Pieter Vanormelingen

• PhD Biology
• Researcher at Natuurpunt

Online portals have facilitated collecting extensive biodiversity data by naturalists, offering unprecedented coverage and resolution in space and time. Despite being the most widely available class of biodiversity data, opportunistically collected records have remained largely inaccessible to community ecologists since the imperfect and highly het...

https://www.gbif.org/dataset/2c38cf8a-f981-4dfb-bc9d-dd2b6fc792ed Waarnemingen.be / observations.be - List of species observed in Belgium is a species checklist dataset published by Natuurpunt and Natagora. Waarnemingen.be (in Dutch, managed by Natuurpunt) and observation.be (in French, managed by Natagora) are the two local Belgian subsites of the...

A wide network of para-taxonomists and citizen science initiatives in Belgium has allowed to intensify contemporary targeted field surveys focusing on elusive/rarer species and their (threatened) habitats, but also on a more widespread monitoring of common species. This has resulted in 24 wild bee species recorded for the first time in Belgium, the...

The strong and rapid decline of pollinators and other insects has recently drawn attention from both scientists and the media. The main threats to insects are habitat loss and fragmentation, pesticides, climate change and invasive species (such as the Yellow-legged Hornet Vespa velutina). To halt this decline it is important to conserve and manage...

The strong and rapid decline of pollinators and other insects has recently drawn attention from both scientists and the media. The main threats to insects are habitat loss and fragmentation, pesticides, climate change and invasive species (such as the Yellow-legged hornet). To halt this decline, it is crucial to conserve and manage areas that are i...

The terrestrial isopod Armadillidium opacum (C. Koch, 1841) is a vulnerable species characteristic of ancient forests on well-buffered soils. Here, we report records of the species outside forest, resulting from a pitfall trap campaign in herbaceous habitats in the valleys of the Demer basin (Belgium). A. opacum was trapped on six locations in four...

https://www.gbif.org/dataset/2c38cf8a-f981-4dfb-bc9d-dd2b6fc792ed Waarnemingen.be / observations.be - List of species observed in Belgium is a species checklist dataset published by Natuurpunt and Natagora. Waarnemingen.be (in Dutch) and observation.be (in French) are the two local Belgian subsites of the global observation.org website. The checkl...

Paleolimnological records from temperate South-Central Chilean lakes revealed a recent and marked increase in the relative abundances of the key-planktonic diatom species Asterionella formosa and Aulacoseira distans. To better understand these changes, we studied the ecological niches of planktonic diatoms in 42 temperate Chilean lakes (36–43°S). W...

De voorbije decennia groeide het besef dat ook tuinen en openbaar groen een rol kunnen spelen in de strijd tegen de achteruitgang van biodiversiteit. Kenmerkend is dat veel van de planten er zijn aangeplant, waarbij esthetiek een belangrijke factor is. Als we tuinen en openbaar groen willen inzetten in functie van behoud van biodiversiteit, dan lu...

In dit rapport wordt een bijenplan voorgesteld in opdracht van en voor de gemeente Boutersem, gebaseerd op een uitgebreide inventarisatie van de wilde bijen in de gemeentelijke groengebieden. In 2021 werden doorheen het vliegseizoen één of meerdere bezoeken gebracht aan 17 gemeentelijke groengebieden. De aanwezige bijen werden er geïnventariseerd e...

Waterkevers zijn de soortenrijkste groep van de waterinsecten en hoewel weinig bestudeerd zijn het uitermate geschikte indicatoren voor allerlei watertypes. De diversiteit en ecologie van deze weinig gekende soortgroep wordt hier belicht aan de hand van een gevalsstudie van 28 kleine waterlichamen in Walenbos. De resultaten worden gekaderd in een m...

The peacock butterfly is abundant and widespread in Europe. It is generally believed to be univoltine (one generation per year): adults born in summer overwinter and reappear again in spring to reproduce. However, recent flight patterns in western Europe mostly show three peaks during the year: a first one in spring (overwintering butterflies), a s...

Alle Taxa Biodiversiteit Inventarisatie en 30 jaar natuurbeheer

1. Urbanisation is often put forward as an important driver of biodiversity loss, including for pollinators such as wild bees. However, recent evidence shows that the mosaics of urban green spaces, and in particular certain categories of informal urban green spaces (IGS), can play an important role to help native wild bees thrive in cities. 2. Here...

De Boomklever, 49(1): 6-19.

Deze studie kadert in het Duurzaam Biodiversiteitsproject ’In het spoor van reizende mensen, dieren en planten: biodiversiteitsversterking en landschapsbeleving langs de IJzerenweg in de Getevallei’. Het hoofddoel van dit project betreft enerzijds de biodiversiteitsversterking van de 15 meter brede groenzone langs de voormalige spoorwegzate. Hiervo...

Soil micro-organisms drive the global carbon and nutrient cycles that underlie essential ecosystem functions. Yet, we are only beginning to grasp the drivers of terrestrial microbial diversity and biogeography, which presents a substantial barrier to understanding community dynamics and ecosystem functioning. This is especially true for soil protis...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Pollinators play an important role in terrestrial ecosystems by providing key ecosystem functions and services to wild plants and crops, respectively. The sustainable provision of such ecosystem functions and services requires diverse pollinator communities over the seasons. Despite evidence that climate warming shifts pollinator phenology, a gener...

In nature reserve Vorsdonkbos-Turfputten (Aarschot, Belgium) gynes of the very rare and parasitic ant species Myrmica karavajevi (Arnoldi, 1930) were discovered during two consecutive years, suggesting the presence of a M. karavajevi population in the area. In 2018 a gyne was collected with pitfall traps and in 2019 a gyne was collected in the nest...

The Belgian Red List of bees is an assessment of the conservation status of Belgian bee species according to the IUCN guidelines for application of the international IUCN Red List criteria at regional and national levels. It identifies the extinction threat to species at this geographical scale. These results can be used to implement conservation a...

Honey bees and wild bees are often mentioned in one move in communication and actions for bees. However, next to obvious similarities, there are also highly relevant differences between both. In this forum paper we discuss the relation between honey bees, wild bees and nature reserves, and based on that advice on the placement of honey bee hives in...

The increasing urbanization process is hypothesized to drastically alter (semi‐)natural environments with a concomitant major decline in species abundance and diversity. Yet, studies on this effect of urbanization, and the spatial scale at which it acts, are at present inconclusive due to the large heterogeneity in taxonomic groups and spatial scal...

Diatoms emerged in the Mesozoic period and presently constitute one of the main primary producers in the world’s ocean and are of a major economic importance. In the current study, using whole genome sequencing of ten accessions of the model diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum, sampled at broad geospatial and temporal scales, we draw a comprehensive l...

Thermal lake properties are sensitive to changes in windiness and precipitation, and affect the physical and chemical properties of the water column, which in turn control phytoplankton dynamics and primary production. We assessed the use of phytoplankton pigment profiling as a potential indicator of stratification conditions in temperate lakes in...

Diatoms emerged in the Mesozoic period and presently constitute one of the main primary producers in the world’s ocean and are of a major economic importance. In the current study, using whole genome sequencing of ten accessions of the model diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum , sampled at broad geospatial and temporal scales, we draw a comprehensive...

Although polar regions are characterised by extreme environment conditions with overall low temperatures and often pronounced diurnal to seasonal temperature fluctuations, diatoms (Bacillariophyceae) thrive in a wide range of nonmarine polar habitats, suggesting that they are well adapted to these harsh conditions. In this study, tolerance to freez...

GBIF occurrence dataset: https://www.gbif.org/dataset/71cfd412-6327-4ec7-8035-d8b2d0509ac5 Waarnemingen.be - Hymenoptera occurrences in Flanders and the Brussels Capital Region, Belgium is a species occurrence dataset published by Natuurpunt. The dataset contains over 260,000 bee, wasp and ant (Hymenoptera) occurrences of 1,188 naturally occurring...

Land dunes are a special environment for solitary bees. Land dunes are mainly represented in Flanders by the vast sandy plains in the Kempen, but small and isolated relicts are also present in northern East Flanders. From previous research it appeared that they still contain a special fauna, including solitary bees. Bees were inventoried in 2017 by...

Diatoms are one of the most abundant and arguably the most species‐rich group of protists. Diatom species delimitation has been often based exclusively on the recognition of morphological discontinuities without investigation of other lines of evidence. Even though DNA sequences and reproductive experiments have revealed several examples of (pseudo...

Veel bedreigde soorten planten en dieren zijn op een dood spoor beland. Door hun voorkomen in kleine, genetisch verarmde relictpopulaties slagen ze er vaak niet meer in terug grotere populaties op te bouwen of nieuw leefgebied te koloniseren. Voor deze soorten is een optimaal beheer en in veel gevallen actief verplaatsen van relictpopulaties nodig...

De vraag naar gegevens over de toestand van de biodiversiteit is sterk toegenomen. Tegelijk zijn er vaak te weinig kwaliteitsvolle biodiversiteitsgegevens om vragen van beheerders en het beleid te beantwoorden. Burgerwetenschap of citizen science kan hierop in vele gevallen een antwoord bieden. De lancering van waarnemingen.be in 2008 in België hee...

Is there a future for Lapwings nesting on arable land ? Lapwing Vanellus vanellus populations underwent strong changes in recent times in Flanders (northern Belgium). There was a large increase in the second part of the previous century when the species started breeding on arable land (mostly maize crops). Recent years saw a steep decline. We...

De doelstelling van het uitgevoerde project was kennis verzamelen over de geselecteerde soortengroepen binnen een goed voorbeeld van een oud kasteelpark, in dit geval Provinciedomein Huizingen. De hier uitgeteste en bijgewerkte methodiek kan nadien uitgerold worden als standaard voor andere oude kasteelparken. We onderzochten het Provinciaal Domein...

Incomplete reproductive isolation between genetically distinct taxa provides an interesting opportunity for speciation and adaptation studies. This phenomenon is well-described in macro-organisms, but less experimental evidence is available for unicellular eukaryotes. Here, we document the sympatric occurrence of genetically differentiated populati...

Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus) populations underwent strong changes in recent times in Flanders (northern Belgium). There was a large increase in the second part of the previous century when the species started breeding on arable land (mostly maize crops). Recent years saw a steep decline. We conducted a two year study (2016-2017) in the province of V...

Recent morphology-based investigations of freshwater Arctic diatoms suggest that many species remain to be discovered, reflecting a unique polar flora. During a survey of the freshwater diatom flora of northern Billefjorden, including the Petuniabukta fjord region (Spitsbergen), several morphodemes belonging to the Achnanthidium minutissimum specie...

Microalgae are increasingly used as commercial sources of high-value compounds. However, the nature and genetic basis of variation in commercially relevant traits remain understudied. This study focuses on the green alga Haematococcus pluvialis, well-known for accumulating the carotenoid astaxanthin. We examined intra-and in-terspecific variation a...

A recent detailed survey of the Maritime Antarctic diatom flora using a fine-grained taxonomy resulted in the description of many new species of Pinnularia in general and the section Distantes, including the P. borealis species complex, in particular. Moreover, DNA-based studies of P. borealis revealed that many more species need to be described wi...

Poster presented on Symposium 15 year Natuur.focus

The colonies of Microcystis, one of the most common bloom-forming cyanobacteria worldwide, harbor a diverse community of microorganisms. Among these, naked amoebae feeding on Microcystis cells can strongly influence natural Microcystis population dynamics. In this study, we investigated the species diversity of these amoebae based on 26 Microcystis...

Many degraded waterbodies around the world are subject to strong proliferations of cyanobacteria – notorious for their toxicity, high biomass build-up and negative impacts on aquatic food webs – the presence of which puts serious limits on the human use of affected water bodies. Cyanobacterial blooms are largely regarded as trophic dead ends since...

Benthic filamentous algae have evident advantages in wastewater treatment over unicellular microalgae, including the ease in harvesting and resistance to predation. To assess the potentials of benthic filamentous algae in treating horticultural wastewater under natural conditions in Belgium, three strains and their mixture with naturally wastewater...

Haematococcus pluvialis has received much interest because it can accumulate large quantities of the pigment astaxanthin. While different isolates of H. pluvialis seem to differ considerably in their physiology, their phylogenetic diversity has not yet been thoroughly studied. We studied the species diversity in a set of temperate European strains...

Given their large population sizes and presumed high dispersal capacity, protists are expected to exhibit homogeneous population structure over large spatial scales. On the other hand, the fragmented and short-lived nature of the lentic freshwater habitats that many protists inhabit promotes strong population differentiation. We used microsatellite...

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