Search publications of the members of the Royal Belgian institute of natural Sciences
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A One Health team to improve Monkeypox virus outbreak response: an example from the Democratic Republic of the Congo
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Tracking Five Millennia of Horse Management with Extensive Ancient Genome Time Series
- Summary Horse domestication revolutionized warfare and accelerated travel, trade, and the geographic expansion of languages. Here, we present the largest DNA time series for a non-human organism to date, including genome-scale data from 149 ancient animals and 129 ancient genomes (≥1-fold coverage), 87 of which are new. This extensive dataset allows us to assess the modern legacy of past equestrian civilizations. We find that two extinct horse lineages existed during early domestication, one at the far western (Iberia) and the other at the far eastern range (Siberia) of Eurasia. None of these contributed significantly to modern diversity. We show that the influence of Persian-related horse lineages increased following the Islamic conquests in Europe and Asia. Multiple alleles associated with elite-racing, including at the MSTN “speed gene,” only rose in popularity within the last millennium. Finally, the development of modern breeding impacted genetic diversity more dramatically than the previous millennia of human management.
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The recent Tripterotyphis (Gastropoda: Muricidae: Tripterotyphinae) from the eastern Pacific with the description of two new species
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La tombe-bûcher avec urne datée de La Tène finale : étude archéo-anthropologique
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Le droit de sépulture dans les tombes monumentales en Asie Mineure romaine : l’exemple de la tombe 163d de la nécropole nord de Hiérapolis (Phrygie, Turquie, Ier-VIIe siècles de notre ère)
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Mode d'inhumation et gestion de l'espace funéraire dans le quartier Saint-Michel de Toulouse au cours de la Peste noire
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Funerary practices and monuments at Hierapolis of Phrygia. The Roman and Byzantine tombs in the sanctuary of St Philipp
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Namur/Namur : occupations préhistoriques, sanctuaire gallo-romain et urbanisation médiévale au confluent Sambre-et-Meuse. Suite de l’opération d’archéologie préventive au Grognon (janvier-août 2018)
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Enabling Renewable Energy While Protecting Wildlife: An Ecological Risk-Based Approach to Wind Energy Development Using Ecosystem-Based Management Values
- Acceptance of wind energy development is challenged by stakeholders’ concerns about potential effects on the environment, specifically on wildlife, such as birds, bats, and (for offshore wind) marine animals, and the habitats that support them. Communities near wind energy developments are also concerned with social and economic impacts, as well as impacts on aesthetics, historical sites, and recreation and tourism. Lack of a systematic, widely accepted, and balanced approach for measuring the potential damage to wildlife, habitats, and communities continues to leave wind developers, regulators, and other stakeholders in an uncertain position. This paper explores ecological risk-based management (RBM) in wind energy development for land-based and offshore wind installations. This paper provides a framework for the adaptation of ecosystem-based management to wind energy development and examines that framework through a series of case studies and best management practices for applying risk-based principles to wind energy. Ten case studies indicate that wind farm monitoring is often driven by regulatory requirements that may not be underpinned by scientific questions. While each case applies principles of adaptive management, there is room for improvement in applying scientific principles to the data collection and analysis. Challenges and constraints for wind farm development to meet RBM framework criteria include collecting sufficient baseline and monitoring data year-round, engaging stakeholder facilitators, and bringing together large and diverse scientific teams. The RBM framework approach may provide insights for improved siting and consenting/permitting processes for regulators and their advisors, particularly in those nations where wind energy is still in the early development stages on land or at sea.
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Offshore Wind Energy and Benthic Habitat Changes: Lessons from Block Island Wind Farm
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Operationalizing risk-based cumulative effect assessments in the marine environment
- Ecosystem-based management requires an assessment of the cumulative effects of human pressures and environmental change. The operationalization and integration of cumulative effects assessments (CEA) into decision-making processes often lacks a comprehensive and transparent framework. A risk-based CEA framework that divides a CEA in risk identification, risk analysis and risk evaluation, could structure such complex analyses and facilitate the establishment of direct science-policy links. Here, we examine carefully the operationalization of such a risk-based CEA framework with the help of eleven contrasting case studies located in Europe, French Polynesia, and Canada. We show that the CEA framework used at local, sub-regional, and regional scales allowed for a consistent, coherent, and transparent comparison of complex assessments. From our analysis, we pinpoint four emerging issues that, if accurately addressed, can improve the take up of CEA outcomes by management: 1) framing of the CEA context and defining risk criteria; 2) describing the roles of scientists and decision-makers; 3) reducing and structuring complexity; and 4) communicating uncertainty. Moreover, with a set of customized tools we describe and analyze for each case study the nature and location of uncertainty as well as trade-offs regarding available knowledge and data used for the CEA. Ultimately, these tools aid decision-makers to recognize potential caveats and repercussions of management decisions. One key recommendation is to differentiate CEA processes and their context in relation to governance advice, marine spatial planning or regulatory advice. We conclude that future research needs to evaluate how effective management measures are in reducing the risk of cumulative effects. Changing governance structures takes time and is often difficult, but we postulate that well-framed and structured CEA can function as a strategic tool to integrate ecosystem considerations across multiple sectorial policies.
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Diagenetic control on secondary porosity in flood plain deposits: an example of the Lower Triassic of northeastern Belgium
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Subsurface facies analysis of the Namurian and earliest Westphalian in the western part of the Campine Basin (N Belgium)
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Lithology and biostratigraphy of the Upper Cretaceous - Paleocene carbonates in the Molenbeersel borehole (NE Belgium)
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Crustal structure of the London-Brabant Massif, southern North Sea
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A new look at Belgian aeromagnetic and gravity data through image-based display and integrated modelling techniques
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Petrophysical stratigraphy of the Namurian and lowermost Westphalian in the western part of the Campine basin
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Instortingsholten op de Keizersberg te Leuven
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Late Devonian - Early Carboniferous miospores from the Menen borehole, Namur Synclinorium, Belgium
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Triassic carbonates as the host rock for karstification: Tenglong cave and the Lichuan karst (West Hubei, China)
