Search publications of the members of the Royal Belgian institute of natural Sciences
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Trophic ecology of ants and spiders along a wide elevational gradient in Papua New Guinea revealed by stable isotopes
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Organizing large-scale insect inventories in the tropics: lessons from IBISCA projects
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DNA barcoding of ants from the Galápagos Islands (Ecuador)
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Contrasting the distribution of butterflies and termites in plantations and tropical forests.
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Ant mosaics in tropical forests
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Insects of Mount Wilhelm, Papua New Guinea
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Trophic ecology of ants and spiders along a wide elevational gradient in Papua New Guinea revealed by stable isotopes
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Spatio-temporal variation in ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) communities in leaf-litter and soil layers in a premontane tropical forest
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The dynamics of ant mosaics in tropical rainforests characterized using the Self-Organizing Map algorithm
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Epiphytic myrmecophyte distribution along an altitudinal gradient in Papua New Guinea and their role in ant mosaics
- Epiphytic myrmecophyte distribution along an altitudinal gradient in Papua New Guinea and their role in ant mosaics M. Leponce1 , J. Jacquemin1 & P. Klimes2,3 1Biodiversity Monitoring & Assessment, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, Belgium (Maurice.Leponce@naturalsciences.be); 2 Biology Centre of ASCR, Czech Republic; 3Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic. In Papua New Guinea, ants of the genera Philidris, Anonychomyrma, Monomorium are found in epiphytic myrmecophytes of the genera Myrmecodia and Hydnophytum. Several myrmecophytes are found in the same tree and accomodate a high ant population. This omnipresence in some tree canopies allow these ants to be potential actors of ant mosaics. Ants mosaics refer to mutual exclusion of numerically dominant ants from tree tops and are a common feature of tree plantations and lowland tropical forests. Our aim was to verify if ants associated with myrmecophytes were found co-occurring with typical dominant ants (e.g. Oecophylla smaragdina and Crematogaster polita) and if the interaction between dominant canopy ants was affected by elevation. We mapped the distribution of numerically dominant ant colonies, often spreading on several neighbour trees, in ¼ ha plots distributed between 200 and 2700m asl along Mt Wilhelm, Papua New Guinea. Ants were captured at tuna/honey baits spread along tree trunks from the ground to the top of canopy trees. Epiphytic myrmecophyte were collected by climbing or by using a balloon. In lowland forests (200-700m) Crematogaster polita large carton nests were omnipresent and often formed supercolonies. Other major players were Oecophylla smaragdina nesting in leaves and Anonychomyrma cf scrutator nesting in live plant tissues. Ants associated with myrmecophytes were never found co-occuring with these dominant ants. At mid-elevation (1200-1700m) dominant ants were Anonychomyrma spp. and two species found in myrmecophytes (Monomorium sp. nov. aff. edentatum and Philidris cf. cordata). At 2200m ants found in the canopy (e.g. Ancyridris, Pheidole) were probably living in suspended soil. No ants were observed in the canopy above 2700m. With increasing elevation it seems that there is a progressive filtering of the most abundant arboreal ant species. Typical territorial ants, living in carton or leaf nests are eliminated first. At mid-elevation epiphytic myrmecophytes allow to maintain high ant populations in trees. At high elevation only species nesting in suspended organic matter remain.
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Land module of Our Planet Reviewed - Papua New Guinea: aims, methods and first taxonomical results
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Neogene and Quaternary fossil remains of beaked whales (Cetacea, Odontoceti, Ziphiidae) from deep-sea deposits off Crozet and Kerguelen Islands
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Usages et transformation de l’hématite dans le Néolithique ancien d’Europe du Nord-Ouest
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Provenance, exploitation et utilisation de l’hématite oolithique au Néolithique ancien en Belgique : contextes et problématiques
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Caractérisation physico-chimique et recherche des provenances des hématites oolithiques des sites du Néolithique ancien de Hesbaye (Province de Liège, Belgique) et des sites néolithiques des sources de la Dendre (Province du Hainaut, Belgique)
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Oxygen and sulfur stable isotope ratios of Late Devonian vertebrates trace the relative salinity of their aquatic environments
- Late Devonian aquatic environments hosted the fin-to-limb transition in vertebrates. Upper Devonian (ca. 365–360 Ma) strata in Pennsylvania, USA, preserve a diversity of fishes and tetrapods in coastal marine to fluvial depositional environments, making this region ideal for investigating the ecology and evolution of Late Devonian vertebrates. A key unresolved issue has been reconstructing the specific aquatic habitats that hosted various vertebrates during this period. Specifically, the salinity of environments spanning fresh to shallow marine water is difficult to discern from sedimentological and paleontological analyses alone. Here, we analyze rare earth elements and yttrium (REY) as well as stable oxygen and sulfur isotope compositions (δ18O, δ34S) in fossil vertebrate bioapatite from late Famennian (ca. 362–360 Ma) strata of the Catskill and Lock Haven formations in the Appalachian Basin, USA, to determine the relative salinity of their aquatic environments. These results confirm the ecological euryhalinity of several taxa (Bothriolepis sp., tristichopterids, and Holoptychius sp.). Our results are the first demonstrating that some early tetrapod species occupied unequivocally freshwater habitats by late Famennian time (ca. 362–360 Ma). Our study shows that integrating sedimentological and paleontological data with combined oxygen and sulfur isotope analysis allows precise tracing of the relative salinity of vertebrate habitats deep in the past.
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Redescription of three fossil baleen whale skulls from the Miocene of Portugal reveals new cetotheriid phylogenetic insights
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A new monachine seal (Monachinae, Phocidae, Mammalia) from the Miocene of Cerro La Bruja (Ica department, Peru)
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First report in the fossil record of a shark tooth embedded in a pinniped bone
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Towards a paleoecological and paleogeographical model of ammonoids during Deccan volcanism
