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Synthesis of species distributions and hotspots of endangerment is critical for setting conservation priorities to address the acute worldwide biodiversity crisis (Feeley and Silman 2011). Such a synthesis requires enormous efforts to access and unite widely dispersed biodiversity data and to establish open data archiving as a standard scientific practice. The essential first steps in this endeavor are locating primary biodiversity data—where, when, how, and by whom species have been observed or collected—and mak- ing this basic data available to the scientific community. Here, we report on a coordinated initiative of freshwater journals to stimulate a culture of publishing primary biodiversity data. Although freshwaters are tiny in their extent, they harbor a very large fraction of the global species richness, and they have experienced alarming rates of biodiversity decline (Dudgeon et al. 2006). However, freshwater biodiversity is generally neglected or grossly underrepresented in data- mobilization efforts. The importance of broad biodiversity compilations, however, has been increasingly recognized, especially in light of the establishment of the Intergovernmental Science–Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services and the Group on Earth Observations’ Biodiversity Observation Network, and standards and tools have already been put in place to manage large sets of primary biodiversity data. In particular, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF; www.gbif.org) collates and centralizes biodiversity information through its participant nodes, which include large topical initiatives such as the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (Costello and Vanden Berghe 2006) and the distributed database network for vertebrates, VertNet (Constable et al. 2010). BioFresh (www.freshwaterbiodiversity.eu), a European Union–funded project, serves the same purpose for the freshwater realm. Recent calls for data archiving in ecology (Whitlock 2011), together with the increasingly common requirement by funding agencies to deposit research data, will be instrumental in making primary biodiversity data available. There is no doubt, however, that scientific journals can and should also play a key role in promoting data-sharing policies (Huang and Qiao 2011). Consequently, we developed the following statement in collaboration with freshwater journal editors to strongly encourage the submission of species-distribution data: “Authors are encouraged to place all species distribution records in a publicly accessible database such as the national Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) nodes (www.gbif.org) or data centers endorsed by GBIF, including BioFresh (www.freshwaterbiodiversity.eu).” This statement is posted on http:// data.freshwaterbiodiversity.eu/submit data.html along with further instructions and will be widely published in the journals’ instructions for authors and on their Web sites. The editors and publishers of the following journals have approved the statement: Aquatic Botany, Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, Aquatic Ecology, Aquatic Sciences, Ecology of Freshwater Fish, Freshwater Biology, Freshwater Reviews, Fundamental and Applied Limnology, Hydrobiologia, Inland Waters, the International Review of Hydrobiology, Freshwater Science (formerly, the Journal of the North American Benthological Society), the Journal of Fish Biology, the Journal of Limnology, the Journal of Plankton Research, Limnetica, Limnologica, Marine and Freshwater Research, and River Systems. Discussions are in prog- ress with an additional nine major journals in the field. What is the benefit to authors in following the recommendations for publishing primary biodiversity data? Certainly, promoting large-scale bio- diversity syntheses is an important idealistic motivation. However, as was outlined by Costello (2009), embrac- ing data-publishing practices also leads to increased recognition of scientists’ work. Papers connected to publicly available data are cited significantly more often, because the data become available for inclusion in broad-scale analyses (Piwowar et al. 2007), which are increasingly gaining importance. Importantly, the publication of primary biodiversity data is technically straightforward and quick, which minimizes the burden on authors. This is achieved by restricting submissions to a minimal standard set of fields, similar to the requirements for sequence submission to GenBank, a hugely successful database with great potential for supporting biodiversity science as well. Endorsement of the proposed data-publishing policy by most major freshwater journals will doubtlessly spur submission of primary biodiversity data, because it would raise awareness and could establish a culture of data publication. It should also encourage a wider range of journals in other areas of ecology and related fields to join the initiative. This would be of great benefit to scientific progress and to biodiversity conservation alike.

Arranged in strings, the plastic clay deposits from Andenne are fillings of cryptokarsts of white and colored clays associated with three layers of Dinantian Frasnian limestone oriented EW. Sands, brown coal and Tertiary (Neogene) clays have accumulated according to thekarstic dissolution forming a pocket of up to 100m deep. The sulphuric acid stemming from the oxidation of sulphides of brown coals is the main responsible for the formation of kaolinitic clays at the expense of clay minerals and the feldspathic sands. The circulation of water induced the leaching of the iron and their accumulation in certain horizons. White clays rich in alumina and of low iron and alkali content were the most looked for their refractory properties. Exploitedat first on surface then in subterranean galleries, the extraction reached its maximal development around the 19 and 20th centuries to stop definitively in 1970. The clay and the white sand were used in the industries of fire: glassware, crystal, metallurgy... and fed the pottery, brick, tile, earthenware factory, porcelain factories, pipe factory and the industrial refractories. The white clay first and then the final products have been exported since the Middle Ages in Holland, Germany and France, contributing to the international reputation of the clays from Andenne. Depressions generated by the subsidence as a consequence of the underground extractions form a string of pools and ponds, sources of biodiversity. Finally, the Ceramics Museum preserves the traces of this remarkable geological, mining, industrial and artistic with its outstanding collections of pottery, porcelain and pipes. Living museum holder of memory, it provides educational and cultural functions from its exhibitions.

The Campine basin situated in the NE of Belgium is a part of a large paralic Carboniferous coal basin of the NW Europe. It is located north of the Lower Palaeozoic of the London Brabant Massif. Eatsward, the South Limburg coal basin consists in the extension of the Campine basin to The Netherlands. The first mining concessions were granted in 1906 and the last mines (Eisden and Zolder) were closed in 1992 giving the region a particular interest for the study of the ground movement monitoring. Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) technique is applied to estimate the vertical displacement of the Campine coal basin during period of 18 years (1992–2010). Even if the area has a lot of field crops giving a poor density of reflector the deformation of the ground is well highlighted. The movements have a relative low amplitude with an average rate between -1 and +1 cm/year in the centre of the formers coal exploitations.. Both movements are related to groundwater extraction needed for the coal exploitation. During the dewatering time a depression cone was active and continued few years after the closure of the mine as seen in the ERS results (1992-2000) of the western part. A difference of five years exists between eastern (1987-1988) and the western (1992) closure dates so the western part is subsiding while the other part is already uplift. The explanation of the uplift seems to be related to the increasing water pressure in the collieries giving the possibility to heighten the area. The results issued from Envisat (Asar) processing show a new situation, the western part has an uplift trend during the period 2003-2010. From this observation, we can conclude that the recharge of the mine aquifer need to gain a critical level before being able to raise the ground level.

The coticule is an Ordovician aged metamorphic rock only present in the southern part of the Stavelot Massif on the towns of Vielsam and Lierneux. It comes in centimeter thick layers consisting in micrometric crystals of spessartite, microphyllites of micas, infra micrometer quartz. Its exceptional sharpening properties of the metal (razor sharp thin, sharp broad, sharp curve) gave its reputation of a natural abrasive stone and a global distribution (barber, circumciser, surgeon, butcher, carpenter, cabinetmaker, arborist, gardener, winemaker, tanner, coachbuilder ...). Exploited and shaped since the 16th century, the coticule was exported as a whetstone (aka razor stone), the "bouts belges" and to special forms. It was operated by craftsmen, primarily from the surface in open pits, in trenches and then by underground galleries, following the evolution of mining techniques of lighting and drainage. The material was sawn, made in standard sizes and polished by the quarry workers and then in small workshops. The high number of models, the various manufacturing steps entirely manual, the low yield (2-5%), competition from synthetic stones, and the disappearance of part of the customer after the Second World War sounded the death knell of this unique activity. Located in Lierneux, a quarry still operates today the coticule and most of its production is exported to the United States of America. The old mining galleries are today the winter refuge of bats populations. They are considered as cavities of scientific interest. Finally, the Museum of the coticule in Salmchâteau (Vielsalm) presents this manufacturing industry with a global destiny.