Search publications of the members of the Royal Belgian institute of natural Sciences
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Towards investigating the effect of fining and hardening of marine coastal areas on ecosystem functioning in the Belgian part of the North Sea (BPNS)
- Sediments and the inhabiting macrofauna play an important role in the functioning of coastal marine environments. Human activities in these environments result in two obvious pressures on the sediment: hardening from the installation of offshore wind farms (OWF) and fining in the vicinity of sand extraction sites and in OWF. This study is part of the FaCE-It project and aims at understanding the impacts of those pressures on biogeochemical cycling and on the food web structure. In order to understand benthic ecosystem functioning in different types of sediment, we will measure nutrient fluxes in closed-core incubations sampled along a gradient from fine to coarse sediments, including sediments subjected to fining. Bio- and physical irrigation will be quantified by adding a bromide tracer to the overlying water and following the decreasing concentration over time. With those data, we will estimate the total flux of degradable organic carbon deposited at the sediment surface, its degradation rate and transformation and assess the effect of bioturbation and bio irrigation on benthic ecosystem functioning. Along the same sediment gradient, we will study the macrobenthic food web using stable isotope analysis. Furthermore, the overall food web will be investigated at 3 stations characterized by fine sediment, coarse sediment and an OWF to compare the food web complexity in areas with and without OWFs. These data will finally be used to build a quantitative food web using linear inverse modelling (LIM). To constrain this model, individual respiration rate measurements and pulse chase experiments will be conducted. This combined approach will allow assessing the effect of fining and hardening of marine coastal areas on important ecological processes on the scale of the BPNS.
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An incredibly massive ancient whale skeleton reveals a new way to become a giant
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Kowieria alveoformis gen. nov. sp. nov., a new heterosporous lycophyte from the Latest Devonian of Southern Africa
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Lilingostrobus chaloneri gen. et sp. nov., a Late Devonian woody lycopsid from Hunan, China
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Built near the sea, buried by the river: The Poseidon Sanctuary of Akovitika
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Geoarchäologische Studie über das Poseidon-Heiligtum von Akovitika in Messenien
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Contextualising skeletal analyses: combining burial context and paleodemographic data to study the social composition on St.Rombout's cemetery, Mechelen (10th-18th centuries AD)
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Archeo-antropologische studie van de menselijke resten uit de grafkelder van Anselm en Margareta Adornes in de Jeruzalemkapel, Brugge (rapport 2023-2)
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Terreininterventie en archeo-antropologische detailstudie van menselijke resten uit WO I afkomstig van een toevalsvondst aan de Haezeweidestraat in Langemark-Poelkapelle (2021) (rapport 2023-3)
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Terreininterventie en archeo-antropologische detailstudie van menselijke resten uit WO I afkomstig van een toevalsvondst aan de Wallemolenstraat in Passendale (2022-2023) (2023-4)
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Archeo-antropologische detailstudie van menselijke resten uit WO I afkomstig van een toevalsvondst aan de Oude Bellewaerdestraat in Ieper (2018) (2023-5)
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Archeo-antropologisch assessment van de menselijke resten van de opgraving “Brugge-Eekhoudpoort (2023)” (2023-6)
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Diagenesis of Late Cretaceous to Paleocene carbonates in the Rur Valley Graben (Molenbeersel borehole, NE-Belgium)
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De Elvenschans te Moelingen, een thermale bron in Limburg bedreigd? Verduidelijking vanuit nieuwe geologische prospecties
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Burial history and thermal evolution of Westphalian coal-bearing strata in the Campine Basin (NE Belgium)
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Cave volume computed on the behaviour of a blowing well (Tournai basin, W. Belgium)
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Influence of an urbanization gradient on the vertical stratification of arboreal ants in green areas
- EVALUATION OF DIFFERENT TAXONOMIC LEVELS AS SURROGATES OF ANT DIVERSITY IN GREEN AREAS IN AN URBANIZED ENVIRONMENT E. B. A. KOCH1, T. S. MELO2,3,4, A. R. S. ANDRADE2,3, M. LEPONCE5 & J. H. C. DELABIE2,4 1Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia e Evolução, Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana (UEFS), CEP: 44.036-900 - Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brazil, e-mail: elmoborges@gmail.com; 2Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia, Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA), Salvador, Bahia, Brazil; 3Centro de Ecologia e Conservação Animal, Universidade Católica do Salvador (UCSal), Salvador, Bahia, Brazil; 4Laboratório de Mirmecologia, Convênio Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz (UESC)/Comissão Executiva do Plano da Lavoura Cacaueira (CEPLAC), Ilhéus, Bahia, Brazil; 5Biodiversity Monitoring & Assessment, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Bruxelas, Belgium. In cities located in environments of high biological importance, urbanization leads to changes in biotic diversity, while monitoring these changes can be difficult. Studies have pointed to the use of metrics that replace species as an alternative. Surrogate models are easily determined measures of biodiversity that correlate strongly with species richness and with what you want to investigate, being useful for detecting or monitoring environmental changes. The use of higher taxonomic levels has been applied to groups of megadiverse organisms, such as arthropods, since difficulties in identifying species are predictable. The aim of this study was to evaluate the practicality of using taxonomic diversity of ants as a surrogate of green area coverage in an urban environment. Four levels of "surrogate resolutions" (subfamily, genus, indicator taxa, and intermediate resolution) were assessed to the taxonomic diversity of ants across three levels of urban green areas (Small = 0 to 35%
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Importance of green area rate nesting site and exotic species on native ants in an urban environment
- EVALUATION OF DIFFERENT TAXONOMIC LEVELS AS SURROGATES OF ANT DIVERSITY IN GREEN AREAS IN AN URBANIZED ENVIRONMENT E. B. A. KOCH1, T. S. MELO2,3,4, A. R. S. ANDRADE2,3, M. LEPONCE5 & J. H. C. DELABIE2,4 1Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia e Evolução, Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana (UEFS), CEP: 44.036-900 - Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brazil, e-mail: elmoborges@gmail.com; 2Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia, Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA), Salvador, Bahia, Brazil; 3Centro de Ecologia e Conservação Animal, Universidade Católica do Salvador (UCSal), Salvador, Bahia, Brazil; 4Laboratório de Mirmecologia, Convênio Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz (UESC)/Comissão Executiva do Plano da Lavoura Cacaueira (CEPLAC), Ilhéus, Bahia, Brazil; 5Biodiversity Monitoring & Assessment, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Bruxelas, Belgium. In cities located in environments of high biological importance, urbanization leads to changes in biotic diversity, while monitoring these changes can be difficult. Studies have pointed to the use of metrics that replace species as an alternative. Surrogate models are easily determined measures of biodiversity that correlate strongly with species richness and with what you want to investigate, being useful for detecting or monitoring environmental changes. The use of higher taxonomic levels has been applied to groups of megadiverse organisms, such as arthropods, since difficulties in identifying species are predictable. The aim of this study was to evaluate the practicality of using taxonomic diversity of ants as a surrogate of green area coverage in an urban environment. Four levels of "surrogate resolutions" (subfamily, genus, indicator taxa, and intermediate resolution) were assessed to the taxonomic diversity of ants across three levels of urban green areas (Small = 0 to 35%
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Evaluation of different taxonomic levels as surrogates of ant diversity in green areas in an urbanized environment
- EVALUATION OF DIFFERENT TAXONOMIC LEVELS AS SURROGATES OF ANT DIVERSITY IN GREEN AREAS IN AN URBANIZED ENVIRONMENT E. B. A. KOCH1, T. S. MELO2,3,4, A. R. S. ANDRADE2,3, M. LEPONCE5 & J. H. C. DELABIE2,4 1Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia e Evolução, Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana (UEFS), CEP: 44.036-900 - Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brazil, e-mail: elmoborges@gmail.com; 2Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia, Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA), Salvador, Bahia, Brazil; 3Centro de Ecologia e Conservação Animal, Universidade Católica do Salvador (UCSal), Salvador, Bahia, Brazil; 4Laboratório de Mirmecologia, Convênio Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz (UESC)/Comissão Executiva do Plano da Lavoura Cacaueira (CEPLAC), Ilhéus, Bahia, Brazil; 5Biodiversity Monitoring & Assessment, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Bruxelas, Belgium. In cities located in environments of high biological importance, urbanization leads to changes in biotic diversity, while monitoring these changes can be difficult. Studies have pointed to the use of metrics that replace species as an alternative. Surrogate models are easily determined measures of biodiversity that correlate strongly with species richness and with what you want to investigate, being useful for detecting or monitoring environmental changes. The use of higher taxonomic levels has been applied to groups of megadiverse organisms, such as arthropods, since difficulties in identifying species are predictable. The aim of this study was to evaluate the practicality of using taxonomic diversity of ants as a surrogate of green area coverage in an urban environment. Four levels of "surrogate resolutions" (subfamily, genus, indicator taxa, and intermediate resolution) were assessed to the taxonomic diversity of ants across three levels of urban green areas (Small = 0 to 35%
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A global approach for natural history museum collections
- Integration of the world’s natural history collections can provide a resource for decision-makers Over the past three centuries, people have collected objects and specimens and placed them in natural history museums throughout the world. Taken as a whole, this global collection is the physical basis for our understanding of the natural world and our place in it, an unparalleled source of information that is directly relevant to issues as diverse as wildlife conservation, climate change, pandemic preparedness, food security, invasive species, rare minerals, and the bioeconomy (1). Strategic coordination and use of the global collection has the potential to focus future collecting and guide decisions that are relevant to the future of humanity and biodiversity. To begin to map the aggregate holdings of the global collection, we describe here a simple and fast method to assess the contents of any natural history museum, and report results based on our assessment of 73 of the world’s largest natural history museums and herbaria from 28 countries.
