Willem Proesmans

French National Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE) | INRAE · Agroécologie

Context Small forest fragments are often the most abundant type of semi-natural habitat in intensive agricultural landscapes. Wild pollinators can use these forest patches as nesting or foraging habitat. However, the importance of small forest fragments as pollinator habitat has been neglected so far. Objectives We evaluated the role of these fore...

Context Bumblebees are important pollinators for agricultural crops and wild plants. However, agricultural intensification and loss of semi-natural habitat may have adverse effects on colony performance. While mass-flowering crops may serve as food sources, landscapes dominated by intensive agriculture may be a poor bumblebee habitat compared to la...

Multiple global change pressures, and their interplay, cause plant-pollinator extinctions and modify species assemblages and interactions. This may alter the risks of pathogen host shifts, intra- or interspecific pathogen spread, and emergence of novel population or community epidemics. Flowers are hubs for pathogen transmission. Consequently, the...

Four new species of limnoterrestrial rhabdocoels (‘Typhloplanidae’ Graff, 1905) are described. One of these – Faunulus nielsi Houben, Proesmans & Artois gen. et sp. nov. – could not be unambiguously placed within an existing genus. Faunulus nielsi most closely resembles species of the genus Adenocerca Reisinger, 1924 but can be clearly distinguishe...

Cattle grazing profoundly affects abiotic and biotic characteristics of ecosystems. While most research has been performed on grasslands, the effect of large managed ungulates on forest ecosystems has largely been neglected. Compared to a base-line seminatural state, we investigated how long-term cattle grazing of birch forest patches affected the...

1. Cattle grazing profoundly affects abiotic and biotic characteristics of ecosystems. While most research has been performed on grasslands, the effect of large managed ungulates on forest ecosystems has largely been neglected. 2. Compared to a baseline semi-natural state, we investigated how long-term cattle grazing of birch forest patches affecte...

Contemporary forest management strives to satisfy contrasting demands on forest ecosystems by promoting multiple ecosystem services. These services are affected in varied manners by alternative management actions operating at local or landscape scales, potentially leading to trade‐offs and synergies that may impede or encourage forest managers to c...

Disturbances are an integral part of ecosystem dynamics. However, large- scale, intensive and non-recurrent disturbances often have disastrous and sometimes irreversible consequences for biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. In this article we study the impact of World War I on biodiversity in frontline forests that were totally destroyed. By loo...

ContextTo safeguard insect pollinators and their pollination services, we need to understand how landscape structure regulates the distribution of resources that sustain pollinator populations. However, evidence of how pollinator communities benefit from the variety of resources distributed across different habitat types is scarce.Objectives To exp...

Inventarisatie van bijen in het Brugse openbaar groen met daaraan gekoppeld beheeradvies om het openbaar groen bijvriendelijker in te richten en te beheren.

• Macro‐detritivores are important fragmenters performing a first step in the ecosystem process of nutrient cycling. Woodlice and millipedes are important representatives of this group and their ecology and niche requirements are often regarded as very similar. However, it is unclear whether there is a difference in temporal activity throughout the...

Communities across trophic levels, and the functional roles they play, are vital for the sustained provision of ecosystem services. In forest systems, diversification of overstorey composition has been shown to be a key driver of biodiversity, but its influence on across‐trophic level relationships remains scarcely known. Species across trophic lev...

Met ongeveer 400 soorten vormen bijen een diverse insectengroep in ons land. De laatste jaren is er echter een achteruitgang zichtbaar in diversiteit en abundantie, die wordt veroorzaakt door allerlei factoren, zoals habitatvernietiging, pesticidengebruik en klimaatverandering. Heidegebieden zoals het Vloethemveld zijn één van onze meest bijzondere...

De Meetkerkse Moeren is een laaggelegen graslandgebied op de overgang tussen de polders en de pleistocene zandgronden. Het wordt gekenmerkt door een hoge grondwaterstand, kamgras-en zilverschoongraslanden en fragmenten van dotter- en veldrusgraslanden. De bijenfauna is er eerder soortenarm. In dit rapport worden de aanwezige en te verwachten soorte...

Met ongeveer 400 soorten vormen bijen een diverse insectengroep in ons land. De laatste jaren is er echter een achteruitgang zichtbaar in diversiteit en abundantie, die wordt veroorzaakt door allerlei factoren, zoals habitatvernietiging, pesticidengebruik en klimaatverandering. Kustduinen zijn voor veel bijensoorten een belangrijk habitat. Door onz...

Cet ouvrage richement illustré vous amène à la découverte des bourdons de la région transfrontalière franco-belge. Il présente et discute deux siècles d’observations, dont de nombreuses données récentes et des informations inédites dans certaines zones peu prospectées. Vous découvrirez les 31 espèces de bourdons de cette région et leur écologie da...

Global forest loss and fragmentation have strongly increased the frequency of forest patches smaller than a few hectares. Little is known about the biodiversity and ecosystem service supply potential of such small woodlands in comparison to larger forests. As it is widely recognized that high biodiversity levels increase ecosystem functionality and...

Temperate forests cover 16% of the global forest area. Within these forests, the understorey is an important biodiversity reservoir that can influence ecosystem processes and functions in multiple ways. However, we still lack a thorough understanding of the relative importance of the understorey for temperate forest functioning. As a result, unders...

Aim Forests are highly fragmented across Western Europe, making forest edges important features in many agricultural landscapes. Forest edges are subject to strong abiotic gradients altering the forest environment and resulting in strong biotic gradients. This has the potential to change the forest's capacity to provide multiple ecosystem services...

Agricultural landscapes in North-Western Europe have undergone drastic changes since the second half of last century. Because of agricultural intensification, and associated changes in agricultural practices, productivity has strongly increased. However, this went along with a decline in biodiversity in farmland. In these intensively managed agricu...

Ground dwelling arthropods present in agricultural systems regulate multiple ecosystem services (ES), such as nutrient and carbon cycling and biological pest control. The presence of semi-natural landscape features, such as the tree component of agroforestry systems (AFS), can contribute to functional agrobiodiversity and optimize the delivery of s...

Large areas of Western Europe are covered with intensively managed agricultural land. In these landscapes, wild pollinators depend on fragments of semi-natural habitat for foraging or reproduction. Small forest patches are often the most abundant type of semi-natural habitat in these agricultural landscapes. We investigated the role these patches p...

Woody networks of hedgerows, tree lines and forest patches can harbour a high biodiversity and may serve as an important species refuge in agricultural landscapes. In order to protect the biodiversity and associated potential ecosystem services of woody networks, we need to understand their drivers. We surveyed the plant diversity and calculated th...

PurposeMost of the agricultural landscape in Europe, and elsewhere, consists of mosaics with scattered fragments of semi-natural habitat like small forest fragments. Mutual interactions between forest fragments and agricultural areas influence ecosystem processes such as nutrient cycling, a process strongly mediated by the macrodetritivore communit...

1. Worldwide, forest fragmentation induces edge effects, thereby strongly altering the forest microclimate and abiotic characteristics in the forest edge compared to the forest interior. The impact of edge-to-interior gradients on abiotic parameters has been extensively studied, but we lack insights on how biodiversity, and soil communities in part...

Mixed forest with multiple tree species is expected to create heterogeneous habitat and diverse niches for the canopy arthropod community. We assessed arthropod abundance, order richness, and community composition in the crowns of saplings of nine temperate tree species in two plantations of a recently established tree diversity experiment in Belgi...

Until recently two closely related species of the genus Trichoniscus were known from Belgium (i.e. T. pusillus and T. provisorius). Identification to species level is only possible after examination of male pleopods. In autumn 2015 males with different shaped exopods of the first pleopods where found in a forest fragment in Chaudfontaine (Liège). I...

Six taxa of limnoterrestrial rhabdocoels are discussed, two of them, both belonging to Typhloplanidae Graff, 1905, are new to science. Adenoplea reisingeri n. sp. can be distinguished from its congeners by the absence of a separate seminal receptacle, the presence of a copulatory bursa and the fact that it has an unarmed copulatory organ. Carcharod...

Arthropods play a crucial role in the decomposition of organic matter. Soil macrofauna, such as wood lice, earthworms and millipedes, represent the first step in the process of litter decomposition on forest floors. They reduce large particles to smaller sizes and are therefore functionally important regarding nutrient cycling. In this study we foc...

Arthropods play a crucial role in the decomposition of organic matter. Soil macrofauna, such as wood lice, earth worms and millipedes, represent the first step in the process of litter decomposition on forest floors. They reduce large particles to smaller sizes and are therefore functionally important regarding nutrient cycling. In this study we fo...

Currently, 51 species of millipedes have been recorded for the Belgian fauna. Here, we report the finding of an additional species, Cylindroiulus britannicus (Verhoeff, 1891). The species was found in ancient broadleaf forest near a research facility in Gontrode (East-Flanders) and in a parc in the centre of Ghent. In the neighboring countries, the...

Several field surveys conducted during 2009-2014 with attention for leaf mines of Diptera revealed thirteen species of leaf-mining flies new to the Belgian fauna: Agromyza archangelicae Hering, 1937; Agromyza flavipennis (Hendel, 1920); Agromyza spiraeoidarum Hering, 1954; Agromyza vicifoliae Hering 1932; Aulagromyza similis (Brischke, 1880); Phyto...

An overview of the morphology, taxonomy and distribution of all known species of the rhabdocoel taxon Acrochordonoposthia is provided. One new species A. vandeputae n. sp. is described from Graz (Austria). This new species can easily be distinguished from its congeners by the morphology of its copulatory organ, which contains a straight cirrus line...