Search publications of the members of the Royal Belgian institute of natural Sciences
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Zoonotic investigations of Zaire Ebolavirus in Likati, Democratic Republic of Congo, 2017
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First record of the North African terrestrial snail Otala xanthodon (Anton, 1838) in Belgium
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Identification of invasive Physa sp. from Inagro aquaculture facility
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Identifying invasive alien species by DNA barcoding using currently available sequence data
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Natural infection of gastropods by feline cardio-pulmonary parasites in various areas of Greece: preliminary results
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Integrative taxonomic re-description of Halisarca magellanica and description of a new species of Halisarca (Porifera, Demospongiae) from Chilean Patagonia
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DNA identification of species of the Anopheles maculipennis complex and first record of An. daciae in Belgium
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Les Insectes du Monde. Biodiversité. Classification. Clés de détermination des familles - Tomes 1-2
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A new species of Sarmydus Pascoe, 1867 (Cerambycidae: Prioninae: Anacolini) from Ncobar Island, India
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Ground Deformations Observed for Three Decades (1992-2022) above Old and Deep Coal Mines Reused for Deep Gas Storage Sites (Wallonia, Belgium) using PS-InSAR Time-series.
- The coal mining exploitations in Wallonia was gradually phased out till the end of the last century. Groundwater pumping was ceased, implying a groundwater rebound at varying rates that can still be observed by radar interferometry. The sustainability of architectural and technical facilities within those zones must be monitored to reduce environmental concerns during the post-mining phase and their reuse as gas storage reservoir locations. PS-InSAR approach has shown land surface deformations during three decades in a large area (96 km²) covering the cities from Binche to Anderlues (Wallonia, Belgium). Two coal mines are concerned: (i) to the West, the Ressaix-Mariemont-La Louvière concession where a small part was used as the Peronnes Gas Storage (PGS) reservoir; (ii) to the East, the Bois de la Haye concession where about half of the area has been used as the Anderlues Gas Storage (AGS) reservoir. To maintain the PGS reservoir dry, a private company has maintained groundwater pumping activities till 1998 with a dewatering rate of 40 m³/h. After 1998, the water levels raised from 8 m/yr at the beginning to 2.5 m/yr around 2010. The gas storage reservoir of Anderlues is known to be relatively dry. Using a multi-sensor radar dataset including radar images acquired by the European Space Agency’s satellites of ERS1/2, ENVISAT ASAR, and Sentinel-1A, 236 interferograms were constructed. Ground displacements are mapped and subdivided into three successive time intervals showing: (1) during ERS1/2 (1991-2000), a gradient from positive annual average velocities (West) to negative ones (East) across the PGS site and mostly negative values (-0.5 to -3.0 mm/yr) above the AGS site; (2) during ENVISAT ASAR (2003-2010), the positive LOS velocities (0.5 to 2.89 mm/yr) are present along an NW-SE ellipsoid across PGS leaving only negative LOS values in the NW corner while negative LOS velocities were also recorded along the Binche city (-0.5 to -2 mm/yr). During the same period, the AGS is facing negative LOS velocity values and extending to the south as well; (3) during Sentinel-1A (2015-2022), almost all the PGS is affected by positive annual LOS velocities (0.5 to about 4-5 mm/yr) even extending towards the north outside the limits of PGS. AGS is still affected by negative LOS values in the middle and SE parts. Ground displacements measured at the surface of old coal mine concessions and recent gas storage sites allow following the impact of the use of the subsurface through time.
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Ground Deformations Related to an Old Drainage Adit in The Abandoned Coal Concession Around Saint-Vaast (Wallonia, Belgium) Analysed Using PS-InSAR and Piezometric Wells Time Series
- The exploitations of the coal mines in Wallonia were ceased progressively till the end of the last century. Groundwater pumping’s were stopped inducing a groundwater rebound with different rates but still visible today with radar interferometry. To mitigate the threats to the environment during the post-mining period, flooding and outbreak risks, surface ground deformations and the stability of civil engineering infrastructures in the vicinity of those mined areas need to be monitored. The persistent scatterer radar interferometry technique (PS-InSAR) has revealed ground displacements during three decades in Saint-Vaast (Wallonia, Belgium). Under this residential area, an old drainage adit at a depth of approximately 30 m allows mine water discharge to the Haine river. A confined aquifer lies in this Wealdian sandy layer characterized by a weak mechanical resistance and frequent loose sandy pockets. The Saint-Vaast area has so far suffered twice from a clogging rupture in the drainage adit. The clog has induced an underground water pressure increase in the confined aquifer. This water outbreak resulted in a stream of mud, sand and water flowing out during a few days in 2009. This event has induced a displacement at the surface with cracks observed in the walls of several houses nearby. 236 interferograms were produced using images acquired by the ESA’s satellites (ERS1/2, ENVISAT and Sentinel-1A). A time serie of surface displacements from 1991 to 2022 is calculated. Land surface displacements trends before and after both events were recognized. During ERS1/2 (1992–2002) an uplift has a rate exceeding 3 mm/year. The saturation of the Wealdian aquifer sands reduces the effective intergranular stress leading to an uplift. Groundwater recharge slowed down after the uplift and turned to almost stability during ERS (2002-2006) and ENVISAT (2003–2010). The sudden water outbreak in 2009 has resulted in a localized land subsidence. Before and after the second outflow associated to a clog rupture in early 2018, a similar pattern of land surface deformations was observed. After 2018 (Sentinel-1A), the average LOS velocity values are -1.8 mm/year where the 2009 event occured. Piezometric wells drilled after the 2009 event are monitoring the groundwater levels in the Wealdian aquifer. Analysis of piezometric data combined with PS-InSAR allowed to compare the water table evolutions in the confined aquifer and the ground deformations observed at the surface.
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Ultraconserved elements-based phylogenomic systematics of the snake superfamily Elapoidea, with the description of a new Afro-Asian family
- The highly diverse snake superfamily Elapoidea is considered to be a classic example of ancient, rapid radiation. Such radiations are challenging to fully resolve phylogenetically, with the highly diverse Elapoidea a case in point. Previous attempts at inferring a phylogeny of elapoids produced highly incongruent estimates of their evolutionary relationships, often with very low statistical support. We sought to resolve this situation by sequencing over 4,500 ultraconserved element loci from multiple representatives of every elapoid family/subfamily level taxon and inferring their phylogenetic relationships with multiple methods. Concatenation and multispecies coalescent based species trees yielded largely congruent and well-supported topologies. Hypotheses of a hard polytomy were not retained for any deep branches. Our phylogenies recovered Cyclocoridae and Elapidae as diverging early within Elapoidea. The Afro-Malagasy radiation of elapoid snakes, classified as multiple subfamilies of an inclusive Lamprophiidae by some earlier authors, was found to be monophyletic in all analyses. The genus Micrelaps was consistently recovered as sister to Lamprophiidae. We establish a new family, Micrelapidae fam. nov., for Micrelaps and assign Brachyophis to this family based on cranial osteological synapomorphy. We estimate that Elapoidea originated in the early Eocene and rapidly diversified into all the major lineages during this epoch. Ecological opportunities presented by the post-Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction event may have promoted the explosive radiation of elapoid snakes.
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Ancient pigs reveal a near-complete genomic turnover following their introduction to Europe.
- Archaeological evidence indicates that pig domestication had begun by ∼10,500 y before the present (BP) in the Near East, and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) suggests that pigs arrived in Europe alongside farmers ∼8,500 y BP. A few thousand years after the introduction of Near Eastern pigs into Europe, however, their characteristic mtDNA signature disappeared and was replaced by haplotypes associated with European wild boars. This turnover could be accounted for by substantial gene flow from local European wild boars, although it is also possible that European wild boars were domesticated independently without any genetic contribution from the Near East. To test these hypotheses, we obtained mtDNA sequences from 2,099 modern and ancient pig samples and 63 nuclear ancient genomes from Near Eastern and European pigs. Our analyses revealed that European domestic pigs dating from 7,100 to 6,000 y BP possessed both Near Eastern and European nuclear ancestry, while later pigs possessed no more than 4\% Near Eastern ancestry, indicating that gene flow from European wild boars resulted in a near-complete disappearance of Near East ancestry. In addition, we demonstrate that a variant at a locus encoding black coat color likely originated in the Near East and persisted in European pigs. Altogether, our results indicate that while pigs were not independently domesticated in Europe, the vast majority of human-mediated selection over the past 5,000 y focused on the genomic fraction derived from the European wild boars, and not on the fraction that was selected by early Neolithic farmers over the first 2,500 y of the domestication process.
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Compilation of presentations at BICEpS colloquium 2018. Annexe to BICEpS Annual report 2018 – Reinforcing Belgian ICES People.
- The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES; French: Conseil International pour l'Exploration de la Mer, CIEM) is an intergovernmental marine science organization that brings together the efforts and knowledge of 20 Member States, bordering the North Atlantic and the Arctic Circumpolar Zone, on physical oceanography, marine ecosystems and fisheries management. Nowadays, more than 70 Belgian scientists are directly involved in the work of the 150 bodies and expert groups of ICES, which gather the expertise of more than 1500 scientists yearly, totalling up to 5000 scientists from over 700 marine institutes and organizations over the years. This important and often voluntary dedication of Belgian scientists to the work of ICES deserves more visibility among the Belgian scientific community itself and to policy makers.This is, among others, why the BICEpS initiative was launched. BICEpS general aim is to offer a platform to the Belgian ICES community to get to know each other, to improve collaboration and share information, and to promote ICES to the wider scientific community in Belgium. BICEpS Annual report 2018 presents the genesis and first year of activity of this initiative created to reinforce Belgian ICES people. The report targets marine scientists, marine managers and policy makers. It presents the demarche leading to the creation of the BICEpS community and activities conducted in 2018. The report contains the list of Belgian ICES members in 2018 with their membership to the different ICES working groups, and the results of the first BICEpS Colloquium organised on 14 November 2018 and hosted by RBINS in Brussels (outcome of a participatory discussion on the future of BICEpS, abstracts of communications presented and list of participants. The report is also published on ICES's website at http://ices.dk/community/groups/Documents/BICEPS/BICEPpS-Annual-Report-2018.pdf. The abstracts of the colloquium are supplemented by a separate annex published online which assembles the PowerPoint presentations of the colloquium accessible at http://ices.dk/community/groups/Documents/BICEPS/BICEpS-2018-Colloquium-Presentations.pdf
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Optimal timing of multiple investment decisions in a wood value chain: A real options approach
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Economic feasibility studies for Carbon Capture and Utilization technologies: a tutorial review
- Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU) involves the capture and use of CO2 as a resource to create valuable products. The competitiveness of various CCU technologies has been investigated frequently resulting in a variety of economic feasibility studies and economic indicators. This study performs a tutorial review, in which practical guidance is given on the implementation of Techno-Economic Assessments (TEAs) for chemical CCU technologies. The tutorial review maps the differences in the methods and assumptions of economic feasibility studies for CCU technologies and advises how these studies can be improved in the future. A TEA framework, drafted by the CCU research community, is used as a benchmark in this review, to allow for objective comparisons between various economic feasibility studies. The four phases of an exhaustive TEA are (I) goal and scope, (II) data inventory, (III) calculation of indicators and (IV) interpretation. The tutorial review reveals that economic feasibility studies for chemical CCU technologies can and should be improved in various manners. Phases I and II are often skipped or incomplete. In Phase III, a very diverse indicator set is observed, which hampers comparability across CCU technologies. Phase IV, the interpretation of results, is often missing in the literature set or lacks thorough uncertainty and sensitivity analyses. The comparison with the TEA framework revealed the diversity in assumptions and methodological choices in the literature set. These findings suggest that future economic feasibility studies should be made in a more standardized way to improve both the quality and comparability of economic feasibility studies. Four improvements to the TEA framework are suggested: (i) focussing more on the impact of technical parameters in sensitivity analyses, (ii) adapting the assessment to the TRL of the technology, (iii) implementing ROA in the TEA and (iv) integrating an environmental assessment or LCA with the TEA. Further research is needed to investigate how Real Options Theory can be integrated into conventional TEA frameworks to analyse the investment decision in CCU technologies in a dynamic setting.
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Explaining Uncertainty Avoidance in Meciaprojects: Resource Constraints, Strategic Behaviour, or Institutions?
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Leasing out unused meeting room capacity to reduce future office space needs: A case study of The Hague, Netherlands
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The Role of Industrial and Market Symbiosis in Stimulating CO2 Emission Reductions
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Stepwise Investment in Circular Plastics Under the Presence of Policy Uncertainty
