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We report a case of predation by an adult Eastern Black-and-Yellow Tree Snake Toxicodryas vexator (Serpentes : Colubridae) on a juvenile Lord Derby's Scaly-tailed Squirrel Anomalurus derbianus (Rodentia : Anomaluridae) in Yangambi, Tshopo Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo. This is the first documented interaction between these two species.

Imagine a future where dynamically, from year to year, we can track the progression of alien species (AS), identify emerging problem species, assess their current and future risk and timely inform policy in a seamless data-driven workflow. One that is built on open science and open data infrastructures. By using international biodiversity standards and facilities, we would ensure interoperability, repeatability and sustainability. This would make the process adaptable to future requirements in an evolving AS policy landscape both locally and internationally. In recent years, Belgium has developed decision support tools to inform invasive alien species (IAS) policy, including information systems, early warning initiatives and risk assessment protocols. However, the current workflows from biodiversity observations to IAS science and policy are slow, not easily repeatable, and their scope is often taxonomically, spatially and temporally limited. This is mainly caused by the diversity of actors involved and the closed, fragmented nature of the sources of these biodiversity data, which leads to considerable knowledge gaps for IAS research and policy. We will leverage expertise and knowledge from nine former and current BELSPO projects and initiatives: Alien Alert, Invaxen, Diars, INPLANBEL, Alien Impact, Ensis, CORDEX.be, Speedy and the Belgian Biodiversity Platform. The project will be built on two components: 1) The establishment of a data mobilization framework for AS data from diverse data sources and 2) the development of data-driven procedures for risk evaluation based on risk modelling, risk mapping and risk assessment. We will use facilities from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), standards from the Biodiversity Information Standards organization (TDWG) and expertise from Lifewatch to create and facilitate a systematic workflow. Alien species data will be gathered from a large set of regional, national and international initiatives, including citizen science with a wide taxonomic scope from marine, terrestrial and freshwater environments. Observation data will be funnelled in repeatable ways to GBIF. In parallel, a Belgian checklist of AS will be established, benefiting from various taxonomic and project-based checklists foreseen for GBIF publication. The combination of the observation data and the checklist will feed indicators for the identification of emerging species; their level of invasion in Belgium; changes in their invasion status and the identification of areas and species of concern that could be impacted upon by bioinvasions. Data-driven risk evaluation of identified emerging species will be supported by niche and climate modelling and consequent risk mapping using critical climatic variables for the current and projected future climate periods at high resolution. The resulting risk maps will complement risk assessments performed with the recently developed Harmonia+ protocol to assess risks posed by emergent species to biodiversity and human, plant, and animal health. The use of open data will ensure that interested stakeholders in Belgium and abroad can make use of the information we generate. The open science ensures everyone is free to adopt and adapt the workflow for different scenarios and regions. The checklist will be used at national level, but will also serve as the Belgian reference for international databases (IUCN - GRIIS, EASIN) and impact assessments (IPBES, SEBI). The workflow will be showcased through GEO BON, the Invasivesnet network and the COST Actions Alien Challenge and ParrotNet. The observations and outcomes of risk evaluations will be used to provide science-based support for the implementation of IAS policies at the regional, federal and EU levels. The publication of Belgian data and checklists on IAS is particularly timely in light of the currently ongoing EU IAS Regulation and its implementation in Belgium. By proving that automated workflows can provide rapid and repeatable production of information, we will open up this technology for other conservation assessments.

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.

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.

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!