Search publications of the members of the Royal Belgian institute of natural Sciences
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The Freshwater Information Platform: An online network supporting freshwater biodiversity research and data publishing
- Species distribution data are crucial for understanding biodiversity dynamics and the underlying drivers. For freshwaters, which cover only a small proportion of the world's surface, but host a large variety of species, knowledge on species occurrences is extremely important as they are among the most endangered ecosystems globally. However, a huge body of data gathered by scientists and water managers is currently difficult to access: systematic data publishing practices have not been fully adopted yet and data embedded in scientific papers and research project websites are often challenging to extract. At the same time, data and knowledge generated through publically-funded research or monitoring programmes are considered a common good. The Freshwater Information Platform (FIP) aims at pooling freshwater related research information from multiple projects and initiatives to make it easily accessible for scientists, water managers, conservationists and the interested public. The FIP consists of several major components, three of which form its “data publication unit”: The Freshwater Metadatabase (1) is an online tool where data characterising and documenting actual datasets can be entered in a simple way. With one more mouseclick these metadata can then be published as open access articles in the connected Freshwater Metadata Journal. The second part of the unit is the Freshwater Biodiversity Data Portal (2), where we aim to mobilise and publish the connected freshwater biodiversity data (occurrence records) through GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility). The use of collected datasets for large-scale analyses and models is demonstrated in the Global Freshwater Biodiversity Atlas (3) that publishes interactive online maps featuring research results on freshwater biodiversity, threats and conservation priorities. Here, we focus on introducing these components as tools to streamline open access freshwater data publication, arguing it will improve the capacity to protect and manage freshwater biodiversity in the face of global change. We further present linkages to and cooperations with other key initiatives in the field, namely the "Alliance for Freshwater Life" as well as "FreshwaterBON".
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The Freshwater Information Platform: a global online network providing data, tools and resources for science and policy support
- Freshwaters are among the most complex, dynamic, and diverse ecosystems globally. Despite their small share of the earth’s surface (less than 1%) they are home to over 10% of all known animal species. Biodiversity decrease in general and freshwater biodiversity decline in particular have recently received increasing attention, and various policy instruments are now targeting the conservation, protection and enhancement of biodiversity and associated ecosystem services. Surveillance programs as well as a variety of research projects have been producing a tremendous amount of freshwater-related information. Though there have been various attempts to build infrastructures for online collection of such data, tools and reports, they often provide only limited access to resources that can readily be extracted for conducting large scale analyses. Here, we present the Freshwater Information Platform, an open system of relevant freshwater biodiversity-related information. We provide a comprehensive overview of the platform’s core components, highlight their values, present options for their use, and discuss future developments. This is complemented by information on the platform’s current management structure, options for contributing data and research results and an outlook for the future.
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Unexpected fish diversity gradients in the Amazon basin
- Using the most comprehensive fish occurrence database, we evaluated the importance of ecological and historical drivers in diversity patterns of subdrainage basins across the Amazon system. Linear models reveal the influence of climatic conditions, habitat size and sub-basin isolation on species diversity. Unexpectedly, the species richness model also highlighted a negative upriver-downriver gradient, contrary to predictions of increasing richness at more downriver locations along fluvial gradients. This reverse gradient may be linked to the history of the Amazon drainage network, which, after isolation as western and eastern basins throughout the Miocene, only began flowing eastward 1–9 million years (Ma) ago. Our results suggest that the main center of fish diversity was located westward, with fish dispersal progressing eastward after the basins were united and the Amazon River assumed its modern course toward the Atlantic. This dispersal process seems not yet achieved, suggesting a recent formation of the current Amazon system.
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A striking case of convergent evolution in two species of Cypricercinae (Crustacea, Ostracoda), with the description of a new genus and species from Brazil
- Neostrandesia striata gen. n. sp. n. is here described and constitutes an interesting case of convergent evolution with Bradleytriebella lineata (Victor and Fernando, 1981). Both cypricercine species look superficially similar, with comparable valve and carapace shapes and especially ornamentation, as in both species the valves are densely set with longitudinal ridges. However, examination of the limb chaetotaxy shows important differences, especially in the chaetotaxy of the maxillula-palp which shows reduced numbers of claws and setae, and in the first thoracopod, in which seta ‘b’ has taken a giant aspect in the new taxon. These, and other, differences merit the allocation of these two species to different genera and even tribes within the subfamily Cypricercinae.
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Are Cardinium infections causing asexuality in non-marine ostracods?
- Endosymbiotic bacteria manipulating host biology and reproduction, and sometimes also causing parthenogenesis, are known from many metazoan taxa. Three recent studies have reported Cardinium endosymbionts in non-marine ostracods with different reproductive modes. Here, we test with all available data which (a)biotic factors could possibly shape infection patterns in these crustaceans. The presence of Cardinium in non-marine ostracods differs significantly between genders and between species with different reproductive modes. We observed more infections in females and found Cardinium only in ostracods with mixed and asexual reproduction. There is a significant positive correlation between latitude and Cardinium infection, which might be linked to geographic parthenogenesis, a common phenomenon in non-marine ostracods with mixed reproduction. We suggest that the observed patterns best fit a polymorphic equilibrium between endosymbionts and their hosts. Ostracods with mixed reproduction often produce young asexual lineages, implying that Cardinium infections might have occurred more recently, and are widespread. In contrast, putative ancient asexual darwinulid ostracod shows less frequent occurrence of Cardinium. Loss of endosymbionts in these asexual ostracods during their long evolutionary histories of millions of years seems a more likely explanation. Which factors influence Cardinium prevalence in non-marine ostracods needs to be further tested in life history experiments.
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Urbanization drives cross‐taxon declines in abundance and diversity at multiple spatial scales
- The increasing urbanization process is hypothesized to drastically alter (semi‐)natural environments with a concomitant major decline in species abundance and diversity. Yet, studies on this effect of urbanization, and the spatial scale at which it acts, are at present inconclusive due to the large heterogeneity in taxonomic groups and spatial scales at which this relationship has been investigated among studies. Comprehensive studies analysing this relationship across multiple animal groups and at multiple spatial scales are rare, hampering the assessment of how biodiversity generally responds to urbanization. We studied aquatic (cladocerans), limno‐terrestrial (bdelloid rotifers) and terrestrial (butterflies, ground beetles, ground‐ and web spiders, macro‐moths, orthopterans and snails) invertebrate groups using a hierarchical spatial design, wherein three local‐scale (200 m × 200 m) urbanization levels were repeatedly sampled across three landscape‐scale (3 km × 3 km) urbanization levels. We tested for local and landscape urbanization effects on abundance and species richness of each group, whereby total richness was partitioned into the average richness of local communities and the richness due to variation among local communities. Abundances of the terrestrial active dispersers declined in response to local urbanization, with reductions up to 85% for butterflies, while passive dispersers did not show any clear trend. Species richness also declined with increasing levels of urbanization, but responses were highly heterogeneous among the different groups with respect to the richness component and the spatial scale at which urbanization impacts richness. Depending on the group, species richness declined due to biotic homogenization and/or local species loss. This resulted in an overall decrease in total richness across groups in urban areas. These results provide strong support to the general negative impact of urbanization on abundance and species richness within habitat patches and highlight the importance of considering multiple spatial scales and taxa to assess the impacts of urbanization on biodiversity.
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EJT editorial standard for the semantic enhancement of specimen data in taxonomy literature
- This paper describes a set of guidelines for the citation of zoological and botanical specimens in the European Journal of Taxonomy. The guidelines stipulate controlled vocabularies and precise formats for presenting the specimens examined within a taxonomic publication, which allow for the rich data associated with the primary research material to be harvested, distributed and interlinked online via international biodiversity data aggregators. Herein we explain how the EJT editorial standard was defined and how this initiative fits into the journal’s project to semantically enhance its publications using the Plazi TaxPub DTD extension. By establishing a standardised format for the citation of taxonomic specimens, the journal intends to widen the distribution of and improve accessibility to the data it publishes. Authors who conform to these guidelines will benefit from higher visibility and new ways of visualising their work. In a wider context, we hope that other taxonomy journals will adopt this approach to their publications, adapting their working methods to enable domain-specific text mining to take place. If specimen data can be efficiently cited, harvested and linked to wider resources, we propose that there is also the potential to develop alternative metrics for assessing impact and productivity within the natural sciences.
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The new Southeast Asian genus Cambonilla gen. nov.(Zodariidae, Araneae):‘bis repetita placent’
- The new genus Cambonilla Jocqué gen. nov. is described on the base of two species, each known from both sexes. A cladistic analysis based on morphology, showed that the new genus is the sister-group of Heliconilla Dankittipakul, Jocqué & Singtripop, 2012 with which it shares the granulated carapace with branched setae and the marbled ventral abdominal pattern, but differs by the abdominal, tubular sclerotized protrusion around the pedicel in males and the absence of posterior ventral abdominal spines in the female. The type species Cambonilla securicula Jocqué gen. et sp. nov. was found in rainforest along the Mekong River in Cambodia and Laos. The second species Cambonilla symphonia Jocqué & Henrard gen. et sp. nov., provided with conspicuous femoral stridulating organs, was recorded from the same localities but in Cambodia only. An illustrated key to the genera of tropical Asia is presented.
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A mammal survey of the Serra Jeci Mountain Range, Mozambique, with a review of records from northern Mozambique’s inselbergs
- The mountains of northern Mozambique have remained poorly studied biologically until recent years with surveys covering a variety of taxonomic groups highlighting their biological and conservation value. Even so, the medium and large mammal fauna remains poorly known and to date no systematic mammal surveys have been published from any of Mozambique’s mountains. We present results of a medium and large mammal survey of Serra Jeci’s Mt Chitagal, Mt Sanga and the Njesi Plateau in Niassa, northern Mozambique; the first mammal diversity data collected from these isolated mountains. We recorded 27 mammal species, of which six represent range expansions; Sykes’s monkey (Cercophitecus mitis), Mozambique dwarf galago (Paragalago granti), Smith’s red rock hare (Pronolagus rupestris), lesser cane rat (Thryonomys gregorianus), rock hyrax (Procavia capensis) and African buffalo (Syncerus caffer). We also reviewed and collated records of medium and large mammals from previously published fieldwork on northern Mozambique’s mountains, amounting to a total of 34 large mammal species from seven montane areas, highlighting the lack of mammalian knowledge in Mozambique’s Afromontane habitats.
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Species niches, not traits, determine abundance and occupancy patterns: A multi‐site synthesis
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Precision mapping of snail habitat provides a powerful indicator of human schistosomiasis transmission
- Recently, the World Health Organization recognized that efforts to interrupt schistosomiasis transmission through mass drug administration have been ineffective in some regions; one of their new recommended strategies for global schistosomiasis control emphasizes targeting the freshwater snails that transmit schistosome parasites. We sought to identify robust indicators that would enable precision targeting of these snails. At the site of the world’s largest recorded schistosomiasis epidemic—the Lower Senegal River Basin in Senegal—intensive sampling revealed positive relationships between intermediate host snails (abundance, density, and prevalence) and human urogenital schistosomiasis reinfection (prevalence and intensity in schoolchildren after drug administration). However, we also found that snail distributions were so patchy in space and time that obtaining useful data required effort that exceeds what is feasible in standard monitoring and control campaigns. Instead, we identified several environmental proxies that were more effective than snail variables for predicting human infection: the area covered by suitable snail habitat (i.e., floating, nonemergent vegetation), the percent cover by suitable snail habitat, and size of the water contact area. Unlike snail surveys, which require hundreds of person-hours per site to conduct, habitat coverage and site area can be quickly estimated with drone or satellite imagery. This, in turn, makes possible large-scale, high-resolution estimation of human urogenital schistosomiasis risk to support targeting of both mass drug administration and snail control efforts.
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Karl Edward Havens (1957–2019)
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A juvenile skull from the early Palaeocene of China extends the appearance of crocodyloids in Asia back by 15–20 million years
- The earliest Crocodylia from Asia have been represented so far only by alligatoroids and planocraniids. Although definitive crocodyloids are not known until the late Eocene, it has been hypothesized that Asiatosuchus-like basal crocodyloids originated in Asia before the late Palaeocene. In this paper, we describe a new fossil crocodyloid from the lower Palaeocene of Qianshan Basin, Anhui Province, China. The skull and lower jaw fragment exhibit several characteristics typical of juvenile crocodylians. They also display a combination of features not seen in any other taxon, warranting the erection of a new species and genus, Qianshanosuchus youngi gen. & sp. nov. Its affinities are tested in phylogenetic analyses based on two recent character matrices of Eusuchia. To assess the effect of juvenile characteristics on the outcome of the phylogenetic analyses, juvenile specimens of extant crocodylian taxa are analysed in the same way, showing that the effect of their ontogenetic stage on their placement in the tree is minimal. Our analyses point to a basal crocodyloid position for Q. youngi. With these findings, the presence of Crocodyloidea in Asia is extended to the early Palaeocene, 15–20 Myr earlier than formerly thought. Furthermore, our results corroborate previous hypotheses of a Palaeocene dispersal route of Asiatosuchus-like crocodyloids from Asia into Europe.
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Revival and Revision of the genus Paroplites with description of two new species (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae, Prioninae)
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Les campagnes du territoire Nervien : approches croisées
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« Un manuel de terrain pour standardiser les prélèvements des restes biologiques : une nécessité ou un luxe ? Une année d’expérience belge du point de vue de la carpologie »
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« Les agglomérations nerviennes au Haut Empire : la campagne à la ville ? Les apports de l'Archéobotanique »
- A partir des données carpologiques d'un établissement rural, de quatre villae et de deux agglomérations secondaires du Haut-Empire de la civitas nerviorum, mises en perspective avec les données d'établissements ruraux de la cité ménapienne voisine, le mode d'approvisionnement en céréales de ces centres urbains a pu être appréhendé. La découverte de nombreux résidus de premier battage dans les deux agglomérations fait entrer les établissements agricoles et leurs activités dans la ville, qui gère ainsi une partie de son approvisionnement en céréales. Si les blés vêtus constituent les principales productions céréalières de la cité, les blés panifiables -froment et épeautre- tiennent une plus grande place dans les centres urbains et villae. Ces dernières semblent ainsi tenir un rôle privilégié dans l'approvisionnement des agglomérations. La répartition géographique nord/sud de ces deux taxons, avec le froment au sud et l’épeautre au nord du territoire de la cité, coïncide avec les potentialités agricoles des sols. Le froment, espèce exigeante quant à la qualité des sols, est cultivé sur les terres les plus propices à l'agriculture tandis que l'épeautre est mené dans les terres plus sableuses, à moindre potentialité. Ainsi, l'un des critères majeurs quant au choix des céréales qui approvisionnent les centres urbains tient plus à la possibilité de faire du pain qu'à l'espèce elle même. Celles-ci semblent être sélectionnées, de manière opportuniste, selon des critères agronomiques.
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Etudes carpologiques de sites d’habitats médiévaux de Champagne-Ardenne : état de la question
- L’activité archéologique intense en Champagne-Ardenne a permis la mise au jour de plus de quarante sites d’habitats datés du Moyen Âge. Leur distribution géographique montre une disparité entre le département de l’Aube (10), et plus précisément les environs de la ville de Troyes, très bien documentés avec plus de 20 études carpologiques, le département de la Marne (51) riche d’une quinzaine d’études et les départements de la Haute-Marne (52) et des Ardennes (08), largement sous documentés. Les objectifs de cette compilation de données sont divers : il s’agit dans un premier temps de définir les grandes tendances qui se dégagent concernant l’alimentation au cours du Moyen Âge. Le froment est-il dominant sur l’ensemble de la période médiévale ? Quelles places occupent l’orge vêtue polystique et le seigle ? Une mise en culture de l’avoine peut-elle être mise en évidence ? Dans un second temps, il s’agit de voir si des particularismes régionaux peuvent être mis en évidence : les corpus carpologiques entre la région de Troyes et celle de Reims présentent-ils des différences ? Sont-elles le reflet de particularismes régionaux et/ou de contraintes géographiques ou pédologiques?
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La toute première fois : rythmes et contextes d’apparition d’espèces exogènes ou nouvellement introduites dans certaines régions de France
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La toute première fois : rythmes et contextes d’apparition d’espèces exogènes ou nouvellement introduites dans certaines régions de France
