
Christine CocquytMeise Botanic Garden · Research Department
Christine Cocquyt
PhD
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268
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Introduction
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Publications
Publications (268)
The Sahara and the Sahel are currently experiencing an increase in rainfall during the rainy season, possibly related to the strengthening of the hydrological cycle induced by global warming. However, the slowdown of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) might be able to counteract this trend, decreasing the North African monsoon r...
Kufferath (1932: 279) descibed a new monospecific desmid genus, Trapezodesmus Kufferath from dried material collected by Hyacinthe Julien Robert Vanderyst (1860-1934) in the Belgian Congo (currently the Democratic Republic of the Congo) for a single new species, Trapezodesmus vanderystii Kufferath, found in the following four colletions: The descri...
This study aimed to assess the impact of the Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) cage fish farming on the water quality in two selected bays of the Bukavu basin, Lake Kivu. Physicochemical parameters (pH, temperature, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, salinity, dissolved oxygen, transparency) were measured in situ using a COMBO HI 9...
The Sahara and the Sahel are currently experiencing an increase in rainfall during the rainy season, possibly related to the strengthening of the hydrological cycle induced by global warming. However, the slowdown of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) might be able to counteract this trend, decreasing the North African monsoon r...
Background and aims – Actinella species from Central Africa are only rarely reported. The acid waters from many stream and small rivers in the Congo Basin form a potential environment for species of this genus. We studied several samples from the region of Yangambi to confirm whether species belonging to this genus are present.
Material and methods...
Background and aims – Diatoms from tropical Central Africa are rarely studied and documented. Waters of the Congo Basin are often acidic and thus may be dominated by diatoms from the genus Eunotia, usually found in the benthos and periphyton, but rarely in the plankton. We investigated planktonic Eunotia species from the Eunotia asterionelloides co...
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Plisnier, P.-D., Kayanda, R., MacIntyre, S., Obiero, K., Okello, W., Vodacek, A., Cocquyt, C., Abegaz, H., Achieng, A., Akonkwa, B., Albrecht, C., Balagizi, C., Barasa, J., Bashonga, R.A., Bishobibiri A.B., Bootsma, H., Borges, A.V., Chavula, G., Dadi, T., De Keyzer, E.L.R., Doran,...
Characterizing the processes which cause upwelling in the East African Great Lakes enables prediction of the spatial–temporal variability of phytoplankton blooms and increases in fish abundance or incidence of fish kills. The influence of the southeast trade winds on the limnology of Lake Tanganyika is well known. Upwelling occurs to the south and...
To ensure the long-term sustainable use of African Great Lakes (AGL), and to better understand the functioning of these ecosystems, authorities, managers and scientists need regularly collected scientific data and information of key environmental indicators over multi-years to make informed decisions. Monitoring is regularly conducted at some sites...
Resumé : Cette étude visait à caractériser les cages d'élevage des poissons Tilapia dans quatre baies du sous bassin de Bukavu du Lac Kivu, entre janvier et février 2022 en RD Congo. Les caractéristiques physiques, notamment l'état et les types de cages, leur occupation, la profondeur de l'eau à l'emplacement des cages, les types de sédiments/subst...
A new species Surirella caljoniana sp. nov. is described from a unique microenvironment in the mountainous region of Türkiye. The taxon was found in a small soda spring which is an important water source for the Kızılırmak River. Surirella caljoniana is similar to Surirella brebissonii Krammer & Lange-Bertalot, S. brebissonii var. kuetzingii Kramme...
Lake Naivasha is one of only two large freshwater lakes in the Eastern Rift Valley of Kenya, East Africa. Together with its satellite lakes Crescent Island Crater, Oloidien and Sonachi, it comprises a great variety of pelagic and benthic habitats for aquatic biota, and its sediment record represents a unique archive of past climate change and long-...
This study aimed to assess the impact of the cage fish farming on the water quality in two selected bays of the Bukavu basin, Lake Kivu; from February to December 2021. Physicochemical parameters including pH, Temperature, EC, TDS, Salinity, DO, Transparency were sampled in situ using a COMBO HI 98129 multi-parameter probe, PCE-PHD1 probe and a Bla...
This work consisted in physically characterizing the floating cages used for farming Tilapia Nile in four bays of the sub-basin of Bukavu on Lake Kivu. The measurement of several parameters such as the depth of the water column and the distance of the cage taken by D-173 Bricodis decameter. The result shows that there are 218 cages of which 156 are...
Modern diatom assemblages were investigated in the Ounianga Lakes located in the driest part of the Chadian Sahara. These lakes still exist today due to groundwater seepage. They contain a variety of diatom species, one of which could not be identified. Here we describe a new species of Staurophora, S. ouniangaensis sp. nov. based on detailed light...
Background and aims – Massive algae growth resulting in a phytoplankton bloom is a very rare event in the meromictic and oligotrophic Lake Tanganyika. Such a bloom was observed in the north of the lake in September 2018. Phytoplankton species composition during this bloom is compared to a documented bloom in 1955, and to the composition in Septembe...
Oreochromis cf. korogwe and Coptodon rendalli, two tilapiine fishes introduced to Lake Chala (Kenya/Tanzania) ~ 40 years ago, may negatively affect the endemic Chala tilapia (Oreochromis hunteri) by competition for food. However, the actual threat posed by the introduced cichlids cannot be assessed without data on the local feeding habits of all th...
Background and aims – Epiphytic diatoms are excellent bio-indicators of the present and past ecological condition of aquatic ecosystems. In order to reconstruct the diatom history and to evaluate its diversity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, epiphytic diatoms were sampled from herbarium specimens of aquatic plants deposited at the National...
The occurrence of three species belonging to the small coenobia forming green algae Desmodesmus and Didymocystis is reported from the northernmost part of Lake Tanganyika, East Africa. During a monitoring between September 2011and October 2013 the highest number of cells of Desmodesmus bicellularis and Didymocystis comasii were observed in August a...
Assessment of the nomenclatural status of scientific names in the diatom genera Iconella, Surirella and Suriraya and provision of a new combination in Iconella.
An overview of the diatom research in the DR Congo is given based on literature data starting in 1938 with the work of Zanon and excluding the East African Lakes as these were already discussed in previous papers. For each literature record the diatom genera mentioned are presented as well as all diatom taxa described from the Congo as new. In tota...
Lake Ahémé (part of Ramsar 1017) is one of the most productive brackish water ecosystems and is the second-largest lake in Benin in terms of area, after Lake Nokoué. However, this lake has received little attention for hydrobiological studies, although it is subject to heavy pollution. Therefore, the present study aims to contribute to the monitori...
The freshwater crater lakes of western Uganda represent an important natural resource for the region’s rural
communities, but their capacity to provide drinking-quality water and other ecosystem services is being
threatened by rapidly intensifying human activity within their catchments. This study investigated the relationship
between the compositi...
During a recently started-up project in the Biosphere Reserve at Yangambi, DR Congo, an unknown Geissleria taxon was observed in a small tributary of the Congo River. This taxon is here described as new to science based on detailed light and scanning electron microscopy observations. Geissleria lubiluensis sp. nov. can be distinguished by the sligh...
In material collected in the Losambila river, a small tributary of the Congo River at Yangambi (Tshopo Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo), an unusual Eunotia species was observed. The same taxon was also detected in material taken at the beginning of 2018 in a small tributary of the Luapula river in the Haut-Katanga Province in the South o...
Diversity in unicellular organisms such as diatoms has evolved via multiple colonization events rather than by in situ diversification. However, a recent study demonstrated
that diatoms may also radiate, and that this mechanism is perhaps most relevant in isolated and long-term stable environments such as ancient lakes. Among others, the
endemic di...
We studied the distribution and stable carbon-isotopic (d 13 C) composition of various lipid biomarkers in suspended particulate matter (SPM) from the water column of Lake Chala, a permanently stratified crater lake in equatorial East Africa, to evaluate their capacity to reflect seasonality in water-column processes and associated changes in the l...
Epithemia hirudiniformis and three morphologically related taxa, described in Rhopalodia by O. Müller from material collected in East Africa at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century were re-evaluated and lectotypes designated. Rhopalodiella as a new subgenus is proposed which refines O. Müller's infrageneric classification and t...
Two new diatoms, Nitzschia fabiennejansseniana Cocquyt & Ryken sp. nov. and Nitzschia pseudoaequalis Cocquyt sp. nov., are described from Lake Challa, a deep crater lake in East Africa, based on light and electron microscopical observations. These Nitzschia species are morphologically similar to other needle-shaped, planktonic Nitzschia present in...
Two Mastogloia Thwaites ex W.Sm. taxa were found during a survey of the diatom flora of Lac de Guiers, Senegal. Based on all currently available literature, one taxon could be identified as M. belaensis M.Voigt, a species formerly described from Pakistan. The second species showed some resemblance to M. braunii Grunow. Analysis of the type of M. br...
During a routine biomonitoring project of the water quality in rivers and brooks in Flanders, Belgium, an unusual Ulnaria taxon was found that could not be identified using the currently available literature. Based on detailed light and scanning electron microscopy observations, the unknown taxon is described as new to science: Ulnaria verhaegenian...
Au cours des deux dernières décennies, l’étang de l’Orangerie dans le Jardin botanique de Meise (Belgique) est devenu, pour diverses raisons, plus eutrophisé et trouble, aboutissant finalement à la disparition totale des plantes aquatiques. Des carottes de sédiments ont été récoltées pour tenter de pouvoir reconstituer la façon dont la qualité de l...
To comply with the new phylogeny within the Surirellales as supported by molecular and morphological data, re-evaluations and re-combinations of taxa from and within the genera Surirella, Cymatopleura, and Stenopterobia and with the re-established genus Iconella are necessary. Since the African diatom flora is rich with taxa from these genera, espe...