Reappearance of old growth elements in lowland woodlands in northern Belgium : do the associated species follow?

The forest cover of the western European lowland plain has been very low for centuries. Remaining forests were intensively managed, and old-growth elements like veteran trees and coarse woody debris became virtually absent. Only over the last decades have these old-growth elements progressively redeveloped in parks, lanes and forests, and have now reached their highest level over the last 500-1000 years. Biodiversity associated with these old-growth elements makes up an important part of overall forest biodiversity. The ability of species to recolonise the newly available habitat is strongly determined by limitations in their dispersal and establishment. We analyse the current status and development of old-growth elements in Flanders (northern Belgium) and the process of recolonisation by means of specific cases, focussing on saproxylic fungi and saproxylic beetles. Our results show that 'hotspots' of secondary old growth, even isolated small patches, may have more potential for specialised biodiversity than expected, and may provide important new strongholds for recovery and recolonisation of an important share of old-growth related species

The Composition of the Microbiota in the Full-Term Fetal Gut and Amniotic Fluid : A Bovine Cesarean Section Study

The development of a healthy intestinal immune system requires early microbial exposure. However, it remains unclear whether microbial exposure already begins at the prenatal stage. Analysis of such low microbial biomass environments are challenging due to contamination issues. The aims of the current study were to assess the bacterial load and characterize the bacterial composition of the amniotic fluid and meconium of full-term calves, leading to a better knowledge of prenatal bacterial seeding of the fetal intestine. Amniotic fluid and rectal meconium samples were collected during and immediately after elective cesarean section, performed in 25 Belgian Blue cow-calf couples. The samples were analyzed by qPCR, bacterial culture using GAM agar and 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. To minimize the effects of contaminants, we included multiple technical controls and stringently filtered the 16S rRNA gene sequencing data to exclude putative contaminant sequences. The meconium samples contained a significantly higher amount of bacterial DNA than the negative controls and 5 of 24 samples contained culturable bacteria. In the amniotic fluid, the amount of bacterial DNA was not significantly different from the negative controls and all samples were culture negative. Bacterial sequences were identified in both sample types and were primarily of phyla Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Actinobacteria, with some individual variation. We conclude that most calves encounter in utero maternal-fetal transmission of bacterial DNA, but the amount of bacterial DNA is low and viable bacteria are rare.Peer reviewe

Histopathological lesions in reproductive organs, distal spinal cord and peripheral nerves of horses naturally infected with Trypanosoma equiperdum

Background: Dourine, a venereal transmitted trypanosomosis caused by Trypanosoma equiperdum, has different clinical signs related to the reproductive and nervous system. Pathologic tissue changes associated with the disease are poorly described. The present study describes the histopathological lesions in naturally T. equiperdum-infected horses in the chronical stage of dourine. Results: Four chronically dourine diseased horses underwent a post-mortem examination. They were Woo test negative, but CATT/T. evansi positive, had a low packed cell volume (PCV) and exhibited obvious clinical signs of dourine. Post-mortem examination did not reveal gross lesions in the organs assumed to be responsible for the symptomatology. On histopathology, genital organs were affected, with mononuclear cell infiltration and erosions and degeneration of seminiferous tubules and perivascular lymphoplasmacytic cuffing in the uterus. In the nervous system, mononuclear cell infiltration was located in peripheral nerves, ganglia and in the spinal cord, leading to axonal degeneration. Real-time PCR using ITS primer revealed the presence of trypanosomes in these organs and conventional PCRs using maxicircle and RoTat1.2 primers further confirmed the involvement of T. equiperdum since the DNAs from the vagina, testicle, distal spinal cord, sciatic and obturator nerves found to be positive for maxicircle and negative for RoTat 1.2. Conclusions: The histopathological lesions in the spinal cord and peripheral nerves explain the incoordination of the hind legs in T. equiperdum-infected horses, whilst its presence in the genital tract exemplifies the venereal transmission

Past decade above-ground biomass change comparisons from four multi-temporal global maps

Above-ground biomass (AGB) is considered an essential climate variable that underpins our knowledge and information about the role of forests in mitigating climate change. The availability of satellite-based AGB and AGB change (Delta AGB) products has increased in recent years. Here we assessed the past decade net Delta AGB derived from four recent global multi-date AGB maps: ESA-CCI maps, WRI-Flux model, JPL time series, and SMOS-LVOD time series. Our assessments explore and use different reference data sources with biomass re-measurements within the past decade. The reference data comprise National Forest Inventory (NFI) plot data, local Delta AGB maps from airborne LiDAR, and selected Forest Resource Assessment country data from countries with well-developed monitoring capacities. Map to reference data comparisons were performed at levels ranging from 100 m to 25 km spatial scale. The comparisons revealed that LiDAR data compared most reasonably with the maps, while the comparisons using NFI only showed some agreements at aggregation levels <10 km. Regardless of the aggregation level, AGB losses and gains according to the map comparisons were consistently smaller than the reference data. Map-map comparisons at 25 km highlighted that the maps consistently captured AGB losses in known deforestation hotspots. The comparisons also identified several carbon sink regions consistently detected by all maps. However, disagreement between maps is still large in key forest regions such as the Amazon basin. The overall AAGB map cross-correlation between maps varied in the range 0.11-0.29 (r). Reported AAGB magnitudes were largest in the high-resolution datasets including the CCI map differencing (stock change) and Flux model (gain-loss) methods, while they were smallest according to the coarser-resolution LVOD and JPL time series products, especially for AGB gains. Our results suggest that AAGB assessed from current maps can be biased and any use of the estimates should take that into account. Currently, AAGB reference data are sparse especially in the tropics but that deficit can be alleviated by upcoming LiDAR data networks in the context of Supersites and GEO-Trees

Antibodies to elastin peptides in sera of Warmblood horses at different ages

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Evaluatie zevende Nederlandse bosinventarisatie (NBI-7)

Dit rapport evalueert de lopende, zevende Nederlandse Bosinventarisatie (NBI-7), met betrekking tot de gehanteerde methoden, de efficiency van de inzet van mensen en middelen, en de aansluiting bij actuele ontwikkelingen in beheer en beleid van het Nederlandse bos en de internationale rapportage verplichtingen zoals in het kader van het klimaatbeleid. Het rapport constateert dat de NBI-7 betrouwbare gegevens levert over de structuur en samenstelling van het Nederlandse bos, de groei en ontwikkeling van het bos, en de omvang en verandering van het Nederlandse bosareaal. De NBI gegevens komen tegemoet aan een uitgebreide en diverse vraag naar informatie over het Nederlandse bos, de nauwkeurigheid en kwaliteit van de gegevens is voldoende en geeft geen aanleiding tot ingrijpende heroverweging van opzet of methodes. Ten behoeve van de transparantie en de kwaliteitsborging is het wenselijk om de gebruikte uitgangspunten, technieken en analysemethoden helder en eenduidig vast te leggen. Voor de statistische verwerking van de steekproef wordt een aantal aanbevelingen voor verbetering gedaan. Dit betreft onder andere het overstappen van variabele steekproefcirkels naar vaste plotstralen en het verwerken van de steekproef met een alternatief ontwerp. De basis van de steekproef, de bossenkaart, voldoet voor de steekproef. Door de resolutie te vergroten kunnen ook de kleinere boselementen in het landschap beter worden gemonitord. Uitbreiding van het steekproefnetwerk met opname van kleine bosjes (<0,5 hectare) wordt aangeraden. Daarnaast wordt aanbevolen om de nauwkeurigheid van de monitoring van het bosareaal waar mogelijk te verbeteren zodat ook de doelstelling van bosuitbreiding van de Bossenstrategie in volgende bosinventarisaties geëvalueerd kan worden. De werkwijze van de NBI-7 is efficiënt en kosteneffectief. De dichtheid van het steekproefnetwerk is toereikend, en kan evenals de vijfjaarlijkse meetfrequentie gehandhaafd blijven. De meeste opgenomen meetvariabelen zijn relevant; alleen houtkwaliteit kan als variabele vervallen. De opname van dood hout zou moeten worden aangepast, en de karakterisering van de hoofdboomsoort zou kunnen worden uitgebreid met een aantal mengings-categorieën. Kenmerken en gevolgen van verstoringen dienen beter te worden gedefinieerd. Het steekproefnetwerk leent zich niet tot opname van biodiversiteitsaspecten anders dan die van houtige planten. Informatie over andere soortgroepen dient uit andere meetnetten te worden afgeleid. Voor het monitoren van koolstof dient de steekproef te worden aangevuld met informatie over de bodem. De Nederlandse bosinventarisatie is een belangrijke basis voor discussie en gedachtenvorming. Het is daarom wenselijk om te zorgen voor goede en effectieve publieksvoorlichting. Daarbij is de vrije beschikbaarheid van de gegevens belangrijk voor de transparantie, en voor een breed gebruik van de NBI resultaten

Propagation-loss Characterization for Livestock Implantables at 433, 868, and 1400 MHz

International audienceAutomated systems based on wearable sensors for livestock monitoring are becoming increasingly popular. Specifically, wireless in-body sensors could yield relevant data such as ruminal temperature. The collection of such data requires an accurate characterization of the into out body wireless channel between the in-body sensor and the gateway. The aim of this study is to experimentally characterize the into -outbody propagation loss for cows and horses at 433, 868, and 1400 MHz. Measurements were conducted in vivo on five different fistulated cows and five horse cadavers using specialized robust in-body capsule antennas inside the animals' abdomen. Next, the in-body antenna gain was de-embedded from the wireless channel, and the into out body propagation loss was obtained as the difference between measured unobstructed line-of-sight path losses and into out body path losses. The measurements showed a body propagation loss of (mean±standard deviation) 30.8±4.1 dB, 44.5±4.8 dB, 54.2±4.7 dB for cows at 433, 868, and 1400 MHz, respectively. For horses, the body propagation losses were 23.2±3.8 dB, 31.0±4.7 dB, and 44.4±3.2 dB at 433, 868, and 1400 MHz, respectively. These results are important to determine the wireless range of WBANs to optimize the network topology and estimate the associated network cost for large-scale monitoring systems