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Large old tropical trees as pools of biodiversity: the Life On Trees program
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The aim of the Life On Trees (LOT) program is to generate baseline knowledge about the number of eukaryotic species a single large aged tropical tree can host and to understand how these communities of organisms are assembled. The program is conducted in the Amazon and Andes biodiversity hotspots. Our first project, LOT-Amazon 2022, was performed on a spectacular Dussia tree (Fabaceae), which was 50 m high and 45 m wide. The sampling was carried out by professional climbers, guided by experts of the different eukaryotic groups studied (plants, fungi, animals, protists). To better understand the contribution of different tree components (bark, leaves, fruits, flowers, living and dead wood) to overall tree biodiversity, we assigned observations into communities based on height zone or microhabitat and will examine similarities and nestedness in the composition of these communities. The first results show that a single tree can host a tremendous diversity (e.g., 42 orchids, 28 ferns, and more than 200 bryophytes, 180 lichen species identified, which are world records considering the 400m elevation). This confirms that large old tropical trees are important pools of biodiversity probably in relation with the variety of local microhabitats and tree age. Funding: Fonds de Dotation Biotope pour la Nature Web and/or Twitter account: www.lifeontrees.org
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RBINS Staff Publications 2023
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Large scale biodiversity inventories and collections: challenges and solutions.
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RBINS Staff Publications
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Large-scale DNA barcoding of ants from Ecuador
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RBINS Staff Publications
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Larval dispersal and juvenile dynamics of flatfish in the Southern North Sea.
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Marine populations display some of the most extreme patterns of spatial and temporal heterogeneity in demographic factors. Over the past few decades, many marine fisheries have declined or even collapsed. This is in large part, due to climate change and detrimental anthropogenic influences (e.g. habitat degradation and overfishing). Due to a highly complex optimal window between biological needs and favorable environmental factors, marine species are very susceptible to natural perturbations. This leads to unpredictable reproductive success, high mortality and obscure population delineations. Preventing a complete collapse offish stock requires a thorough knowledge of the recruitment dynamics. With the B-FishConnect project we want to disentangle the physical and biological factors influencing dispersal and recruitment in flatfish. Within the project, we will focus on four commercially important flatfish species in the North Sea: sole, plaice, turbot and brill. To quantify the role of physical and biological factors on the population dynamics, a combination of hydrodynamic and demographic-genetic models will be applied. The output of these models will be compared to empirical field data. The focus of this project will be on the post-larval and juvenile stages of flatfish. Information on the spatial-temporal dynamics of larvae and juveniles will be gathered by an intense sampling campaign along the coast as well as on sea. Additional information will be obtained through historical datasets. The larval dispersal history will be inferred by analysing the otolith microstructure of juvenile flatfish. The effect of the larval history and local habitat characteristics on the future survival and condition of juvenile flatfish will be investigated. This will be accomplished by using biomarkers and condition indices. The derived information on life-history traits, population structure and spatio-temporal dynamics will be used to validate the dispersal models (Lacroix et al., 2013). In a later phase this will allow us to test different ecological hypotheses and to assess the impact of various scenarios related to climate change and human impact on flatfish in the North Sea. Consequently these data will be vital for fisheries and conservation management.
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RBINS Staff Publications
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Late Cretaceous amphibians and lacertilians from Pui (Hateg Basin, Romania)
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In 2000 and 2001, a joint team from Universitatea Babeş-Bolyai (Cluj-Napoca, Romania) and the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (Brussels, Belgium) screen-washed 2500 kg of sediments from a new large lens found in the south of the Pui village along the Bărbat river. The sediments are attributed to the Maastrichtian Sânpetru Formation that yielded one of the richest and most diversified Late Cretaceous continental faunas in Europe. The red colored silty layer found at Pui, probably deposited in a northerly flowing braided river system under a warm and humid climate with seasonal fluctuations. Numerous fragments of lacertilian and amphibian microfossils were found in this site. The amphibians are represented by a Discoglossidae ind. and a Lissamphibia (Albanerpeton cf. inexpectatum). It suggests that the genus Albanerpeton came into Europe during the Late Cretaceous, instead of the Tertiary as previously thought. The lacertilians are represented by a Squamata ind., a new Teiidae (Paraglyphanodon nov. sp.) and two Paramacellodidae (Becklesius nov. sp. and aff. hoffstetteri). The stratigraphical range of the latter family is thus extended for a 70 Ma period, as this genus was previously described from Kimmeridgian deposits. The presence of Albanerpeton and Paraglyphanodon at Pui indicates a North American influence on the East European amphibian and lacertilian faunas by Maastrichtian times.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2016
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Late Cretaceous biota and the K-Pg Boundary in Jiayin
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RBINS Staff Publications
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Late Cretaceous biota and the K-Pg Boundary in Jiayin along the Heilongjiang River, NE China.
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RBINS Staff Publications
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Late Holocene history of the Fuji Five Lakes (Japan)
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Within the framework of the QuakeRecNankai project, which focuses on the geological record of paleoearthquakes rupturing the Nankai-Suruga subduction zone, we acquired a grid of reflection-seismic profiles in the Fuji Five Lakes at the foot of Mount Fuji. The lake sedimentary architecture and the Holocene sedimentation were studied in detail, with a very high resolution GEOPULSE pinger system in October 2014. The Motosu, Sai, Kawaguchi and Yamanaka Lakes were covered by seismic grids with total lengths of 39 km, 24 km, 31 km and 28 km respectively. The seismic profiles provided a clear image of the entire (the upper 20-25 m on the reflection seismic profile) lacustrine infill in the deep Motosu and Sai Lakes. Regarding the shallow Yamanaka and Kawaguchi Lakes, gas blanking prevailed, but the upper 15 m of sedimentary infill was still visible locally. We establish a seismic stratigraphy for each lake over the Late Holocene period and integrate this into the wide range of published data on the Mount Fuji and Fuji Five Lakes. In particular we seek to tie the seismic stratigraphy to the geological record obtained in long drilling cores (Koshimizu et al., 2007) and to major eruption phases of the Mount Fuji. Our goal is to define a common time frame, which will enable integrated investigations of evidence for mass-wasting deposits, major eruptions and lake-level changes contained within the lakes.
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No RBINS Staff publications
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Late Holocene human activities/climate interactions and biodiversity evolution in mountainous areas (French Alps) : Pollen-based quantitative reconstructions
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The period since the emergence of humans has displayed an ongoing biodiversity reduction named the Holocene extinction. Caused primarily by human impacts and climate change, this reduction is increasingly growing and has become a reason of global concern. In Europe, mountainous vegetation is prized as sources of high biodiversity and has been shown to be particularly sensitive to human action and climate changes. Otherwise palynological data represent the most widely available quantitative record of past environments and are an efficient tool for the reconstruction of vegetation and its responses to anthropogenic disturbances and/or abrupt climate changes. Mountainous pollen sequences therefore represent ideal archives for the study of the effects of past climate change and land-use on biodiversity over time scales that go beyond human life span. Within this framework, this work proposes to reconstruct the history of the landscape in the Champsaur Valley (French Alps) during the last 3400 years by means of a multidisciplinary approach. We also try to explain how and to which degree biodiversity have been affected by complex human/climate relationships. For that purpose, two high resolution pollen and NPPs records have been produced, one situated at the bottom of the valley and the other in the montane belt. They show in detail the local vegetation and human occupation history in two different types of topographic environments, covering the last 2000 and 3400 years respectively. Palynological richness and several diversity indexes have also been calculated for these sequences in order to reconstruct the evolution of biodiversity at the two different locations. On the other hand, modern pollen data and vegetation surveys from 49 sites, selected within different environmental and land-use contexts in the Champsaur Valley, were used to create a pollen-based transfer-function to quantify the pasture pressure, which has been the major human activity in the alpine valleys throughout the Late Holocene. Its application to the two well-dated pollen sequences allowed reconstructing the evolution of pasture-pressure through time. The pollen-based reconstructions were compared with changes in percentages of palynological and NPP pastoral indicators, but also with archaeological and historical evidences for the region. Comparisons show a good correlation but differences in the inferred intensity of the pastoral pressure. Pollen and NPPs assemblages, as well as biodiversity indexes and the pasture pressure estimated by our model, were also related to the Holocene climate variable, inferred from independent proxies such as
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Late Maastrichtian hadrosaurs from the Amur Region (Russia and China): preliminary investigations
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RBINS Staff Publications 2016
