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Transcription, signaling receptor activity, oxidative phosphorylation and fatty acid metabolism mediate the presence of closely-related cryptic species in distinct intertidal and cold-seep habitats
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RBINS Staff Publications 2016
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Tremadocian and Floian (Ordovician) linguliformean brachiopods from the Stavelot–Venn Massif (Avalonia; Belgium and Germany)
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RBINS Staff Publications 2022
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Tributyltin: A Bottom–Up Regulator of the Crangon crangon Population?
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The restrictions and the concerted action of the global ban on the use and presence of tributyltin (TBT) in marine applications to protect ecosystems in the marine environment in 2008 was mainly based on the economic impact on shellfish industries and the dramatic extinction of local mollusk populations in the past. In contrast to the vast datasets on effects on mollusks, the knowledge on impacts on species from other taxa remained in the uncertain until almost two decades ago. The assumption on a long-term TBT-mediated pernicious metabolic bottom–up regulation of the crustacean Crangon crangon population was provoked by the outcome of an EU-project ‘Sources, Consumer Exposure and Risks of Organotin Contamination in Seafood.’ This study reported high TBT body burdens in C. crangon in 2003, at the start of the transition period to the global ban. Experimental research on the TBT impact in C. crangon focused on agonistic interference with natural ecdysteroid hormones at the metabolic pathways regulating growth and reproduction and the biogeochemical distribution of the chemical. In this paper, metabolic, topical and population-relevant biological endpoints in C. crangon and other crustaceans are evaluated in relation to the temporal and spatial trends on TBT’s occurrence and distribution in the field during and after the introduction of the tributyltin restrictions and endocrine-related incidents. Arguments are forwarded to relate the German Bight incident on growth and reproduction failure in the C. crangon population, despite the lack of direct evidence, to the pernicious impact of tributyltin in 1990/91 and previous years. The extreme occurrence of TBT in C. crangon from other parts of the southern North Sea and evidence on the high body burdens as dose metrics of exposure also feeds the suspicion on detrimental impacts in those areas. This paper further demonstrates the complexity of distinguishing and assessing the individual roles of unrelated stressors on a population in an integrated evaluation at the ecosystem level.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2019
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Trophic interactions in an ant nest microcosm: a combined experimental and stable istotope (13 C/15N) approach
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RBINS Staff Publications
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Turbid wakes associated with offshore wind turbines observed with Landsat 8
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RBINS Staff Publications
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Turbine size impacts the number of seabird collisions per installed megawatt and offers possibilities for mitigation.
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As the offshore wind energy technology is rapidly progressing and because wind turbines at sea have a relatively short life span, repowering scenarios are already being discussed for the oldest wind farms. Ongoing developments result in larger wind turbines and an increased open airspace between turbines. Despite taller towers having larger rotor swept zones and therefore a higher collision risk area compared to smaller-sized turbines, there is increasing evidence that fewer but larger, more power-efficient turbines may have a lower collision rate per installed megawatt. As such, turbine size can offer an opportunity to mitigate seabird fatalities by increasing the clearance below the lower rotor tip. We assessed the seabird collision risk for a hypothetical repowering scenario of the first offshore wind farm zone in Belgian waters with larger turbines and the effect of an additional increase in hub height on that theoretical collision risk. For all species included in this exercise, the estimated collision risk decreased in a repowering scenario with 15 MW turbines (40.4% reduction on average) because of higher clearance between the lower tip of the turbine rotor and the sea level, and the need for a lower number of turbines per km². Increasing the hub height of those 15 MW turbines with 10 m, further decreases the expected number of seabird collisions with another 37% on average. However, terrestrial birds and bats also migrate at sea and the effect of larger turbines on these taxa is less clear. Possibly even more terrestrial birds and bats are at risk of collision compared to the current turbines. So, while larger turbines and increasing the hub height can be beneficial for seabirds, this likely needs to be applied in combination with curtailment strategies, which stop the turbines during heavy migration events, to reduce the impact on other species groups.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2022
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Twenty years for Zootaxa and ten years for Afromoths (Lepidoptera): a taxonomic interaction between the journal and an online relational database
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RBINS Staff Publications 2021
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Two celebrations and the Sustainable Development Goals
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This year 2023, we have two milestones to celebrate for Hydrobiologia. Firstly, as Hydrobiologia was launched in March 1948, our journal is now 75 years young. Secondly, this is the first issue of volume 850. The second celebration requires a little nuance. Up to and including 2019, each of the 21 issues of Hydrobiologia was considered a separate volume and we ended 2019 with volume 846. Since 2020, Springer Nature standardized its journal portfolio in that one volume now covers a full year. For Hydrobiologia this means that we now have one volume and 21 issues annually. If the publication schedule would have remained unchanged, we would have started 2023 with volume 910 and we would have celebrated volume 1000 in 2027! Now we will have to wait 150 years to celebrate that event, in 2183 no less!
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RBINS Staff Publications 2023
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Two fatal autochthonous cases of airport malaria, Belgium, 2020
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RBINS Staff Publications 2022 OA
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Two new coastal species of Elaphropeza Macquart (Diptera: Hybotidae) from Bali, Indonesia
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RBINS Staff Publications