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Differential response of leaf-litter ants to a nutrient addition in a tropical brown food web
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RBINS Staff Publications
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Dinoflagellate cyst biostratigraphy and palaeoecology of the early Paleogene Landana reference section, Cabinda Province, Angola
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Forty-four rock samples from the Landana section, belonging to the historical Dartevelle collection of the Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA) at Tervuren, Belgium, were palynologically processed and analysed. Systematic analysis of the samples from the Landana sea cliff locality has revealed 90 dinoflagellate cyst taxa spanning an interval that ranges at least from the middle Paleocene to the late Eocene/early Oligocene. This locality represents the first extensive sub-equatorial African Paleogene dinoflagellate cyst record. Dinoflagellate cyst occurrences were calibrated and evaluated against newly revised foraminiferal ranges. This novel dinoflagellate cyst biostratigraphic record was compared and correlated with contemporaneous records relatively close by in the Gulf of Guinea, as well as with records from more distant locations such as Antarctica, Australia and New Zealand. A preliminary dinoflagellate cyst zonation is here proposed comprising three zones and five unzoned yet otherwise distinct intervals. The lower part of the Landana section records a large portion of the early to middle/ late Selandian, which is made apparent by the presence of taxa such as Isabelidinium cingulatum, Isabelidinium? viborgense, and Spinidinium densispinatum. The Thanetian through Lutetian part of the section is more fragmentary and is devoid of any significant marker taxa normally typical for this time interval elsewhere. The upper part of the record is largely devoid of dinoflagellate cysts, with the few dinoflagellate cyst-bearing samples pointing to an Eocene to early Oligocene age. Dinoflagellate cyst assemblages are relatively variable and often largely dominated by a single particular taxon or complex. We record remarkably abundant peridinioid cysts signalling high palaeoproductivity for protracted periods of time, resulting from either heightened terrestrial influence or enhanced upwelling.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2018
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Dinoflagellate cyst events and depositional history of the Paleocene/Eocene boundary interval in the southern North Sea Basin
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RBINS Staff Publications
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Dipterological survey in Mitaraka Massif (French Guiana) reveals megadiverse dolichopodid fauna with an unprecedented species richness in Paraclius Loew, 1864 (Diptera: Dolichopodidae)
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RBINS Staff Publications 2018
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Direct and indirect effects of metal stress on physiology and life history variation in field populations of a lycosid spider
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1. Under stress, life history theory predicts reduced growth rates and adult sizes, reduced reproductive allocation, production of larger offspring and postponed reproduction. Both direct and indirect effects of metals can explain these trends, mainly linked to energetic constraints. Metallothionein-like proteins (MTLP's) are believed to be an important defense mechanism against the adverse effects of metals and other stressors. 2. We tested these predictions comparing six field populations of the wolf spider Pardosa saltans, three of which were on sites that are historically polluted with heavy metals. 3. As expected for life histories evolving under energetic constraints, adult size and condition correlated negatively and egg mass positively with Cd concentrations for a subset of four populations. In the population that showed the highest cadmium and zinc body burdens, reproductive output and allocation were lowest and reproduction was postponed. 4. Contrary to our expectation, for all six study populations MTLP concentrations did not increase in exposed populations, indicating that this defense mechanism cannot explain the observed variation in life histories. 5. We conclude that indirect and synergistic effects of metal pollution may be more important than physiological defense mechanisms in shaping life history traits in field populations. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Discovery of a new duiker species (Bovidae: Cephalophinae) from the Dahomey Gap, West Africa
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Among the two most widely distributed duiker species, Philantomba monticola (Thunberg, 1789) and Philantomba maxwelli (C.H. Smith, 1827), the latter shows geographic variation in pelage color and body size. This issue was not investigated in detail so far, especially in the eastern region of its distribution area, notably due to the lack of material from the Dahomey Gap. We undertook a species-level revision of Philantomba in West Africa, notably including a series of specimens collected in Togo, Benin and Nigeria. Using morphological measurements (craniometry) and genetic data (two mitochondrial and three nuclear markers), we describe a new duiker species occurring in the Dahomey Gap (Togo, Benin) and the Niger delta, Philantomba walteri sp. nov. This discovery highlights the importance of the Dahomey Gap for the evolutionary history of the West African forest faunas. It also has conservation implications given that the new species is one of the main targets of the local bushmeat trade.
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RBINS Staff Publications
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Discovery of a new inland population of Amara strenua Zimmerman, 1832 at Heverlee, central Belgium (Coleoptera: Carabidae)
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RBINS Staff Publications 2022
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Discovery of Recent thecideide brachiopods (Order: Thecideida, Family: Thecideidae) in Sulawesi, Indonesian Archipelago, with implications for reproduction and shell size in the genus Ospreyella
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Dispersal and gene flow in free-living marine nematodes
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RBINS Staff Publications
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Dispersal capacity underlies scale-dependent changes in species richness patterns under human disturbance
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Changes in the species richness of (meta-)communities emerge from changes in the relative species abundance distribution (SAD), the total density of individuals, and the amount of spatial aggregation of individuals from the same species. Yet, how human disturbance affects these underlying diversity components at different spatial scales and how this interacts with important species traits, like dispersal capacity, remain poorly understood. Using data of carabid beetle communities along a highly replicated urbanization gradient, we reveal that species richness in urban sites was reduced due to a decline in individual density as well as changes in the SAD at both small and large spatial scales. Changes in these components of species richness were linked to differential responses of groups of species that differ in dispersal capacity. The individual density effect on species richness was due to a drastic 90% reduction of low-dispersal individuals in more urban sites. Conversely, the decrease in species richness due to changes in the SAD at large (i.e., loss of species from the regional pool) and small (i.e., decreased evenness) spatial scales were driven by species with intermediate and high dispersal ability, respectively. These patterns coincide with the expected responses of these dispersal-type assemblages toward human disturbance, namely, (i) loss of low-dispersal species by local extinction processes, (ii) loss of higher-dispersal species from the regional species pool due to decreased habitat diversity, and (iii) dominance of a few highly dispersive species resulting in a decreased evenness. Our results demonstrate that dispersal capacity plays an essential role in determining scale-dependent changes in species richness patterns. Incorporating this information improves our mechanistic insight into how environmental change affects species diversity at different spatial scales, allowing us to better forecast how human disturbance will drive local and regional changes in biodiversity patterns.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2023 OA
