid brown, and the corresponding spectral shapes of the water-leaving signal are diverse depending on the various types and concentrations of phytoplankton, sediment, detritus and colored dissolved organic matter. Here we present a simple metric developed from a global dataset spanning blue, green and brown water types to assess the quality of a measured or derived aquatic spectrum. The Quality Water Index Polynomial (QWIP) is founded on the Apparent Visible Wavelength (AVW), a one-dimensional geophysical metric of color that is inherently correlated to spectral shape calculated as a weighted harmonic mean across visible wavelengths. The QWIP represents a polynomial relationship between the hyperspectral AVW and a Normalized Difference Index (NDI) using red and green wavelengths. The QWIP score represents the difference between a spectrum’s AVW and NDI and the QWIP polynomial. The approach is tested extensively with both raw and quality controlled field data to identify spectra that fall outside the general trends observed in aquatic optics. For example, QWIP scores less than or greater than 0.2 would fail an initial screening and be subject to additional quality control. Common outliers tend to have spectral features related to: 1) incorrect removal of surface reflected skylight or 2) optically shallow water. The approach was applied to hyperspectral imagery from the Hyperspectral Imager for the Coastal Ocean (HICO), as well as to multispectral imagery from the Visual Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) using sensor-specific extrapolations to approximate AVW. This simple approach can be rapidly implemented in ocean color processing chains to provide a level of uncertainty about a measured or retrieved spectrum and flag questionable or unusual spectra for further analysis.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2022
Article Reference Radial porosity profiles: a new bone histological method for comparative developmental analysis of diametric limb bone growth
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2022
Inproceedings Reference Radiation of plesiadapid mammals at the end of the Paleocene evidenced by new discoveries from the Latest Paleocene of France: one more example of bush-like evolution
Plesiadapidae are usually considered to be the closest relatives to the crown-group primates, despite their disappearance at the Paleocene–Eocene Boundary (PEB) in North America, right when the first euprimates appear. In Europe, however, the family survives a few million years after the PEB, though only represented by the genus Platychoerops. Because Plesiadapis was restricted to the Paleocene and Platychoerops restricted to the Eocene, a linear evolution was implied: the genus Plesiadapis was thought to give rise to Platychoerops at the PEB due to the particular environmental conditions of that time. However, one species of Platychoerops was recently described from the late Paleocene of Berru, France, casting doubts on this hypothesis. The recently discovered locality of Petit-Pâtis (Rivecourt, Oise, France) delivered for the first time the most diagnostic tooth of Platychoerops in the Paleocene, its long and derived I1. This discovery confirms the presence of the genus Platychoerops in the Paleocene and attests a quick diversification, bush-like radiation of the family into three genera, before the PEB. The locality of Petit-Pâtis also delivered specimens referable to a new species morphologically intermediate between Plesiadapis tricuspidens and Platychoerops antiquus, with a critical I1 very similar to P. tricuspidens but closer to P. antiquus by its more molarized and proportionally larger p4; this latter derived character is shared with Platychoerops, so that the hypothesis of the North American species P. cookei being the most derived species of Plesiadapis and having given rise to Platychoerops can now be questioned, and a more geographically parsimonious hypothesis of a European origin of the European genus Platychoerops is supported. Finally, the third European genus of Plesiadapidae, Chiromyoides, is also present in Petit-Pâtis, where it is represented by a new species characterized by a smaller size than C. campanicus and the presence of relatively large accessory cuspules aside the posterocone on I1. The specimens from Petit-Pâtis also confirm the hypothesis that Platychoerops georgei from the earliest Eocene is likely a composite species based on the assemblage of a few specimens from different localities of similar estimated age, most specimens likely belonging to Plesiadapis or Platychoerops, while the holotype (a short I1) belongs either to Chiromyoides or to Plesiadapis, its preservation state making the identification difficult. Grant Information This abstract is a contribution to the project BR/121/A3/PalEurAfrica funded by the Belgian Science Policy Office.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2016
Article Reference Radiocarbon dated sediment sequences from the Belgian coastal plain: testing the hypothesis of fluctuating or smooth late Holocene relative sea-level rise
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Rainfall Influences Ant Sampling in Dry Forests
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications