Optimising the future Belgian offshore wind farm monitoring programme

Six years of monitoring triggered a reflection on how to best continue with the monitoring programme. The basic monitoring has to be rationalised at the level of the likelihood of impact detection, the meaningfulness of impact size and representativeness of the findings. Targeted monitoring should continue to disentangle processes behind the observed impact, for instance the overarching artificial reef effect created by wind farms. The major challenge however remains to achieve a reliable assessment of the cumulative impacts. Continuing consultation and collaboration within the Belgian offshore wind farm monitoring team and with foreign marine scientists and managers will ensure an optimisation of the future monitoring programme

Mechanisms of stretch-mediated skin expansion at single-cell resolution.

The ability of the skin to grow in response to stretching has been exploited in reconstructive surgery1. Although the response of epidermal cells to stretching has been studied in vitro2,3, it remains unclear how mechanical forces affect their behaviour in vivo. Here we develop a mouse model in which the consequences of stretching on skin epidermis can be studied at single-cell resolution. Using a multidisciplinary approach that combines clonal analysis with quantitative modelling and single-cell RNA sequencing, we show that stretching induces skin expansion by creating a transient bias in the renewal activity of epidermal stem cells, while a second subpopulation of basal progenitors remains committed to differentiation. Transcriptional and chromatin profiling identifies how cell states and gene-regulatory networks are modulated by stretching. Using pharmacological inhibitors and mouse mutants, we define the step-by-step mechanisms that control stretch-mediated tissue expansion at single-cell resolution in vivo.Wellcome Trust Royal Societ

Where are we now with European forest multi-taxon biodiversity and where can we head to?

The European biodiversity and forest strategies rely on forest sustainable management (SFM) to conserve forest biodiversity. However, current sustainability assessments hardly account for direct biodiversity indicators. We focused on forest multi-taxon biodiversity to: i) gather and map the existing information; ii) identify knowledge and research gaps; iii) discuss its research potential. We established a research network to fit data on species, standing trees, lying deadwood and sampling unit description from 34 local datasets across 3591 sampling units. A total of 8724 species were represented, with the share of common and rare species varying across taxonomic classes: some included many species with several rare ones (e.g., Insecta); others (e.g., Bryopsida) were represented by few common species. Tree-related structural attributes were sampled in a subset of sampling units (2889; 2356; 2309 and 1388 respectively for diameter, height, deadwood and microhabitats). Overall, multi-taxon studies are biased towards mature forests and may underrepresent the species related to other developmental phases. European forest compositional categories were all represented, but beech forests were over-represented as compared to thermophilous and boreal forests. Most sampling units (94%) were referred to a habitat type of conservation concern. Existing information may support European conservation and SFM strategies in: (i) methodological harmonization and coordinated monitoring; (ii) definition and testing of SFM indicators and thresholds; (iii) data-driven assessment of the effects of environmental and management drivers on multi-taxon forest biological and functional diversity, (iv) multi-scale forest monitoring integrating in-situ and remotely sensed information

Yeast : the soul of beer’s aroma—a review of flavour-active esters and higher alcohols produced by the brewing yeast

Among the most important factors influencing beer quality is the presence of well-adjusted amounts of higher alcohols and esters. Thus, a heavy body of literature focuses on these substances and on the parameters influencing their production by the brewing yeast. Additionally, the complex metabolic pathways involved in their synthesis require special attention. More than a century of data, mainly in genetic and proteomic fields, has built up enough information to describe in detail each step in the pathway for the synthesis of higher alcohols and their esters, but there is still place for more. Higher alcohols are formed either by anabolism or catabolism (Ehrlich pathway) of amino acids. Esters are formed by enzymatic condensation of organic acids and alcohols. The current paper reviews the up-to-date knowledge in the pathways involving the synthesis of higher alcohols and esters by brewing yeasts. Fermentation parameters affecting yeast response during biosynthesis of these aromatic substances are also fully reviewed.Eduardo Pires gratefully acknowledges the Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal) for the PhD fellowship support (SFRH/BD/61777/2009). The financial contributions of the EU FP7 project Ecoefficient Biodegradable Composite Advanced Packaging (EcoBioCAP, grant agreement no. 265669) as well as of the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic (project GACR P503/12/1424) are also gratefully acknowledged. The authors thank the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic (MSM 6046137305) for their financial support

Capturing the sounds of an urban greenspace

Acoustic data can be a source of important information about events and the environment in modern cities. To date, much of the focus has been on monitoring noise pollution, but the urban soundscape contains a rich variety of signals about both human and natural phenomena. We describe the CitySounds project, which has installed enclosed sensor kits at several locations across a heavily used urban greenspace in the city of Edinburgh. The acoustic monitoring components regularly capture short clips in real-time of both ultrasonic and audible noises, for example encompassing bats, birds and other wildlife, traffic, and human. The sounds are complemented by collecting other data from sensors, such as temperature and relative humidity. To ensure privacy and compliance with relevant legislation, robust methods render completely unintelligible any traces of voice or conversation that may incidentally be overheard by the sensors. We have adopted a variety of methods to encourage community engagement with the audio data and to communicate the richness of urban soundscapes to a general audience

Photography-based taxonomy is inadequate, unnecessary, and potentially harmful for biological sciences

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009; Cianferoni & Bartolozzi 2016; Amorim et al. 2016). This question was again raised in a letter supported by 35 signatories published in the journal Nature (Pape et al. 2016) on 15 September 2016. On 25 September 2016, the following rebuttal (strictly limited to 300 words as per the editorial rules of Nature) was submitted to Nature, which on 18 October 2016 refused to publish it. As we think this problem is a very important one for zoological taxonomy, this text is published here exactly as submitted to Nature, followed by the list of the 493 taxonomists and collection-based researchers who signed it in the short time span from 20 September to 6 October 2016

Ca isotope fingerprints of early crust-mantle evolution

Among the most important factors influencing beer quality is the presence of well-adjusted amounts of higher alcohols and esters; as well as the successful reduction of undesirable by-products such as diacetyl. While higher alcohols and esters contribute rather positively to the beer aroma, diacetyl is mostly unwelcome for beer types with lighter taste. Thus, the complex metabolic pathways in yeast responsible for the synthesis of both pleasant and unpleasant by-products of fermentation were given special attention in this last chapter

Creativity in virtual design teams

Virtual Teams are an increasingly seen phenomenon in the digitally-mediated global workplace. The creativity of Virtual Design Teams, a quite popular working arrangement amongst contemporary organizations, has not been researched extensively whilst creativity is seen as a prerequisite throughout the design process. This paper draws on the creativity, design and virtuality literatures and develops a model that sets the research boundaries and pinpoints some of the knowledge gaps. Specific research directions and questions are also presented based on the review