New paper in BMC biology, lead by Daniela Zeppilli. This article describes a new species of nematod living in deep-sea hydrothermal vents of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Rather large for a nematod (up to 9 mm length), Oncholaimus dyvae likely feeds on chimiosynthetic micro-organisms, and might host bacterial symbionts. Read more at https://doi.org/10.1186/s40850-019-0044-y .
[caption id="attachment_742” align="aligncenter” width="1418”]Oncholaimus dyvae sp. nov. : head and buccal cavity (scale bar: 20µm).[/caption]
Our paper entitled “Stable isotope ratios of carbon, nitrogen and sulphur and mercury concentrations as descriptors of trophic ecology and contamination sources of Mediterranean whales” just came out in Chemosphere. Co-lead by ULiège’s Marianna Pinzone and France Damseaux, this article shows that differences in dietary habits influence mercury contamination in Mediterranean cetaceans (sperm whales, fin whales and long-finned pilot whales). Read the paper at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2019.124448
[caption id="attachment_751” align="alignnone” width="1210”]Isotopic and contamination niches of the studied species.
From 06/05 to 07/06, I took part in the second leg of the Chubacarc research cruise. Onboard RV L’Atalante, we spent 4 (intense) weeks sampling fauna in deep-sea hydrothermal vents from back-arc basins in the Pacific Ocean. The campaign was a success, as we not only come home with hundreds of samples, but also discovered a new vent field (stay tuned for more info about that soon-ish). I learned a lot of new things, as it was my first deep-sea cruise, and my first time sampling with a ROV.
After a long time in the making, I’m very pleased to announce that our paper about how changes of sea ice cover impacts food web structure just came out in Scientific Reports. While many polar regions currently lose sea ice quickly, some parts of East Antarctica recently saw a lot of it, even in summer. Here, we used stable isotopes of C, N and S to build models which show that absence of summer sea ice breakup deeply influences dominant consumers’ feeding habits.
New paper out! For this one, we (lead by Ana Carolina Pizzochero) investigated how biological parameters and ecological habits influenced contamination by legacy and emerging organic pollutants (including chlorinated and brominated flame retardants, dioxins, and furans) in whitemouth croakers (a.k.a. corvinas, Micropogonas furnieri) from Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil. This species is one of the most commercially important species along the Atlantic coast of South America, making its contamination a matter of public health.
Our new paper entitled “Modelling species response to climate change in sub-Antarctic islands: echinoids as a case study for the Kerguelen Plateau” is out in the Proceedings of the 2nd symposium on the Kerguelen Plateau: Marine Ecosystems and Fisheries. It is lead by Thomas Saucède, who leads the PROTEKER research programme. This collaborative project, funded by the French Polar Institute (IPEV) aims to assess impacts of global change on marine ecosystems of the Kerguelen Archipelago (Sub-Antarctic islands).
Our paper entitled “Is the trophic diversity of marine benthic consumers decoupled from taxonomic and functional trait diversity? Isotopic niches of Arctic communities” just came out in Limnology and Oceanography. In this paper, lead by IOPAN’s Maria Włodarska‐Kowalczuk, we looked at how environmental perturbations (here, glacier melting) influenced benthic diversity in Arctic fjords. Our results suggest that glacially impacted areas have a lower specific and functional diversity, but that impoverished communities living there occupy a similar isotopic niche and have comparable trophic diversity.
We just received news that our project entitled “Transfer of energy in hydrothermal vents - an in situ experiment” will be funded by ISblue (Interdisciplinary graduate school for the Blue Planet). Together with Teresa Amaro, Gauthier Schaal, Marjolaine Matabos and Jozée Sarrazin, we will set up an deliberate isotopic tracer addition (pulse-chase) experiment in mussel beds from hydrothermal vents of the Mid-Atlantic ridge). In doing so, we aim to understand how symbiont-bearing Bathymodiolin mussels, that are considered foundation species, influence rates and pathways of carbon fixation in hydrothermal vent food webs .
On 28 and 29/03, I participated in the 2019 edition of the Benelux Association of Stable Isotope Scientists (BASIS) annual symposium. The event was impeccably hosted by our colleagues from the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) on the lovely island of Texel. Both days were packed with great talks and posters, fruitful discussions with both familiar faces and new acquaintances, and even a tour of NIOZ’ (very impressive) stable isotope lab.
2019 starts well, as our new paper was just published in Freshwater Biology. It’s quite a change of scenery from my usual research, as it focuses on anthropogenic impacts on freshwater ecosystems. We looked at how river channelisation influenced feeding habits of young-of-the-year fishes in River Meuse. Our results suggest that habitat modification could be linked with increased competition for food.
Read more at https://doi.org/10.1111/fwb.13239 [caption id="attachment_613” align="alignnone” width="1238”]Isotopic niches of young-of-the-year fishes in the two localities.