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Adapting practices to accelerate the scientific description of invertebrate cryptic species
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RBINS Staff Publications 2025
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A New Thai Millipede Species of the Genus Coxobolellus Pimvichai, Enghoff, Panha & Backeljau, 2020 (Diplopoda: Spirobolida: Pseudospirobolellidae)
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Integrative Taxonomy of a New Thyropygus Pocock, 1894 Species from Thailand (Diplopoda: Spirostreptida: Harpagophoridae)
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Hydrodynamic alterations induced by floating solar structures co-located with an offshore wind farm
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Floating photovoltaic installations (FPV) are among the promising emerging marine renewable energy systems contributing to future global energy transition strategies. FPVs can be integrated within existing offshore wind farms, contributing to more efficient use of marine space. This complementarity has gained increasing attention as a sustainable approach to enhance green energy production while reducing offshore grid infrastructure costs, particularly in the North Sea. This study presents a first assessment to quantify the mid- and far-field hydrodynamic effects of FPVs (elevated design) deployed within an existing offshore wind farm (OWF) in the Belgian part of the North Sea. A subgrid-scale parameterization was adopted into the 3D hydrodynamic model COHERENS to assess impacts on four key hydrodynamic metrics: surface irradiance reduction due to shading, changes in current velocity fields, turbulent kinetic energy production, and variations in current-induced bottom shear stress. Four scenarios were compared: a baseline without structures, a scenario with only offshore wind turbines and two combined wind and photovoltaic configurations (sparse and dense). At farm scale, simulations showed small effects of FPV shading on sea surface temperature (< 0.1°C), but significant reductions in current speed, increased turbulent kinetic energy mainly beneath the floaters, and a noticeable impact on bottom shear stress. This hydrodynamic modeling study constitutes a first step toward a comprehensive environmental impact assessment of FPVs, particularly in relation to their biogeochemical effects on the water column and benthic habitats. The findings provide valuable insights to support sustainable marine spatial planning, environmental assessments, and industrial design strategies in the North Sea and beyond.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2025 OA
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Broadening the semiaquatic scene: Quantification of long bone microanatomy across pinnipeds
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Description of a new species of Naquetia Jousseaume, 1880 (Gastropoda: Muricidae: Muricinae) from the Philippines
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RBINS Staff Publications 2025
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Calcium isotopes correlate with baleen whale feeding ecology
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RBINS Staff Publications 2025
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Reconciling the impact of mobile bottom-contact fishing on marine organic carbon sequestration
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Anthropogenic activities that disturb the seafloor inadvertently affect the organic carbon cycle. Mobile bottom-contacting fishing (MBCF) is a widespread fishing technique that involves the dragging of fishing gear across the seafloor and disrupts seafloor sediments and alters carbon storage dynamics. However, the impact of MBCF on carbon sequestration is still not well quantified, with global estimates of MBCF-induced carbon release ranging from less than 17 Mt C yr−¹ to 400 Mt C yr−¹ with limited assessment of associated uncertainties. Addressing these knowledge gaps is essential for informing effective, evidence-based policy. Here, we force a carefully parametrized organic carbon mineralization model with empirical relationships and observational data from the Northwest European continental shelf and use a Monte-Carlo approach to assess the uncertainty associated to our estimate. We find that MBCF on the Northwest European continental shelf could reduce sedimentary carbon storage by 270 kt C yr−¹. However, the estimated uncertainty remains large (25%-75% percentile range = 620 kt C yr−1), mainly due to uncertainties in the spatial variability of organic carbon reactivity. Our findings also show that the divergence of carbon release estimates in the literature is primarily due to differences in how organic carbon reactivity is parameterized, with higher release estimates often reflecting overestimated mineralization rates. Overall, our study demonstrates the need for targeted experimental studies to quantify how sediment disturbance influences organic carbon reactivity, to better constrain the impacts of anthropogenic activities on the marine carbon cycle and support accurate carbon accounting and informed policymaking.
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An ichthyological borderland: The fishfauna of Nyungwe National Park and surroundings (Rwanda, East Africa)
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Nyungwe National Park (NP) is a mountainous region situated in the southwestern part of Rwanda on Congo-Nile watershed. In spite of the high biodiversity in pri- mates, birds and plants, no fish were reported to occur in the park, probably because of the cold temperatures of the rivers. An expedition in 2022 examined the fish diver- sity within the Nyungwe NP and its buffer zones. Additional sampling was performed in the main river draining the park into Lake Kivu: the Kamiranzovu. Three hundred and twenty specimens belonging to 13 species were collected. Specimens were col- lected only in the western part of the park, draining towards the Congo basin. The diversity within the park proper was limited to two putative species within the com- plex of Amphilius cf. kivuensis, which were caught on either side of the Kivu–Rusizi watershed. In contrast, a higher fish diversity, including one clariid species and two species of Enteromius, was observed in the rivers at a lower altitude of the buffer zone. However, the highest species diversity was found near the mouth of Kamiran- zovu River, including 11 species, of which 4 were non-native: the guppy Poecilia reti- culata, Astatotilapia burtoni, the blue-spotted tilapia Oreochromis leucosticus and the Egyptian mouth-brooder Pseudocrenilabrus multicolor.
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Fish Remains. In: Bolger, D., Peltenburg, E. (eds) Tell Jerablus Tahtani, Syria, Vol. II. Reports on excavations at the Jerablus Tahtani Settlement (1992-2004) [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor]
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This report provides details on some of the fish remains from the Jerablus settlement. The analysis includes only remains from contexts that were undisturbed, in situ, or safely stratified but not in situ. The number of specimens is low in contexts belonging to the Late Chalcolithic (Period IA), the pre-fort phase of the Early Bronze Age (Period IIA), and the Islamic period (Period V). The majority of the remains are from the Middle˗Late Uruk period (Period IB) and the fort phase of the Early Bronze Age (Period IIB). No fish bones examined by the author were from Hellenistic-Byzantine times (Period IV).
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