Search publications of the members of the Royal Belgian institute of natural Sciences
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Marine phytoplankton community composition data from the Belgian part of the North Sea, 1968–2010
- The Belgian Phytoplankton Database (BPD) is a comprehensive data collection comprising quantitative phytoplankton cell counts from multiple research projects conducted since 1968. The collection is focused on the Belgian part of the North Sea, but also includes data from the French and the Dutch part of the North Sea. The database includes almost 300 unique sampling locations and more than 3,000 sampling events resulting in more than 86,000 phytoplankton cell count records. The dataset covers two periods: 1968 to 1978 and 1994 to 2010. The BPD can be accessed online and provides high quality phytoplankton count data. The species taxonomy is updated, and the count values are quality checked and standardized. Important metadata like sampling date, sampling location, sampling depth and methodology is provided and standardized. Additionally, associated abiotic data and biovolume values are available. The dataset allows to conduct analyses of long-term temporal and spatial trends in phytoplankton community structure in the southern part of the North Sea, including changes in phytoplankton phenology and seasonality.
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Signature patterns of chlorophyll a variability in the Greater North Sea
- The greater North Sea comprises a high diversity of marine systems within a relatively small geographical area: shallow and well-mixed systems, stratified systems, continental shelf, margin and deep ocean. Across these systems, different seasonal and interannual patterns of chlorophyll a (Chl) variability may be observed. Characteristic features of the Chl dynamics are used to identify typical areas across the studied domain. Remote sensing observation of Chl (ENVISAT-MERIS) offers a comprehensive picture of the spatial dynamic of surface phytoplankton biomass over almost a decade (2003-2011). The Cloern and Jassby (2010) method of Chl signal decomposition was applied to every pixel separating the Chl signal into four components: 1) the grand mean, 2) the interannual, 3) the seasonal and 4) the residual components for the considered 9-years period. The method assumes no trend a priori over the considered period and the standard deviations for each component are compared in a relative fashion to describe the local dynamics of Chl. The pixel-wise calculated components are represented in individual maps to depict the spatial patterns of chlorophyll a variability and outline areas of high or low seasonal and interannual variability. Subsequently the decomposed Chl signal is used in a K-means cluster analysis to classify areas in the greater North Sea. These areas correspond to different categories of Chl dynamics for the considered period 2003-2011, providing a governance tool for policy makers. It is also shown how these areas directly reflect physical features of the sea, suggesting invariant structure of phytoplankton dynamics.
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Description of the long-term (1991–2005) temporal and spatial distribution of phytoplankton carbon biomass in the Dutch North Sea
- Since the beginning of the 1990s phytoplankton species composition and abundance have been monitored at a high frequency (bi-weekly in the growing season and monthly in winter) at a number of fixed stations on the Dutch Continental Shelf, of which 18 are used in this study. Phytoplankton carbon biomass has been calculated from species-specific biovolume/cell data and summed over all species per functional group enumerated in the samples. The species are divided into four functional groups i.e. diatoms, flagellates, autotrophic and mixotrophic dinoflagellates and Phaeocystis spp. The total number of phytoplankton samples analysed up to and including 2005 is almost 4000. The annual mean phytoplankton biomass over all stations remained stable at around 145 mg C m−3. However, the phytoplankton composition has changed significantly, with increases in diatoms and dinoflagellates and compensating decreases in flagellates and Phaeocystis. With increasing distance from the shore, coinciding with a decrease in nutrient availability and increasing water depth, total phytoplankton biomass as well as the biomass of diatoms, flagellates and Phaeocystis spp. decreased. This pattern was not true for the dinoflagellates, which occurred at more or less the same biomass throughout the region. Stations near river mouths and in the Wadden Sea outlets had much higher phytoplankton biomass than stations further from freshwater discharges. The data, split in two periods (1991–1998) and (1999–2005) and averaged over the whole Dutch Continental Shelf, had been aggregated into seasonal biomass distributions. The seasonal phytoplankton biomass distribution was unimodal in both periods, with similar spring maxima of around 300 mg C m− 3. The spring maximum occurred one month earlier, in April, in the second period. Phaeocystis over the whole study period remained the dominant near-shore species as it has been since the first phytoplankton observations at the end of the 19th century.
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La chasse au mammouth à Yudinovo (plaine russe) ?
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Interdisciplinary investigation of early dogs and other carnivores from Eurasia
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Bioarchaeological research at the Natural History Museum in Brussels
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Bear bones with red ochre traces in the Belgian Upper Palaeolithic: comparison with the use of colours in ethnographic bear rituals.
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Red coloured cave bear bones: an indication of symbolic behaviour in the Upper Palaeolithic of Belgium
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Red coloured fossil bear bones: a possible indication of symbolic behaviour in the Upper Palaeolithic of Belgium
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The Pleniglacial cave bear from Goyet, Belgium
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The influence of climate on cub mortality and sexual segregation in Pleniglacial cave bear
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Taphonomy of mammoth remains from Belgium
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Faunal remains from some Transbaikal sites: an analysis of bone representation and bone modification in the early Upper Palaeolithic of Eastern Siberia
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Faunal remains from Kamenka, Buryatia: an analysis of the spatial distribution, bone representation and bone modification in the Early Upper Palaeolithic of Eastern Siberia
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L’origine paléolithique du chien
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« Messages d’os »
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La faune pléistocène de Goyet
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Le rôle de l’environnements dans les comportements des chasseurs-cueilleurs préhistoriques
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"WARD, P.D.: The call of distant mammoths. Why the Ice Age mammals disappeared. Copernicus, Springer-Verlag, New York, 1997"
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