Search publications of the members of the Royal Belgian institute of natural Sciences
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Devonian lithostratigraphy of Belgium
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Hydrodynamic modelling of offshore photovoltaic installations within an existing wind farm in the Belgian part of the North Sea
- EcoMPV (Eco-designing Marine PhotoVoltaic installations) is a three years project (from October, 2022 to October, 2025) funded by the Belgian Energy transition fund. It will deepen the knowledge about environmental challenges related to offshore PV installations, aiming at technical solutions to mitigate undesired consequences and maximize beneficial impacts. Knowledge gaps will be addressed about (1) altered underwater light field, hydrodynamics, pelagic biogeochemistry and primary production, (2) the artificial habitat provision for colonizing fauna and fish, and (3) effects on carbon fluxes and sequestration. Advice for eco-designing offshore PV installations, paving the way to its environmental licensing, will be formulated in the framework of this project. Five partners are involved in this project: Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Ghent University (UGENT), Tractebel Engineering S.A. (Tractebel), Jan De Nul and Dredging International (DEME). Regarding the Task 1.1: hydrodynamic modelling, the goal is to estimate the impact of MPV units on key hydrodynamics model parameters using the 3D hydrodynamic model COHERENS (Luyten (2014)). In interaction with the industrial partners, various conceptual MPV farm designs will be defined (different designs, different number of MPV units, different distance between MPV units). Each farm design will be implemented in the 3D COHERENS hydrodynamic model and tested against various meteorological-ocean conditions (winter vs summer, spring tide vs neap tide, etc.). The results will be studied in order to quantify the near- and far-field hydrodynamic changes in the current velocity field, turbulence, average kinetic energy as well as on the bottom shear stress variation. Furthermore, such modelling of potential hydrological changes serves as the initial step for a more detailed biogeochemical impact study, which will then allow for a complete impact assessment.
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Maps of faecal pellets deposition patterns around different conceptual floating MPV farms withing an existing OWF in the Belgian part of the North Sea
- EcoMPV (Eco-designing Marine PhotoVoltaic installations) is a three years project (from October, 2022 to October, 2025) funded by the Belgian Energy Transition Fund. The project will deepen the knowledge about environmental challenges related to offshore PV installations, aiming at technical solutions to mitigate undesired consequences and maximize beneficial impacts. Knowledge gaps will be addressed about (1) altered underwater light field, hydrodynamics, pelagic biogeochemistry and primary production, (2) the artificial habitat provision for colonizing fauna and fish, and (3) effects on carbon fluxes and sequestration. Advice for eco-designing offshore PV installations, paving the way to its environmental licensing, will be formulated in the framework of this project. Five partners are involved in this project: Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Ghent University (UGENT), Tractebel Engineering S.A. (Tractebel), Jan De Nul and Dredging International (DEME). Task 3.3 is part of the third work package of the project (WP3) entitled “effect of MPVs on carbon sequestration”. It aims to assess the areas of the seabed impacted by the deposition of faecal pellets due to the installation of MPVs within the Mermaid wind farm concession. This work provides a first estimate of the enrichment of organic carbon flux to the sediments due to the presence of colonizing organisms on the floaters. A 3D Lagrangian particle tracking model, OSERIT, is used for this work.
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The ecology of infrastructure decommissioning in the North Sea: what we need to know and how to achieve it
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Environmental Impacts of Offshore Wind Farms in the Belgian Part of the North Sea: Marking a Decade of Monitoring, Research and Innovation.
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Radar registrations of bird migration validation through an interdisciplinary approach (RAVen project)
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The genus Charcotia Chevreux, 1906 in the Southern Ocean, with the description of a new species (Crustacea, Amphipoda, Lysianassoidea)
- It is demonstrated here that Charcotia Chevreux, 1906 (Amphipoda) has priority over Charcotia Vayssière, 1906 (Gastropoda), and that Waldeckia Chevreux, 1906 has to be treated as an invalid objective junior synonym of Charcotia Chevreux, 1906. An analysis of a part of the mitochondrial COI gene of Charcotia indicates that Charcotia obesa sensu lato, consists of two genetically distant clades that fulfil the criteria of genetic species. Each genetic clade corresponds to a different morphotype. The first one has a low triangular protrusion on the dorsal border of urosomite 1, a strong tooth on epimeron 3, and the posterodistal corner of the basis of pereiopod 7 is regularly rounded. It agrees with the original description of Charcotia obesa Chevreux, 1906. The second one has a protrusion of urosomite 1 prolongated by a sharp and usually long denticle, a small tooth on epimeron 3, and the posterodistal corner of the basis of pereiopod 7 is bluntly angular. The second form is treated herein as a new species, Charcotia amundseni sp. nov., which is described in detail. While the bathymetric distribution of the two Antarctic Charcotia species overlaps (0–300 m for C. obesa and 7–1200 m for C. amundseni sp. nov.), C. obesa largely predominates at depths of less than 150 m, while Charcotia amundseni sp. nov. predominates at greater depths. Both species are widely distributed and presumably circum-Antarctic.
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Aquatic long-distance dispersal and vicariance shape the evolution of an ostracod species complex (Crustacea) in four major Brazilian floodplains.
- Cladogenesis is often driven by the interplay of dispersal and vicariance. The importance of long-distance dispersal in biogeography and speciation is increasingly recognised, but still ill-understood. Here, we study faunal interconnectivity between four large Brazilian floodplains, namely the Amazon, Araguaia, Pantanal (on Paraguay River) and Upper Paraná River floodplains, investigating a species complex of the non-marine ostracod genus Strandesia. We use DNA sequence data from the mitochondrial COI and the nuclear Elongation Factor 1 alpha genes to construct molecular phylogenies and minimum spanning networks, to identify genetic species, analyse biogeographic histories and provide preliminary age estimates of this species complex. The Strandesia species complex includes five morphological and eleven genetic species, which doubles the known diversity in this lineage. The evolutionary history of this species complex appears to comprise sequences of dispersal and vicariance events. Faunal and genetic patterns of connectivity between floodplains in some genetic species are mirrored in modern hydrological connections. This could explain why we find evidence for (aquatic) long-distance dispersal between floodplains, thousands of kilometres apart. Our phylogenetic reconstructions seem to mostly indicate recent dispersal and vicariance events, but the evolution of the present Strandesia species complex could span up to 25 Myr, which by far exceeds the age of the floodplains and the rivers in their current forms.
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Karyotype variability and inter-population genomic differences in freshwater ostracods (Crustacea) showing geographical parthenogenesis
- Transitions from sexual to asexual reproduction are often associated with polyploidy and increased chromosomal plasticity in asexuals. We investigated chromosomes in the freshwater ostracod species Eucypris virens (Jurine, 1820), where sexual, asexual and mixed populations can be found. Our initial karyotyping of multiple populations from Europe and North Africa, both sexual and asexual, revealed a striking variability in chromosome numbers. This would suggest that chromosomal changes are likely to be accelerated in asexuals because the constraints of meiosis are removed. Hence, we employed comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) within and among sexual and asexual populations to get insights into E. virens genome arrangements. CGH disclosed substantial genomic imbalances among the populations analyzed, and three patterns of genome arrangement between these populations: 1. Only putative ribosomal DNA (rDNA)-bearing regions were conserved in the two populations compared indicating a high sequence divergence between these populations. This pattern is comparable with our findings at the interspecies level of comparison; 2. Chromosomal regions were shared by both populations to a varying extent with a distinct copy number variation in pericentromeric and presumable rDNA-bearing regions. This indicates a different rate of evolution in repetitive sequences; 3. A mosaic pattern of distribution of genomic material that can be explained as non-reciprocal genetic introgression and evidence of a hybrid origin of these individuals. We show an overall increased chromosomal dynamics in E. virens that is complementary with available phylogenetic and population genetic data reporting highly differentiated diploid sexual and asexual lineages with a wide variety of genetic backgrounds.
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On Argentodromas bellanella gen. nov., sp. nov. (Crustacea, Ostracoda) from a stream in northern Argentina (South America).
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Editorial. Happy birthday Hydrobiologia! 70 years young and still growing…
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Factors affecting the metacommunity structure of periphytic ostracods (Crustacea, Ostracoda): a deconstruction approach based on biological traits
- Metacommunity studies using the deconstruction approach based on biological traits have received a great deal of attention in recent years as they often better describe characteristics of the species that reflect adaptations to a specific environment. This approach has not yet been used for ostracods, which are nevertheless highly diverse crustaceans and abundant in continental aquatic environments. Here, we investigate the influence of environmental and spatial factors on the metacommunity structure of periphytic ostracods in 27 tropical floodplain lakes in the Upper Paraná River floodplain (Brazil). An analysis of variance partitioning was used to estimate the relative importance of these factors (environmental and spatial) on both the entire community as well as after its deconstruction according to the biological traits (size and locomotion mode). Ostracods, regardless of body size, are good dispersers at regional scales. In addition, as expected, swimming ostracods were better dispersers at local scales than non-swimmers, which were influenced mainly by the diversity of aquatic macrophytes. Environmental factors (species sorting mechanism) seem important in structuring the entire ostracods metacommunity, as well as for most categories of biological traits. The unexplained variability remained high showing that other variables, not measured here, must be important. The analysis based on deconstruction, when compared to the analysis based on the metacommunity as a whole, contributed to a better assessment of ostracod metacommunity structuring.
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First “omic” results of the putative ancient asexual Darwinula stevensoni – evidence for horizontal gene transfer and a high load of transposable elements
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Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms como potencial dispersor de ovos de dormência de Ostracoda (Crustacea)
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Efeito da seca extrema sobre a estrutura da metacomunidade de ostrácodes perifíticos
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Refugia and ecosystem tolerance in the Southern Ocean
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The proposed dropping of the genus Crassostrea for all Pacific cupped oysters and its replacement by a new genus Magallana: a dissenting view
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Getting to the roots of scales, feathers and hair: as deep as odontodes?
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Individual variation in the postcranial skeleton of the Early Cretaceous Iguanodon bernissartensis (Dinosauria: Ornithopoda)
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Distribution feature of Prioninae (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) in South Center of Vietnam with a new record of species Remphan hopei Waterhouse 1836
