Search publications of the members of the Royal Belgian institute of natural Sciences
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Life on every stone: Characterizing benthic communities from scour protection layers of offshore wind farms in the southern North Sea
- The scour protection layer (SPL) is a layer of large stones placed around man-made structures in the marine environment, preventing sediment scouring while also providing new hard substrate and potentially increasing the structural complexity of the original environment. This fosters development of diverse benthic communities, supporting high abundance of organisms. Future SPLs are therefore a potential tool for the ecological enhancement of degrading marine habitats following the principles of nature-inclusive design. Yet, factors that shape the benthic communities on SPLs are poorly understood. Here, we analysed existing data from SPLs from offshore wind farms and a gas platform in the southern North Sea to determine how SPL characteristics affect the biofouling community structure. We combined this analysis with an in-situ experiment testing for the effects of habitat complexity on SPL communities. Our results demonstrate that abundant and diverse communities are present on all SPLs. On a regional scale, communities are mainly affected by depth and location. Increasing habitat complexity has significant and positive effects on species richness yet was non-significant for biomass and abundance of the biofouling community. If applied thoughtfully, nature-inclusive design of the SPL habitat, including manipulation of the physical complexity of the structure, can effectively promote biodiversity.
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Indicators for ecological carrying capacity of bivalve and seaweed aquaculture
- Within the framework of Ecosystem Approach to Aquaculture (EAA), ecological carrying capacity (ECC) is a key concept that helps to determine the upper limit of production without compromising ecosystem functioning. The implementation of ECC is complex as ECC differs between type of farms and location and standardised methods should be developed for management. There is therefore a clear need for operational indicators. The objectives of this paper were: (1) to carry out a systematic literature review on shellfish and seaweed aquaculture-environment interactions to list the most used environmental indicators, (2) to classify the indicators according to the effects they measure (i.e., benthic, water quality, food web interactions, cultured organism health, resource use) and the scale at which they are applied, and (3) to assess their potential based on four indicator criteria categories: sensitivity, accuracy and precision, feasibility and utility, and ecosystem-level scalability. Overall, indicators describing benthic effects were the most highly cited and scored. Indicators identified for bivalve and seaweed culture were discussed and compared to previous work on salmon aquaculture indicators to highlight similarities and differences across trophic levels. In addition, questions related to the challenges of ECC indicators implementation were presented to a panel of experts. The scoring and consultation provided the source of discussion on environmental management consistent with EAA.
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Diversity and evolution of African Grass Rats (Muridae: Arvicanthis)—From radiation in East Africa to repeated colonization of northwestern and southeastern savannas
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Molecular taxonomy of Crocidura species (Eulipotyphla: Soricidae) in a key biogeographical region for African shrews, Nigeria
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Conserving African biosphere reserves: a workshop on the valuation of ecosystem services in Man and the Biosphere Reserves
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Shrews (Soricidae) of the lowland forests around Kisangani (DR Congo)
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Terrestrial contributions to Afrotropical aquatic food webs: The Congo River case
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Genetic variation of the most abundant forest‐dwelling rodents in Central Africa (Praomys jacksoni complex): Evidence for Pleistocene refugia in both montane and lowland forests
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Annotated Iconography of the fossil Chondrichthyan Fishes in the collection of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels
- This book is an extensive iconography of all types of material of Elasmobranchii (mostly teeth) of which the type specimens were found in the collections of the RBINS, in total there are 119 species. Unfortunately, 11 type series were incomplete and 17 were no longer found in the collection at all. The latter are listed in the book, but of course not depicted. It is often about Holocephali from the Paleozoic, but also about some species from the Cenozoic (e.g. Mustelus vanderhoeft, the type of which was never deposited by the author in the RBINS). All species are listed in systematic order, according to the original name, followed by the collection number. The authors have searched the original literature to the type locality and the type stratum as they were specified at the time. Since many species were defined in the19th and early20th centuries, much of that data was outdated, but they were completely revised and adapted to modern nomenclature, a titanic work. Furthermore, the original publication is given species by species and the modern systematic status is given in the notes. The photographs are of high quality and often with more views per copy so that more details are now visible than was possible in older publications. Usually one page per species is provided. It contains an extensive bibliography and the index (with both the old and modern species names) makes searching easier. Thanks to the excellent iconography, the book can also be used as a determination work, but of course only for the types in the RBINS collection.
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A new genus of coccolepidid actinopterygian from the Cretaceous Iguanodon-bearing locality of Bernissart, Belgium.
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A horny pycnodont fish (Pycnodontiformes) in the continental Middle Jurassic (Stanleyville Formation) of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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New data on Pleuropholis decastroi (Teleostei, Pleuropholidae), a “pholidophoriform” fish from the Lower Cretaceous of the Eurafrican Mesogea
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The pycnodont fishes from the Lower Cretaceous of the Capo d’Orlando, near Castellammare di Stabia (Naples, Campania, southern Italy), with the description of the new genus Costapycnodus
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Osteology and relationships of Majokia brasseuri (Teleostei, Majokiiformes nov. ord.) from the continental Middle Jurassic (Stanleyville Formation) of Kisangani (Democratic Republic of Congo)
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Osteology and relationships of Cavinichthys pietrarojae gen. and sp. nov. (Teleostei, Crossognathiformes, Pachyrhizodontidae) from the marine Lower Cretaceous of Pietraroja (Campania, southern Italy)
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New data on the fossil fish Tergestinia sorbinii (Pycnodontiformes) from the Late Cretaceous of Trebeciano, Trieste (Italy)
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One to host them all: genomics of the diverse bacterial endosymbionts of the spider Oedothorax gibbosus
- Bacterial endosymbionts of the groups Wolbachia , Cardinium and Rickettsiaceae are well known for their diverse effects on their arthropod hosts, ranging from mutualistic relationships to reproductive phenotypes. Here, we analysed a unique system in which the dwarf spider Oedothorax gibbosus is co-infected with up to five different endosymbionts affiliated with Wolbachia , ‘Candidatus Tisiphia’ (formerly Torix group Rickettsia ), Cardinium and Rhabdochlamydia . Using short-read genome sequencing data, we show that the endosymbionts are heterogeneously distributed among O. gibbosus populations and are frequently found co-infecting spider individuals. To study this intricate host–endosymbiont system on a genome-resolved level, we used long-read sequencing to reconstruct closed genomes of the Wolbachia , ‘Ca. Tisiphia’ and Cardinium endosymbionts. We provide insights into the ecology and evolution of the endosymbionts and shed light on the interactions with their spider host. We detected high quantities of transposable elements in all endosymbiont genomes and provide evidence that ancestors of the Cardinium , ‘Ca. Tisiphia’ and Wolbachia endosymbionts have co-infected the same hosts in the past. Our findings contribute to broadening our knowledge about endosymbionts infecting one of the largest animal phyla on Earth and show the usefulness of transposable elements as an evolutionary ‘contact-tracing’ tool.
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Meules et aiguisoirs de deux occupations distinctes à « Nereth 2 » (Baelen).
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Fluorite
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Geological context and tectonostratigraphic units in Belgium, and their relationship to the main metallotects
