Search publications of the members of the Royal Belgian institute of natural Sciences
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What is hampering current restoration effectiveness? - An EKLIPSE Expert Working Group report
- Report Summary Target 2 of the EU Biodiversity Strategy states that “By 2020, ecosystems and their services are maintained and enhanced by establishing green infrastructure and restoring at least 15% of degraded ecosystems”. The Biodiversity Strategy is the only EU policy document that contains a direct and quantitative target for restoration. However, many other European Union level policies, including the Birds and Habitats Directives, the Water Framework Directive, and the Common Agricultural Policy, relate to restoration aims in indirect ways. The need to upscale restoration effectiveness across the European countries could never be more urgent. Numerous recent key Reports have identified restoration as key to overcoming biodiversity and climate challenges (eg Diaz et al 2019, Arnet et al 2019). At the closing statement of the UNCCD COP14 Climate Action Summit in September 2019, the Executive Secretary Mr. Ibrahim Thiaw, stressed that land restoration, at proper scale, is one of the cheapest solutions to address the global crises of climate and biodiversity loss. As highlighted in the recent Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Assessment Report on Land Degradation and Restoration (Scholes et al., 2018) Restoration actions occur across a diversity of ecosystem types and have the potential, if implemented effectively, to improve human well‐being, improve ecosystem functions and biodiversity and enhance the wider natural environment; Gaining a better understanding of the limitations to effective restoration can provide evidence to support more effective investments in restoration. This knowledge can also support stakeholders from wide ranging fields, with the outcomes being to reduce the degradation of landscapes. Reduced degradation provides opportunities to improve climate resilience and mitigation, improve food security and improve human well‐being. In this context, during the second call for requests (CfR.2/2017) the EKLIPSE project received a request from BiodivERsA15, focused on the identification of knowledge gaps on ecosystem restoration. More specifically, the requester wanted to know What is hampering the effectiveness of existing approaches that aim to restore biodiversity and ecosystem function and services? The topic of this request has gained high policy relevance and importance following the approval of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021 to 2030), by the General Assembly on the 1st March 2019. This initiative aims to promote the restoration of degraded or destroyed ecosystems globally as a means of combating the impact of climate change and biodiversity loss, and to increase food security and water supply. This offers an unprecedented opportunity from the European perspective to implement the findings from this Report, to advance restoration effectiveness across Europe in response to increasing global pressures to scale up restoration actions. To respond to this request, EKLIPSE selected 12 experts from 8 European countries (Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom and 1 non‐ European Country (Australia), to form an Expert Working Group (EWG), which initially met in Brussels in July 2018 and continued to meet remotely, on a weekly basis until the completion of the Report. Two distinct approaches were implemented to respond to this question: a scoping review of the global literature and a three stage Delphi process with additional European experts from a range of sectors and countries. The global literature scoping review identified three Key Barriers to effective restoration as: a. The lack of a long‐term monitoring of restoration outcomes. b. The lack of a clearer definition of goals and planning. c. The need for better research methodologies. with the Key Enabling factors being: a. Use of appropriate and well‐tailored restoration techniques. b. Societal integration with the restoration project. c. Success assessment and evaluation. The four Key Groupings of Barriers identified in priority order by the Delphi process were: 1. Insufficient funding. 2. Low political priority for restoration. 3. Conflicting interests of different stakeholders. 4. Lack of integrated land use planning. During the Delphi process Experts identified key solutions to overcome these Barriers (1‐4) above. Taking into consideration all the findings of our work, recommendations to overcome the barriers have been provided and grouped around the key groupings of barriers: 1. Resourcing and Incentives – make restoration possible. 2. Policy – make restoration count. 3. Society – make restoration a preferred option. 4. Knowledge ‐ make it into life‐long learning, link, network and facilitate use of knowledge. We hope you enjoy reading our Report and making use of our findings during upcoming restoration actions across Europe.
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The pan-and-tilt hyperspectral radiometer system (PANTHYR) for autonomous satellite validation measurements – prototype design and testing
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Pterosaur melanosomes support signalling functions for early feathers
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Radial porosity profiles: a new bone histological method for comparative developmental analysis of diametric limb bone growth
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Endocranial morphology of Liaoceratops yanzigouensis (Dinosauria: Ceratopsia) from Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota of Liaoning in China
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Is vertebral shape variability in caecilians (Amphibia: Gymnophiona) constrained by forces experienced during burrowing?
- Caecilians are predominantly burrowing, elongate, limbless amphibians that have been relatively poorly studied. Although it has been suggested that the sturdy and compact skulls of caecilians are an adaptation to their head-first burrowing habits, no clear relationship between skull shape and burrowing performance appears to exist. However, the external forces encountered during burrowing are transmitted by the skull to the vertebral column, and, as such, may impact vertebral shape. Additionally, the muscles that generate the burrowing forces attach onto the vertebral column and consequently may impact vertebral shape that way as well. Here, we explored the relationships between vertebral shape and maximal in vivo push forces in 13 species of caecilian amphibians. Our results show that the shape of the two most anterior vertebrae, as well as the shape of the vertebrae at 90% of the total body length, is not correlated with peak push forces. Conversely, the shape of the third vertebrae, and the vertebrae at 20% and 60% of the total body length, does show a relationship to push forces measured in vivo. Whether these relationships are indirect (external forces constraining shape variation) or direct (muscle forces constraining shape variation) remains unclear and will require quantitative studies of the axial musculature. Importantly, our data suggest that mid-body vertebrae may potentially be used as proxies to infer burrowing capacity in fossil representatives.
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Generalized osteosclerotic condition in the skeleton of Nanophoca vitulinoides, a dwarf seal from the Miocene of Belgium
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Les collections de paléontologie de l’IRSNB : réelles et/ou virtuelles ?
- Dans la course contre la montre à qui rendra le plus accessible les collections des musées d’histoire naturelle, l’Institut royal des Sciences naturelles de Belgique s’est doté d’outils maison « Open Source » afin de valoriser ses 38 millions de spécimens. Ceux-ci datent parfois d’époques reculées et demandent donc généralement une restauration et un reconditionnement physique (reboxing des Anglo-Saxons) ainsi que leur encodage dans des bases de données efficaces permettant à la fois l’inventaire et la géolocalisation dans les conservatoires où ils sont préservés. Dans ce cadre, la base de données Darwin « darwin.naturalsciences.be » (système de gestion PostgreSQL) stocke les données et métadonnées relatives aux spécimens des collections de l’IRSNB. La plateforme Virtual Collections « virtualcollections.naturalsciences.be » permet elle l’accès aux images et aux modèles 3D des spécimens types et figurés, bien nécessaire dans ce monde devenu (si) virtuel. Elle est divisée en six collections principales : entomologie, invertébrés récents, vertébrés récents, anthropologie-préhistoire, géologie et paléontologie. Cette dernière, bien que n’étant qu’au début du processus de numérisation de ses 42.000 types et figurés sur 3 millions de spécimens fossiles, n’en est pas la moins diversifiée au niveau des techniques de prises d’images. En effet, on y trouve déjà des photographies digitales à haute résolution prises en photostaking, d’autres au microscope électronique à balayage, sans compter des modèles tridimensionnels provenant d’acquisition par micro-tomographie ou photogrammétrie. Mais tout ceci n’aurait aucune valeur scientifique sans les données historiques et bibliographiques liées aux spécimens. Ce volet disponible via Collections«°collections.naturalsciences.be » sera développé pour la paléontologie dans une troisième phase. Il inclura, outre les données historiques et bibliographiques, les articles numérisés au format pdf. S’il est clair que ces trois outils virtuels aident grandement à l’accessibilité rapide des collections paléontologiques et à leurs données, ils ne remplacent toutefois pas les spécimens de référence qui font partie d’un patrimoine mondial (One World Collection initiative) et restent accessibles aux globe-trotteurs que sont les chercheurs.
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Reassessment of the morphology and taxonomic status of the varanid lizard Saniwa orsmaelensis from the early Eocene of Northwest Europe
- Saniwa is an extinct genus of varanid lizard from the Eocene of North America and Europe. It is the sister taxon to the crown-group Varanus. Up to now, only one poorly known species is recognized from Europe, Saniwa orsmaelensis from the earliest Eocene of Dormaal, Belgium. This species originally named by Louis Dollo nearly a century ago, is the earliest varanid of Europe. Unfortunately, the material was limited to vertebrae with only preliminary description and no figure provided, except for one dorsal vertebra that later has been designated as the lectotype. Here we describe and illustrate new fossil specimens collected from Dormaal and other early Eocene localities of the Paris Basin, France, including dentary and maxilla fragments as well as skull material, allowing to reassess the validity of the European taxon. These fossils allow further comparisons with the type-species, Saniwa ensidens, from the late early Eocene Bridger and Green River formations of Wyoming and to propose a new diagnosis for S. orsmaelensis. The occurrence of S. orsmaelensis is restricted to the early Eocene of Northwest Europe and its geographic origin is unresolved because the earliest record of Saniwa in North America is also from the earliest Eocene. The brief presence of varanid lizards in the European Paleogene could result from two major climatic events. At the Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum, large biotic interchanges occurred in the northern hemisphere allowing new dispersals into Europe. However, at the end of the Eocene, thermophilic lizards disappeared due to cooler conditions. Another hypothesis for their disappearance could be the competition that occurred with other anguimorph lizards. Grant Information: This abstract is a contribution to the Belspo Brain network project BR/121/A3/PalEurAfrica funded by the Belgian Science Policy Office.
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New data on the Early Eocene Mammals and other vertebrates from the Cambay Shale Formation exposed in Lignite Mines of Gujarat, Western India
- Excavations since 2004 in the early Eocene Cambay Shale Formation at Vastan, Mangrol, and Tadkeshwar open-cast lignite mines in Gujarat, western India, have yielded thousands of vertebrate specimens of terrestrial mammals, lizards, snakes, frogs, and birds as well as elasmobranch and teleost fishes. Here we report new fossils from the currently active Tadkeshwar mine discovered from several layers intercalated at different heights between the two major lignite seams. Most of them belong to taxa already described from the nearby Vastan and Mangrol mines, such as the adapoid primate Marcgodinotius indicus, the hyaenodontan Indohyaenodon raoi, the tillodont Anthraconyx hypsomylus, the perissodactyl-like mammal Cambaytherium thewissi, the agamid lizard Tinosaurus indicus, the palaeophiid snake Palaeophis vastaniensis, the caenophidian snakes Procerophis and Thaumastophis, and the bird Vastanavis. The presence of these taxa in the three mines and at different levels suggests that the deposits between the two major lignite seams represent a relatively short time span and a single mammal age. Among the new specimens from Tadkeshwar are well-preserved jaws of a new condylarth-like mammal, a new adapoid primate, and a small tapiroid perissodactyl. Most vertebrate taxa of the Cambay Shale Formation are of west European affinities; some of them seem to be endemic to India, and a few are of Gondwanan affinities, such as mesoeucrocodylians and the giant madtsoiid snake Platyspondylophis, attesting that the early Eocene was an important period in India during which Laurasian taxa coexisted with relict taxa from Gondwana before the India-Asia collision. Grant Information: Funded by Leakey Foundation, National Geographic Society, Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, and Belgian Science Policy Office (project BR/121/A3/PalEurAfrica)
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The common morphospecies Cypridopsis vidua (O.F. MÜLLER, 1776) (Crustacea, Ostracoda) is not an obligate parthenogen
- The common non-marine ostracod Cypridopsis vidua (O.F. Müller, 1776) is used as a proxy in various biological disciplines, such as (palaeo-)ecology, evolutionary biology, ecotoxicology and parasitology. This morphospecies was considered to be an obligate parthenogen. We report on the discovery of the first population of C. vidua with males from Woods Hole (MA, USA) and determine that it is a population with mixed reproduction. We describe the morphology of the males and of the sexual and asexual females. We illustrate a copula of a male and a sexual female as well insemination in a sexual female, showing that males are functional. Therefore, Cypridopsis vidua is a morphospecies with mixed reproduction, not a full apomictic parthenogen. We use, for the first time, polychromatic polarization microscope technology to illustrate soft parts of ostracods. In addition, we compare the sexual species C. bisexualis, C. okeechobei, C. howei and C. schwartzi and conclude that these species, especially the latter three, are morphologically very close to C. vidua.
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The bats of the Congo and Rwanda and Burundi revistited.
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The relationship between taxonomic diversity and aboveground carbon storage is taxon-specific.
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Comparison of genome wide SNP signatures within and between four ophthalmotilapia species (Pisces, Cichlidae): Speciation Unveiled?
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Working together to develop biodiversity research and monitoring related capacities in the DR Congo.
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Inventory of Ixodidae and Phtiraptera of pigs (Sus scrofa domesticus) in a slaughterhouse of Kisangani (Tshopo, Dr Congo)
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Using molecular techniques to identify organisms of policy concern: Some examples from the BopCo project
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Constructing a DNA barcode database of Belgian rove beetles (Staphylinidae) and its application in forensic cases
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Untangling possible relationships between urbanization and the eco-evolutionary dynamics of the land snail Cepaea nemoralis
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A survey of the bushmeat trade of the straw-coloured fruit bat species (Eidolon helvum Kerr, 1792, Chiroptera) on the Maele Island, Kisangani (DR Congo)
