Search publications of the members of the Royal Belgian institute of natural Sciences
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The Dispersal of the Domestic Cat: Paleogenetic and Zooarcheological Evidence
- Domestication is one of the most interesting and challenging processes in human and animal evolution. The fundamental change in subsistence strategies from hunting and gathering to farming that took place for the first time in the Levant more than ten thousand years ago profoundly changed human culture and biology, and set the groundwork for population growth, migrations, the rise of civilizations, and wealth disparities (Bocquet-Appel 2011; Gignoux, Henn, and Mountain 2011; Kohler et al. 2017).
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Records of the slugs Ariolimax columbianus (Ariolimacidae) and Prophysaon foliolatum (Arionidae) imported into Sweden
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Dierlijke resten
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International assessment of priority environmental issues for land-based and offshore wind energy development
- Abstract Non-technical summary A substantial increase in wind energy deployment worldwide is required to help achieve international targets for decreasing global carbon emissions and limiting the impacts of climate change. In response to global concerns regarding the environmental effects of wind energy, the International Energy Agency Wind Technical Collaborative Program initiated Task 34 – Working Together to Resolve Environmental Effects of Wind Energy or WREN. As part of WREN, this study performed an international assessment with the global wind energy and environmental community to determine priority environmental issues over the next 5‒10 years and help support collaborative interactions among researchers, developers, regulators, and stakeholders. Technical summary A systematic assessment was performed using feedback from the international community to identify priority environmental issues for land-based and offshore wind energy development. Given the global nature of wind energy development, feedback was of interest from all countries where such development is underway or planned to help meet United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change targets. The assessment prioritized environmental issues over the next 5–10 years associated with wind energy development and received a total of 294 responses from 28 countries. For land-based wind, the highest-ranked issues included turbine collision risk for volant species (birds and bats), cumulative effects on species and ecosystems, and indirect effects such as avoidance and displacement. For offshore wind, the highest-ranked issues included cumulative effects, turbine collision risk, underwater noise (e.g. marine mammals and fish), and displacement. Emerging considerations for these priorities include potential application to future technologies (e.g. larger turbines and floating turbines), new stressors and species in frontier regions, and cumulative effects for multiple projects at a regional scale. For both land-based and offshore wind, effectiveness of minimization measures (e.g. detection and deterrence technologies) and costs for monitoring, minimization, and mitigation were identified as overarching challenges. Social media summary Turbine collisions and cumulative effects among the international environmental priorities for wind energy development.
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The EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030: Opportunities and challenges on the path towards biodiversity recovery
- The European Union (EU) has committed to an ambitious biodiversity recovery plan in its Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and the Green Deal. These policies aim to halt biodiversity loss and move towards sustainable development, focusing on restoring degraded habitats, extending the network of protected areas (PAs), and improving the effectiveness of management, governance, and funding. The achievement of conservation goals must be founded on understanding past successes and failures. Here, we summarise the strengths and weaknesses of past EU biodiversity conservation policies and practices and explore future opportunities and challenges. We focus on four main aspects: i) coordination among and within the EU Member States, ii) integration of biodiversity conservation into socio-economic sectors, iii) adequacy and sufficiency of funds, and iv) governance and stakeholder participation.Whilst past conservation efforts have benefitted from common rules across the EU and funding mechanisms, they have failed at operationalizing coordination within and across the Member States, integrating biodiversity conservation into other sectoral policies, adequately funding and effectively enforcing management, and facilitating stakeholder participation in decision-making. Future biodiversity conservation would benefit from an extended and better-managed network of PAs, additional novel funding opportunities, including the private sector, and enhanced co-governance. However, it will be critical to find sustainable solutions to potential conflicts between conservation goals and other socio-economic objectives and to resolve inconsistencies across sectoral policies.
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The EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030: Opportunities and challenges on the path towards biodiversity recovery
- The European Union (EU) has committed to an ambitious biodiversity recovery plan in its Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and the Green Deal. These policies aim to halt biodiversity loss and move towards sustainable development, focusing on restoring degraded habitats, extending the network of protected areas (PAs), and improving the effectiveness of management, governance, and funding. The achievement of conservation goals must be founded on understanding past successes and failures. Here, we summarise the strengths and weaknesses of past EU biodiversity conservation policies and practices and explore future opportunities and challenges. We focus on four main aspects: i) coordination among and within the EU Member States, ii) integration of biodiversity conservation into socio-economic sectors, iii) adequacy and sufficiency of funds, and iv) governance and stakeholder participation.Whilst past conservation efforts have benefitted from common rules across the EU and funding mechanisms, they have failed at operationalizing coordination within and across the Member States, integrating biodiversity conservation into other sectoral policies, adequately funding and effectively enforcing management, and facilitating stakeholder participation in decision-making. Future biodiversity conservation would benefit from an extended and better-managed network of PAs, additional novel funding opportunities, including the private sector, and enhanced co-governance. However, it will be critical to find sustainable solutions to potential conflicts between conservation goals and other socio-economic objectives and to resolve inconsistencies across sectoral policies.
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Energie (inclusief kabels en leidingen)
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Energy (including cables and pipes)
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Effect of pile driving on the seasonal and geographical distribution of the harbour porpoise (Phocoena phoecoena) in the Belgian Part of the North Sea
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Terms of Reference of the MARPOL Annex VI Working Groups (MAVI WGs) on strategic and operational aspects (MAVI-SOWG) and technical aspects (MAVI-TWG). Document presented by the co-convenors of the MAVI SOWG (France and the Netherlands) and the MAVI TWG (B
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Draft report on Tour d’Horizon 2022 and multi-annual TdH trends. Document presented by Belgium at the Thirty-fifth Meeting of Bonn Agreement Contracting Parties, Dordrecht (Netherlands): 19-21 September 2023, 14pp.
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Update on cooperating on surveillance of the requirements of Annex VI of MARPOL from the MARPOL Annex VI Working Groups (MAVI WGs). Document presented by the co-convenors of the MAVI SOWG (France and the Netherlands) and the MAVI TWG (Bel
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Update from the MARPOL Annex VI Working Groups on strategic and operational issues (MAVI SOWG) and on technical issues (MAVI-TWG). Document presented by the co-convenors of the SOWG (France and The Netherlands) and the TWG (Belgium and Germany) at the Mee
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Updated concept for a comprehensive BA MARPOL Annex VI project outline related to strategical-operational and technical aspects of MAVI monitoring activities. Document presented by the co-convenors of the SOWG (France and The Netherlands) and the TWG (Bel
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Recommendations from the MARPOL Annex VI Working Groups on regulations regarding air pollution from ships. Document presented by the co-convenors of the SOWG (France and the Netherlands) and the TWG (Belgium and Germany) at the Meeting of the Working Grou
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Biomonitoring of lakes using macroinvertebrates: recommended indices and metrics for use in West Africa and developing countries
- AbstraitLes systèmes lacustres subissent de fortes pressions qui ont un impact sur leur biodiversité et les services écosystémiques associés. Cela est particulièrement grave en Afrique de l’Ouest et dans les pays en développement, qui manquent de ressources et de capacités techniques pour l’élimination des déchets, la purification de l’eau, ainsi que de capacités scientifiques suffisantes pour la biosurveillance et la gestion intégrée. La préservation, la surveillance et l'amélioration de la qualité des lacs dans ces pays revêtent cependant une importance primordiale. Dans les pays développés, un ensemble d'indicateurs et d'indices multimétriques ont été intégrés à la biosurveillance et à l'évaluation des lacs. Nous évaluons ici les nombreuses procédures, mesures et indices utilisant les macroinvertébrés comme indicateurs de la qualité des lacs et évaluons leur applicabilité dans les lacs d’Afrique de l’Ouest et, plus généralement, dans les pays en développement. Nous proposons un cadre de suivi basé sur les macroinvertébrés adapté à ces pays, incluant des recommandations pour développer de nouveaux indices et adapter les scores de tolérance des taxons aux conditions locales. Ces travaux soulignent l’importance des macroinvertébrés pour la biosurveillance de la santé des lacs dans les lacs d’Afrique de l’Ouest et, plus généralement, dans les pays en développement.
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3D model related to the publication: Niche partitioning of the European carnivorous mammals during the paleogene
- The present 3D Dataset contains the 3D model analyzed in the following publication: Sol´e et al. (2018), Niche partitioning of the European carnivorous mammals during the paleogene. Palaios. https://doi.org/10.2110/palo.2018.022
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A large Late Miocene cetotheriid (Cetacea, Mysticeti) from the Netherlands clarifies the status of Tranatocetidae
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Shallow-rooted mud volcanism in Lake Baikal
- Lake Baikal is the only freshwater basin containing sediments with gas hydrate accumulations, some of which are associated with mud volcano activity. Twenty-two mud volcanoes have already been identified in different areas of Lake Baikal, but the formation process and source depth remained unknown due to a lack of conclusive evidences. Here we discuss a set of geological and geophysical data to report the discovery of the hydrate-bearing Akadem mud volcanic complex (AMVC) on the Academician Ridge in central Lake Baikal. The obtained results allowed for the first time to concretely estimate the source depth of the mobilized fluids and sediments. Analysis of diatom skeletons present in the mud breccia revealed that the oldest diatom specimen is Cyclotella Iris et var. This specie is characteristic for a short age interval ranging between 4.8 and 5.6 Ma. The same diatom was also detected between 230 and 310 m below the lake floor (mblf) in the borehole BDP-98 drilled near the AMVC. Combining biostratigraphic correlation and seismostratigraphy, it is estimated that the same interval is located at 200–300 mblf below the mud volcanic field. The elevated heat flow measured at AMVC indicates that the original bottom gas hydrate stability (regionally located at ∼212 mblf) is currently shifted upwards of ∼100 m. The acquired data are consistent with a scenario envisaging the rise of warm fluids throughout the mud volcano complex zone. We suggest that deep fluids migration could have initiated the gas hydrate dissociation and, in turn, rapidly generated over pressured shallow mud chambers. The ultimate piercing and triggering of the mud volcanoes activity resulted in the eruption of mud breccia and formation of densely packed crater sites in the study area. The depicted scenario can be applied to many mud volcanoes in Lake Baikal where similar anomalous heat flow conditions have been measured. These findings also emphasize that the genetic association between gas hydrate dissociation and the initiation of eruptive activity explains numerous peculiarities of the “Baikal” sedimentary volcanism (e.g. lack of lithified rocks among mud breccia clasts, gas hydrates, moderately elevated heat flow). This type of mud volcanism differentiates from the typically deeply rooted piercements observed worldwide in mature (marine) sedimentary basins. Ultimately our findings open a new prospective for mud volcano research worldwide, emphasizing that gas hydrates are not just one of the common features for sedimentary volcanism, but may have an active role as a triggering mechanism for the process itself.
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Unravelling the high-altitude Nansen blue ice field meteorite trap (East Antarctica) and implications for regional palaeo-conditions
- Antarctic blue ice zones, the most productive locations for meteorite recovery on Earth, contain old ice that is easily accessible and available in large quantities. However, the mechanisms behind these meteorite traps remain a topic of ongoing debate. Here, we propose an interdisciplinary approach to improve our understanding of a meteorite trap in Dronning Maud Land (East Antarctica) on the Nansen blue ice field meteorite trap (2600–3100 m above sea level), where more than half of the Asuka meteorites have been collected. Based on 185 surface blue ice samples, one of the largest observed spatial patterns in oxygen isotopic variation to date is found. Relying on meteorites for which the terrestrial ages are determined using 14C and 36Cl, this surface ice is interpreted to date from the Last Interglacial up to the present-day. By combining state-of-the-art satellite derived surface velocities, surface mass balance modelling and ice flow modelling, we estimate that about 75–85% of the meteorites found on the ice field were supplied by ice flow after entering the ice sheet in an accumulation area of a few hundred square kilometres located south (upstream) of the ice field. Less than 0.4 new meteorites per year are supplied to the ice field through ice flow, suggesting that the hundreds of meteorites found 25 years after the first visit to this ice field mostly represent meteorites that were previously not found, rather than newly supplied meteorites. By combining these findings, the infall rate of meteorites from space is estimated, which is in line with values from the literature, but situated at the higher end of the range. A comparison of the oxygen isotopic variation of the surface blue ice to that of the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA), Dronning Maud Land (EDML) ice core (located 750 km to the west, at the same elevation), suggests that the regional changes in topography have been relatively limited since the Last Interglacial, supporting theories of an overall stable East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) over this time period.
