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EVALUATION OF DIFFERENT TAXONOMIC LEVELS AS SURROGATES OF ANT DIVERSITY IN GREEN AREAS IN AN URBANIZED ENVIRONMENT E. B. A. KOCH1, T. S. MELO2,3,4, A. R. S. ANDRADE2,3, M. LEPONCE5 & J. H. C. DELABIE2,4 1Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia e Evolução, Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana (UEFS), CEP: 44.036-900 - Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brazil, e-mail: elmoborges@gmail.com; 2Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia, Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA), Salvador, Bahia, Brazil; 3Centro de Ecologia e Conservação Animal, Universidade Católica do Salvador (UCSal), Salvador, Bahia, Brazil; 4Laboratório de Mirmecologia, Convênio Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz (UESC)/Comissão Executiva do Plano da Lavoura Cacaueira (CEPLAC), Ilhéus, Bahia, Brazil; 5Biodiversity Monitoring & Assessment, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Bruxelas, Belgium. In cities located in environments of high biological importance, urbanization leads to changes in biotic diversity, while monitoring these changes can be difficult. Studies have pointed to the use of metrics that replace species as an alternative. Surrogate models are easily determined measures of biodiversity that correlate strongly with species richness and with what you want to investigate, being useful for detecting or monitoring environmental changes. The use of higher taxonomic levels has been applied to groups of megadiverse organisms, such as arthropods, since difficulties in identifying species are predictable. The aim of this study was to evaluate the practicality of using taxonomic diversity of ants as a surrogate of green area coverage in an urban environment. Four levels of "surrogate resolutions" (subfamily, genus, indicator taxa, and intermediate resolution) were assessed to the taxonomic diversity of ants across three levels of urban green areas (Small = 0 to 35%

EVALUATION OF DIFFERENT TAXONOMIC LEVELS AS SURROGATES OF ANT DIVERSITY IN GREEN AREAS IN AN URBANIZED ENVIRONMENT E. B. A. KOCH1, T. S. MELO2,3,4, A. R. S. ANDRADE2,3, M. LEPONCE5 & J. H. C. DELABIE2,4 1Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia e Evolução, Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana (UEFS), CEP: 44.036-900 - Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brazil, e-mail: elmoborges@gmail.com; 2Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia, Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA), Salvador, Bahia, Brazil; 3Centro de Ecologia e Conservação Animal, Universidade Católica do Salvador (UCSal), Salvador, Bahia, Brazil; 4Laboratório de Mirmecologia, Convênio Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz (UESC)/Comissão Executiva do Plano da Lavoura Cacaueira (CEPLAC), Ilhéus, Bahia, Brazil; 5Biodiversity Monitoring & Assessment, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Bruxelas, Belgium. In cities located in environments of high biological importance, urbanization leads to changes in biotic diversity, while monitoring these changes can be difficult. Studies have pointed to the use of metrics that replace species as an alternative. Surrogate models are easily determined measures of biodiversity that correlate strongly with species richness and with what you want to investigate, being useful for detecting or monitoring environmental changes. The use of higher taxonomic levels has been applied to groups of megadiverse organisms, such as arthropods, since difficulties in identifying species are predictable. The aim of this study was to evaluate the practicality of using taxonomic diversity of ants as a surrogate of green area coverage in an urban environment. Four levels of "surrogate resolutions" (subfamily, genus, indicator taxa, and intermediate resolution) were assessed to the taxonomic diversity of ants across three levels of urban green areas (Small = 0 to 35%

The development of geothermal energy is below the European National Renewable Energy Action Plans' anticipated trajectory. For deep geothermal energy projects in particular, multiple sources of uncertainty in combination with high upfront investment costs result in a major investment risk, hampering the mobilization of required capital (Compernolle et al., 2019). The uncertainty sources include market uncertainty, uncertainty regarding new technologies and uncertainty inherent to working with subsurface data. The objectives of the DESIGNATE project for deep geothermal systems in Belgium, including applications in abandoned mines are two folds. First, to create tools for integrated forecasts under uncertainty and second to set-up a methodological framework for territorial Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) considering surface and subsurface impacts. To do so, analytical reservoir models will be developed to assess the effect of uncertainties about geological data and concepts on the performance and impact of the geothermal applications. These will be coupled with a techno-economic analysis in combination with a territorial, environmental life cycle analysis. To evaluate the impact of different policy measures, the techno-economic analysis consists of a Monte Carlo simulation model that integrates both market and geological uncertainties and a project developers' option to wait or abandon the geothermal project development at different steps in the development of the project (Welkenhuysen et al., this conference). As a preliminary step, the influence of the rollout time of a heat network on the risk and on the profitability is investigated. At the start often only a part of the district heating network is in place at the time of commissioning and the geothermal plant operates at much lower capacity. Part of the capacity is foreseen for district heating networks linked to residential districts expected to be built or renovated in the near future. In this research, the change in income of a project considering a stepwise rollout of a district heating network compared to a full load from the start, in combination with a reduced maximum capacity of the geothermal plant compared to the expected output is calculated. This is done with a simplified spreadsheet techno-economic model, limiting variability to the rollout scenarios. For the calculation, data provided by the project developer HITA of the Turnhout NW geothermal project is used. In the next section the four cases used to evaluate the risk and profitability linked to the changes in the rollout time of a heat network are described. In the first case, the base case, the production plant is assumed to work at full capacity once the construction of the geothermal plant is achieved. Full capacity means that the production plant will be working at 100% during the heating season. Additional production for cooling or for heat storage in summertime are not taken into account. The second case considers that the maximum production capacity is 20% lower than in the first case due to lower-than-expected reservoir temperature or flow rate. In the third case, the full capacity is equal to the one of the base case but will be reached in three steps, simulating a growing demand by adding new district heating networks. The demand is expressed as a percentage of the expected maximum production capacity of the geothermal plant. At the start of production, the geothermal plant runs at 50%. After 5 years this is increased to 75% and after 10 years full capacity is reached. The fourth and last case is similar to the third case, with a stepwise increase of the demand, but the maximum production capacity is, as in second case, 20% lower. Because the demand is lower than the total capacity in the first 10 years, the production plant will however be able to supply the required energy. Only after 10 years when the demand rises to the expected maximum production capacity, only 80% of the required energy can be delivered without additional investments. As such, the income of the project will be the same the first 10 years compared to the third case. In a best-case scenario, demand and rollout of a district heating network will be fast and the production plant will run at full capacity during the heating season from the start (case 1). This is however unlikely and assuming this to be the base case will result in many projects not reaching predetermined targets, as the income of the project will be lower during the first years of production. In this respect, the third case or a similar scenario is a better option to use as a base case. This will put more stringent conditions on the expected output parameters of the production well to ensure an economic viable project, and hence provide a more realistic outlook. When using case 3 as the base case this also has the complementary benefit of reducing the risk related to the maximum production capacity. If the real maximum production capacity is lower than expected, the reduction of income will be lower than the decrease in the maximum production capacity. In other words, a reduction of 20% of the maximum production capacity will not lead to a reduction of 20% of the income, but will be between 0 and 20%, depending on the interest rate and on the time frame to reach full capacity. Acknowledgments This research is carried out under the DESIGNATE project, which receives funding from the BELSPO BRAIN-be 2.0 research programme under contract nr B2/191/P1/DESIGNATE. HITA kindly provided input for the development for this case study. References Compernolle, T., Welkenhuysen, K., Petitclerc, E., Maes, D. & Piessens, K., 2019. The impact of policy measures on geothermal energy investments. Energy Economics, 84, 104524. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2019.104524 Welkenhuysen, K., Compernolle, T., Kaufmann, O., Laenen, B., Meyvis, B., Piessens, K., Gousis, S., Dupont, N., Harcouet-Menou, V. & Pogacnik, J., this conference. Decision support under uncertainty for geothermal applications: case selection and concept development.

Faunal remains in archaeological contexts are often very fragmented. This significantly affects taxonomic identification and thus the understanding of the exploitation of animal resources. The biomolecular method ZooMS (Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry) allows identifying even very small fragments at the genus level, sometimes at the species one, using the “collagen fingerprints". We present the preliminary results of the first application of ZooMS on Takarkori rock shelter (Libya), a key site to reconstruct Early to Middle Holocene (10.200-4600 ka) socio-cultural dynamics in the Sahara. The analysis shows the successful application of the method on archaeological sequences from sheltered sites in hyper-arid environments. It also aims at opening the discussion on the need to develop effective biomolecular research to distinguish wild and domestic species, crucial to understand subsistence strategies.

Les Mesonychia appartiennent à un groupe éteint de mammifères prédateurs à sabots. Diversifiés (plus de 20 genres actuellement répertoriés ; Szalay et Gould 1966 ; Rose 2006), ils sont connus dans l’ensemble de la Laurasia (Asie, Europe, Amérique du Nord), du Paléocène inférieur à l’Oligocène inférieur. Les Mesonychia sont séparés en deux familles : Hapalodectidae et Mesonychidae (Szalay et Gould 1966; Solé et al. 2018). Ces derniers ont connu deux événements radiatifs : au Paléocène, avec la diversification des clades de « Dissacus », et au début de l’Éocène, avec l’apparition de mésonychidés spécialisés regroupés, notamment, dans le clade Mesonyx (Solé et al., 2018). Les Mesonychidae étaient présents en Europe à partir du Paléocène supérieur (Thanétien) jusqu’à la fin de l’Éocène inférieur (Yprésien). Deux genres, « Dissacus » et Pachyaena, y ont été identifiés. Mis à part Pachyaena gigantea (Vaugirard, France, début de l’Yprésien) et « Dissacus » europaeus (Cernay et Berru, France, Thanétien tardif), décrits respectivement par Boule (1903) et Thewissen (1991), les mésonychidés européens ont été décrits à partir d’éléments dentaires. Cependant, ces dernières années, plusieurs éléments dentaires et postcrâniens ont été découverts dans les localités de l’Éocène inférieur de Palette (France ; MP7) et de La Borie (France ; MP8+9). Nous avons récemment étudié ces nouveaux restes, mais également révisé ceux du P. gigantea de Vaugirard, décrits mais uniquement partiellement représentés au début du 20ème siècle (Boule 1903). Leur description comparative permet de reconstruire l’évolution de la locomotion des mésonychidés européens et d’inclure ces nouvelles données morphologiques dans la matrice portant sur les parentés au sein des Mesonychia récemment améliorée par Solé et al. (2018). Les analyses phylogénétiques (en parcimonie standard et en bayésien « tip dating » mettent en évidence un clade regroupant la plupart des espèces européennes : ceci permet d’imaginer qu’un groupe de mésonychidés a évolué de manière endémique en Europe. Nous proposons de réutiliser un nom de genre proposé par Lemoine (1891) pour l’une des espèces de ce clade : Hyaenodictis. Il regroupe dorénavant cinq espèces auparavant référées au genre « Dissacus ». Concernant l’écologie, nous concluons que Hyaenodictis raslanloubatieri (La Borie) et Hyaenodictis rougierae (Palette) étaient dorsostables, digitigrades spécialisés et coureurs, alors que P. gigantea était plantigrade – bien qu’également coureur. Les différences de posture et de masse corporelle de ces deux genres reflètent une différence de niche écologique ne corroborant pas l’hypothèse selon laquelle Pachyaena aurait pu être remplacé écologiquement par Hyaenodictis au cours de l’Yprésien. Ce nouveau matériel postcrânien de mésonychidés européens permet de constater une convergence avec certains mésonychidés nord-américains appartenant au clade Mesonyx. Des similitudes morphologiques (e.g., disparition du foramen de l’astragale) liées à une même locomotion sont en effet observées sur les deux continents.

La Formation du Shale de Cambay, visible dans les mines de lignite de Vastan, Mangrol et Tadkeswhar au Gujarat, dans l’ouest de l’Inde, a livré une riche faune yprésienne de vertébrés incluant des serpents madtsoïdes, palaeophiidés, booidés et colubroïdes. Ces derniers sont particulièrement abondants mais leurs affinités systématiques sont difficiles à résoudre. Une étude plus détaillée du serpent colubroïde Thaumastophis missiaeni a été entreprise (Zaher et al., 2021). Celle-ci révèle la présence sur ces sites de vertèbres troncales antérieures, moyennes et postérieures ainsi que quelques vertèbres caudales. La combinaison de caractères vertébraux cénophidiens et colubroïdes primitifs et dérivés confirme que Thaumastophis est à la base des Colubriformes. Il en serait le plus ancien représentant connu tandis que Procerophis, découvert dans les mêmes niveaux, peut être considéré comme un Colubriformes dérivé. Par ailleurs, Thaumastophis partage avec le serpent Renenutet enmerwer, connu de l’Eocène supérieur d’Egypte, la combinaison unique des caractères vertébraux suivants: processus prézygapophysénaux bien développés, présence de foramens parazygapophysénaux, épines neurales hautes sur les vertèbres troncales moyennes et postérieures, épines neurales envahissant le tectum zygosphénien, régions para- et diapophysaires distinctes, hypapophyses présentes sur les vertèbres troncales antérieures, vertèbres caudales avec haemapophyses laminaires étendues, cotyle déprimé. Ceci suggère un échange faunique entre l’Inde et l’Afrique du Nord, en passant par la marge la plus au Sud de la Neothethys. Une nouvelle famille des Thaumastophiidae peut donc être proposée incluant le genre Thaumastophis et Renenutet sur base de leur morphologie vertébrale dérivée. Financements Les missions de terrain et la recherche associée ont été financées par la Leakey Foundation; la National Geographic Society; le Département des Sciences et Technologies du gouvernement Indien; le Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun, Inde; le projet PalEurAfrica de la Politique Scientifique fédérale belge; le Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Tecnológico; le Coordenação de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior; la Fundaçáo de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo. Références Zaher H., Folie A., Quadros A.B., Rana R.S., Kumar K., Rose K.D., Fahmy M. & Smith T., 2021. Additional vertebral material of Thaumastophis (Serpentes: Caenophidia) from the early Eocene of India provides new insights on the early diversification of colubroidean snakes. Geobios, 66-67: in press. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geobios.2020.06.009.

A land subsidence affecting several towns at the joining limits of the Belgian Provinces of East Flanders, Antwerp and Flemish Brabant is followed during the last three decades. ERS 1–2, ENVISAT, TerraSAR-X and Sentinel-1A satellites SAR scenes were processed from 1992 till October 2020 to map the land subsidence evolution. The subsidence corresponds to a surface area of 220 km 2 during the ERS 1/2 time interval distributed over three distinct subsidence bowls. During the ENVISAT and TerraSAR-X time interval, only one residual subsidence bowl was mapped affecting a surface area of about 70 km 2 . Several towns (Londerzeel and Steenhuffel) remained in the center of the subsidence bowl. The annual average negative velocity values range between −5.99 and −0.5 mm/year. During the Sentinel-1A period, the subsidence bowl has lost half of its surface reaching 36 km 2 . The LOS velocity values have also decreased during the period 2016–2020.