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First record of the order Megaloptera Latreille from the Philippines
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RBINS Staff Publications 2022
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Shell thickness of Nucella lapillus in the North Sea increased over the last 130 years despite ocean acidification
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RBINS Staff Publications 2022
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Segmented worms (Phylum Annelida): a celebration of twenty years of progress through Zootaxa and call for action on the taxonomic work that remains
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RBINS Staff Publications 2021
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Publishing data to support the fight against human vector-borne diseases
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Vector-borne diseases are responsible for more than 17% of human cases of infectious diseases. In most situations, effective control of debilitating and deadly vector-bone diseases (VBDs), such as malaria, dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever, Zika and Chagas requires up to-date, robust and comprehensive information on the presence, diversity, ecology, bionomics and geographic spread of the organisms that carry and transmit the infectious agents. Huge gaps exist in the information related to these vectors, creating an essential need for campaigns to mobilise and share data. The publication of data papers is an effective tool for overcoming this challenge. These peer-reviewed articles provide scholarly credit for researchers whose vital work of assembling and publishing well-described, properly formatted datasets often fails to receive appropriate recognition. To address this, GigaScience’s sister journal GigaByte partnered with the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) to publish a series of data papers, with support from the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), hosted by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Here we outline the initial results of this targeted approach to sharing data and describe its importance for controlling VBDs and improving public health.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2022
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Where are we now with European forest multi-taxon biodiversity and where can we head to?
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The European biodiversity and forest strategies rely on forest sustainable management (SFM) to conserve forest biodiversity. However, current sustainability assessments hardly account for direct biodiversity indicators. We focused on forest multi-taxon biodiversity to: i) gather and map the existing information; ii) identify knowledge and research gaps; iii) discuss its research potential. We established a research network to fit data on species, standing trees, lying deadwood and sampling unit description from 34 local datasets across 3591 sampling units. A total of 8724 species were represented, with the share of common and rare species varying across taxonomic classes: some included many species with several rare ones (e.g., Insecta); others (e.g., Bryopsida) were repre sented by few common species. Tree-related structural attributes were sampled in a subset of sampling units (2889; 2356; 2309 and 1388 respectively for diameter, height, deadwood and microhabitats). Overall, multi taxon studies are biased towards mature forests and may underrepresent the species related to other developmental phases. European forest compositional categories were all represented, but beech forests were over represented as compared to thermophilous and boreal forests. Most sampling units (94%) were referred to a habitat type of conservation concern. Existing information may support European conservation and SFM strategies in: (i) methodological harmonization and coordinated monitoring; (ii) definition and testing of SFM indicators and thresholds; (iii) data-driven assessment of the effects of environmental and management drivers on multi-taxon forest biological and functional diversity, (iv) multi-scale forest monitoring integrating in-situ and remotely sensed information.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2023
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Effects of hydrocarbon extraction on freshwaters
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RBINS Staff Publications 2022 OA
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On the first Belgian record of the Eifelian (Middle Devonian) ammonoid cephalopod Subanarcestes (Suborder Anarcestina)
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Ammonoid cephalopods are extremely rare in the Lower and Middle Devonian sedimentary rocks of Belgium, which contrasts with the neighboring sedimentary basins. However, searches in old collections and recent collecting efforts show that ammonoids do occur in these beds in Belgium, which allows to enlarge our knowledge of Lower and Middle Devonian ammonoid occurrences. Here, a record of the Eifelian (Middle Devonian) anarcestid ammonoid genus Subanarcestes is described for the first time from Belgium based on a specimen from the Jemelle Formation (Chavées Member). This specimen was collected more than a century ago by Eugène Maillieux at Trou Bodet near Couvin. It laid unrecognized as an ammonoid cephalopod for many decades in the collections of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, while being previously identified as Cryptoceras or ‘Nautilus’ fossil, which if correct, constituted Belgium’s oldest Nautilida fossil. Micro-CT imaging greatly helped in the taxonomic assignment of the specimen.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2023
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A Santonian record of the nautilid cephalopod Angulithes westphalicus (Schlüter, 1872) from the subsurface of the Campine, north-east Belgium, with comments on regional lithostratigraphic problems
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Newly recognised material of the Late Cretaceous nautilid Angulithes westphalicus is described from the subsurface of the eastern part of the Campine in north-east Belgium. This constitutes the first formal documentation of this genus and species from the Cretaceous of Belgium, having been identified amongst a large suite of fossils collected from the Voort Shafts I & II of the Zolder colliery during the first half of the twentieth century. The specimens originate from an interval of marine calcareous sand with a marly glauconiferous base, dated as late middle Santonian (Gonioteuthis westfalicagranulata belemnite Zone) and for which a deepening of the depositional environment is documented. Lithostratigraphically, the specimens occur within the Vaals Formation, within the upper part of the Asdonk Member or alternatively within the lower part of the Sonnisheide Member. The early Campanian age of the Asdonk Member suggested previously is refuted, the age of the Sonnisheide Member needs further study. The position of the siphuncle in A. westphalicus is illustrated for the first time; it is positioned closer to the venter than the dorsum, which confirms the close evolutionary relationship with Angulithes galea, which ranges from the upper Turonian to middle Coniacian in central Europe.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2023
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The fossil bivalve Angulus benedeni benedeni: a potential seasonally resolved stable isotope-based climate archive to investigate Pliocene temperatures in the southern North Sea basin
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Bivalves record seasonal environmental changes in their shells, making them excellent climate archives. However, not every bivalve can be used for this end. The shells have to grow fast enough so that micrometre- to millimetre-sampling can resolve sub-annual changes. Here, we investigate whether the bivalve Angulus benedeni benedeni is suitable as a climate archive. For this, we use ca. 3-million-year-old specimens from the Piacenzian collected from a temporary outcrop in the Port of Antwerp area (Belgium). The subspecies is common in Pliocene North Sea basin deposits, but its lineage dates back to the late Oligocene and has therefore great potential as a high-resolution archive. A detailed assessment of the preservation of the shell material by micro-X-ray fluorescence, X-ray diffraction, and electron backscatter diffraction reveals that it is pristine and not affected by diagenetic processes. Oxygen isotope analysis and microscopy indicate that the species had a longevity of up to a decade or more and, importantly, that it grew fast and large enough so that seasonally resolved records across multiple years were obtainable from it. Clumped isotope analysis revealed a mean annual temperature of 13.5 ± 3.8 ∘C. The subspecies likely experienced slower growth during winter and thus may not have recorded temperatures year-round. This reconstructed mean annual temperature is 3.5 ∘C warmer than the pre-industrial North Sea and in line with proxy and modelling data for this stratigraphic interval, further solidifying A. benedeni benedeni's use as a climate recorder. Our exploratory study thus reveals that Angulus benedeni benedeni fossils are indeed excellent climate archives, holding the potential to provide insight into the seasonality of several major climate events of the past ∼ 25 million years in northwestern Europe.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2023
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Organic Matter Composition of Biomineral flocs and Its Influence on Suspended Particulate Matter Dynamics Along a Nearshore to Offshore Transect
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The seasonal variation in concentration of transparent exopolymer particles (TEPs), particulate organic carbon (POC) and particulate organic nitrogen (PON) were investigated together with floc size and the concentration of suspended particulate matter (SPM) along the cross-shore gradient, from the high turbid nearshore toward the low-turbid offshore waters in the Southern Bight of the North Sea. Our data demonstrate that biophysical flocculation cannot be explained by these heterogeneous parameters, but requires a distinction between a more reactive labile (“fresh”) and a less reactive refractory (“mineral-associated”) fraction. Based on all data, we separated the labile and mineral-associated POC, PON, and TEP using a semi-empirical model approach. The model's estimates of fresh and mineral-associated organic matter (OM) show that great parts of the POC, PON, and TEP are associated with suspended minerals, which are present in the water column throughout the year, whereas the occurrence of fresh TEP, POC, and PON is restricted to spring and summer months. In spite of a constantly high abundance of total TEP throughout the entire year, it is its fresh fraction that promotes the formation of larger and faster sinking biomineral flocs, thereby contributing to reducing the SPM concentration in the water column over spring and summer. Our results show that the different components of the SPM, such as minerals, extracellular OM and living organisms, form an integrated dynamic system with direct interactions and feedback controls.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2022
