Rein Brys's research while affiliated with Research Institute for Nature and Forest and other places
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Publications (187)
Lotic biomonitoring of fish fauna using environmental DNA methods could serve as a complementary technique to conventional, invasive, costly and time-consuming methods. Integration of eDNA-based detection methods into existing regulatory monitoring frameworks, however, requires further insights and the development of practical guidelines. One of th...
The American bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus [Shaw, 1802]) is one of the hundred most destructive Alien Invasive Species (AIS) worldwide that has invaded more than 40 countries across 4 continents. In Belgium, bullfrogs have occupied a large area in a relatively short period of time despite a decade of intensive management interventions. Acquirin...
This account presents information on all aspects of the biology of Liparis loeselii (L.) Rich. (Fen Orchid) that are relevant to understanding its ecological characteristics and behaviour. The main topics are presented within the standard framework of the Biological Flora of Britain and Ireland: distribution, habitat, communities, responses to biot...
Spread of nonindigenous species by shipping is a large and growing global problem that harms coastal ecosystems and economies and may blur coastal biogeographic patterns. This study coupled eukaryotic environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding with dissimilarity regression to test the hypothesis that ship-borne species spread homogenizes port communiti...
Background and Aims
Historical changes in environmental conditions and colonization-extinction dynamics have a direct impact on the genetic structure of plant populations. However, understanding how past environmental conditions influenced the evolution of species with high gene flow is challenging when signals for genetic isolation and adaptation...
Animals need to move between different habitats to successfully complete their life cycle. Anthropogenic activities and infrastructure impact animal movement, especially in the aquatic realm, due to habitat alteration (including fragmentation), pollution, overexploitation, the spread of invasive alien species and climate change. Gaining knowledge o...
The development of environmental DNA (eDNA) methods toward implementation as a cost-effective, nonlethal tool for fish biomonitoring in lotic environments requires insights on the temporal and spatial distribution of eDNA in river systems. Yet, little is known on how downstream eDNA dispersal is affected by the combination of river discharge and so...
Biological invasions contribute now more than ever to the global homogenization of fauna and flora. Large‐scale monitoring programs are, therefore, needed to detect incipient invasions and to evaluate management interventions. As conventional monitoring methods are constrained by large costs, environmental DNA (eDNA)‐based methods are increasingly...
Until recently, Belgium was spared from the establishment of Asian weatherfishes, globally spreading IAS by intentional and unintentional spillover from the food and aquarium trade. In spring 2019 however, some individuals were captured in a small pond in a nature reserve close to an area across the border with The Netherlands where a proliferating...
Rapidly responding to incipient invasions is the most effective strategy to counter alien invasive species (AIS). Reliable monitoring programs defined by a high detection resolution and applicable on vast geographical and temporal scales are therefore a prerequisite for the development of successful extermination actions. Moreover, local abundance...
The American bullfrog is a alien invasive species (AIS) that has colonized hundreds of ponds in Belgium in only twenty years. This large frog species consumes everything it encounters and thus imposes a severe pressure on native amphibians. The Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO) therefore closely monitors the spread of this invasive sp...
This publication is an output from EU COST Action DNAqua-Net (CA 15219 - Developing new genetic tools for bioassessment of aquatic ecosystems in Europe) and would not have been possible without the opportunities for international collaboration provided by the network, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). Therefore, ou...
We report on an established population of the beauty rat snake, Elaphe taeniura Cope,
1861, a large, oviparous colubrid native to Southeastern Asia, in Belgium. The snakes
have invaded a railroad system next to a city in the northeast of the country. Sightings exist from an area of 208 km², yet the core distribution is estimated to be no more than...
Spread of nonindigenous organisms by shipping is one of the largest threats to coastal ecosystems. Limited monitoring and understanding of this phenomenon currently hinder development of effective prevention policies. Surveying ports in North America, South America, Europe, Southeast Asia, and Australia we explored environmental DNA community profi...
We report on an established population of the beauty rat snake, Elaphe taeniura Cope, 1861, a large, oviparous colubrid native to Southeastern Asia, in Belgium. The snakes have invaded a railroad system next to a city in the northeast of the country. Our report is based on validated citizen science observations, supplemented with directed surveys....
The invasive American bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus) imperils freshwater biodiversity worldwide. Effective management hinges on early detection of incipient invasions and subsequent rapid response, as established populations are extremely difficult to eradicate. Although environmental DNA (eDNA) detection methods provide a highly sensitive alte...
The database of the ORCA project (A comparative analysis of ORganic and Conventional Agriculture's impact on aquatic biodiversity) comprises species occurrence data of different organism groups (zooplankton, macro-invertebrates, macrophytes, amphibians (eDNA) and fish (eDNA)) and data on physical, chemical and morphometric variables of 48 small far...
Monitoring of fish assemblages in the Belgian part of the North Sea (BPNS) mainly happens through trawling. While effective, this method is invasive and destructive as it disturbs bottom communities, catches non-target species and removes organisms from the environment. A more sustainable alternative for monitoring marine diversity is the use of en...
In recent years, environmental DNA analyses became increasingly integrated to detect and monitor the presence and abundance of rare organisms, especially in inaccessible aquatic habitats. Although it is generally proven that detection probabilities of eDNA surveys exceed those obtained via conventional techniques, these molecular approaches are, ho...
Sound environmental management decisions - in accordance with the EU WFD for aquatic ecosystems – mainly depend on reliable species presence- and distribution- data. Here we present a workflow from sampling strategies to results and decision making using eDNA metabarcoding analyses for fish, amphibians, and mussels from habitat to landscape scales...
Molecular-based monitoring relying on environmental DNA (eDNA) detection became routinely used around the world in the last few years, especially in aquatic environments. The large potential and increasing applications of this technique calls for technical improvements to optimize the reliability of these surveys. An important technical aspect in t...
Partial mycoheterotrophy, the ability of plants to obtain carbon from fungi throughout their life cycle in combination with photosynthesis, appears to be more common within the Plant Kingdom than previously anticipated. Recent studies using stable isotope analyses have indicated that isotope signatures in partially mycoheterotrophic plants vary wid...
In 2020, four populations of the marbled crayfish Procambarus virginalis, which is included on the list of Invasive Alien Species of Union concern, were discovered in northern Belgium. These records represent the first established populations of this invasive parthenogenetic species in the Benelux. The marbled crayfish seems wellestablished at all...
To effectively monitor, manage and protect aquatic species and understand their interactions, knowledge of their spatiotemporal distribution is needed. In this study, we used a fine‐scale spatiotemporal water sampling design, followed by environmental DNA (eDNA) 12S metabarcoding, to investigate occupancy patterns of a natural community of fish and...
The invasive American bullfrog ( Lithobates catesbeianus ) imperils freshwater biodiversity worldwide. Effective management includes rapid detection and response to incipient invasions, as established populations are extremely difficult to eradicate. Although environmental DNA (eDNA) approaches provide a highly sensitive alternative to conventional...
Oriental Weather Loaches are invasive fish species preferring lentic
waterbodies, such as backwaters, streams, swamps and periodically
flooded pools and meadows. There are seven species described within
this genus Misgurnus and several of them are increasingly spreading
as invasive species across the globe. In 2019 a first observation of
an Orienta...
Reconstructing the early history of species divergence and quantifying the level of standing genetic variation in diverging populations are central to our understanding of ecotype formation and ultimately speciation. In this study, we used single nucleotide polymorphisms to reconstruct the evolutionary history of species divergence in coastal dune...
Ecosystems are currently changing at unprecedented rates due to anthropogenic influences. Application of appropriate management regimes and mitigation measures requires knowledge of ecological community composition and monitoring of any changes that occur. Environmental DNA‐based monitoring is becoming increasingly common and offers substantial pot...
Background and aims:
Angiosperms vary remarkably in traits such as colour, size and shape of flowers, yet such variation generally tends to be low within species. In deceptive orchids, however, large variation in floral traits has been described, not only between, but also within populations. Nonetheless, the factors driving variation in floral tr...
The European weather loach (Misgurnus fossilis) is a cryptic and poorly known fish species of high conservation concern. The species is experiencing dramatic population collapses across its native range to the point of regional extinction. Although eDNA‐based approaches offer clear advantages over conventional field methods for monitoring rare and...
Isogenus nubecula is a critically endangered Plecoptera species. Considered extinct in the UK, I. nubecula was recently rediscovered (in one location of the River Dee, Wales), after 22 years of absence. In a similar way to many other species of Perlodidae, I. nubecula could be utilised as a bio-indicator, for assessing water quality and health stat...
1.Heterostyly is a floral polymorphism that has been observed in at least 28 different plant families across the globe. Heterostyly is characterized by reciprocal arrangement of the anthers and stigmas and the presence of a heteromorphic self‐incompatibility system, which together have been hypothesized to promote cross‐pollination and to avoid int...
21 Isogenus nubecula is a critically endangered Plecoptera species. Considered extinct in the UK, the 22 species was recently rediscovered in one location of the river Dee in Wales after 22 years of absence. As 23 many species belonging to the Perlodidae, this species can be a bio-indicator, utilised for assessing 24 water quality and health status...
Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding is a promising tool for rapid, non‐invasive biodiversity monitoring. In this study, eDNA metabarcoding is applied to explore the spatial and temporal distribution of fish communities in two aquaculture ponds and to evaluate the detection sensitivity of this tool for low‐density species alongside highly abundan...
Environmental DNA (eDNA) barcoding has a high potential to increase the cost-efficiency of species detection and monitoring in aquatic habitats. However, despite vast developments in the field, many published assays often lack detailed validation and there is little to no commonly (agreed upon) standardization of protocols. In this study, we evalua...
Environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis is a rapid, non-invasive, cost-efficient biodiversity monitoring tool with enormous potential to inform aquatic conservation and management. Development is ongoing, with strong commercial interest, and new uses are continually being discovered. General applications of eDNA and guidelines for best practice in freshw...
In the absence of genetic diversity, plants rely on the capacity of phenotypic plasticity to cope with shifts in environmental conditions. Understanding the mechanisms behind phenotypic plasticity and how local phenotypic adjustments are transferred to clonal offspring, will provide insight into its ecological and evolutionary significance. Epigene...
The genetic diversity and structure of plant populations are determined by the interaction of three distinct processes: gene flow, genetic drift and natural selection. These processes are to some extent dependent on the mating system of plants, which in turn is largely determined by floral morphology and the level of herkogamy in particular. In thi...
Vegetative dormancy, that is the temporary absence of aboveground growth for ≥ 1 year, is paradoxical, because plants cannot photosynthesise or flower during dormant periods. We test ecological and evolutionary hypotheses for its widespread persistence. We show that dormancy has evolved numerous times. Most species displaying dormancy exhibit life‐...
Distyly is a floral polymorphism characterized by the presence of two discrete morphs with reciprocal positioning of anthers and stigmas in flowers on different plants in the same population. For a distylous system to function effectively, the presence of suitable pollinators that transfer pollen from the two morphs (a short-styled S-morph and a lo...
Heterostyly, i.e. the reciprocal positioning of anthers and stigmas, is a floral polymorphism that is thought to promote disassortative (i.e. between-morph) pollination and to maintain genetic diversity within populations. Recent research, however, has shown several cases of heterostylous plant species in which the reciprocal positioning of the sex...
Genetic divergence by environment is a process whereby selection causes the formation of gene flow barriers between populations adapting to contrasting environments and is often considered to be the onset of speciation. Nevertheless, the extent to which genetic differentiation by environment on small spatial scales can be detected by means of neutr...
Environmental DNA (or eDNA) refers to the traces of DNA (originating from skin, gametes or mucus for example) which are left by any given organism or group of organisms in any given ecosystem. Using eDNA, it is possible to therefore assess the presence or absence of either a specific species (a more targeted approach) or the whole community (a meta...
Gel results from PCR analyses conducted for verification of Tulasnella species presence/absence in (A)
Liparis loeselii and (B)
Dactylorhiza root samples using an enhanced version of the Tulasnella specific primer combination for ITS (namely ITS1ngs/ITS4-Tul2, described in Oja et al., 2015). Similar results were obtained using the primer pair ITS1/...
Two distinct nutritional syndromes have been described in temperate green orchids. Most orchids form mycorrhizas with rhizoctonia fungi and are considered autotrophic. Some orchids, however, associate with fungi that simultaneously form ectomycorrhizas with surrounding trees and derive their carbon from these fungi. This evolutionarily derived cond...
Reproductive isolation caused by divergent natural selection arising from differences between ecological environments or ecological interactions represents a major mechanism contributing to speciation, but its relative importance is poorly known. In this study, controlled reciprocal crossings and seed germination experiments were combined with gene...
Floral traits and the relative contribution of autonomous selfing to total seed set varies geographically and is often driven by the availability and abundance of suitable pollinators and/or the presence of co-flowering relatives. In the latter case, competition for pollinator services and costs of hybridization can select for floral traits that re...
What factors determine the distribution of a species is a central question in ecology and conservation biology. In general, the distribution of plant species is assumed to be controlled by dispersal or environmentally controlled recruitment. For plant species which are critically dependent on mycorrhizal symbionts for germination and seedling estab...
Orchid species are critically dependent on mycorrhizal fungi for completion of their life cycle, particularly during the early stages of their development when nutritional resources are scarce. As such, orchid mycorrhizal fungi play an important role in the population dynamics, abundance, and spatial distribution of orchid species. However, less is...
Premise of the study:
Hybridization may pose severe threats to the long-term survival of the parental taxa through introgression and the formation of hybrid swarms. However, when the resulting hybrids show strong male and female sterility, backcrossing and introgression are unlikely to occur, but the parental species may suffer from reduced male a...
Background and aims:
In orchid species that have populations occurring in strongly contrasting habitats, mycorrhizal divergence and other habitat-specific adaptations may lead to the formation of reproductively isolated taxa and ultimately to species formation. However, little is known about the mycorrhizal communities associated with recently div...
In plant species that critically rely on mycorrhizal symbionts for germination and seedling establishment, distance-dependent decline of mycorrhizal fungi in the soil can be hypothesized to lead to significant spatial clustering as a result of nonrandom spatial patterns of seedling establishment. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the abundan...
Premise of the study:
Herbivory affects pollination success and reproductive output in plants. However, the different stages in the process from pollination to seed maturation have hardly been investigated within the context of herbivory. Herbivory might affect these stages via its effect on geitonogamous pollination and thereby the proportion of...
In plants that are able to self-fertilize, autonomous selfing has been hypothesized to function as an effective mechanism that prevents heterospecific mating. However, there have only been few studies that have assessed the relative and absolute contribution of different modes of selfing to total reproductive isolation acting between species. Becau...
Groenknolorchis (Liparis loeselii (L.) Rich.) is een in Vlaanderen met uitsterven bedreigde soort die nog slechts op drie groeiplaatsen in Vlaanderen aanwezig is. Bovendien geniet de soort een strikte bescherming via de Habitatrichtlijn en heeft de overheid de plicht om de populaties van groenknolorchis in goede staat van
instandhouding te brengen...
In hermaphroditic plants, theory for mating system evolution predicts that populations will evolve to either complete autonomous selfing or complete outcrossing, depending on the balance between automatic selection favouring self-fertilization and costs resulting from inbreeding depression (ID). Theory also predicts that selection for selfing can o...
One of the key components of an organism's life history is the delay of reproduction until it reaches or returns to an optimal size. While we know climate can influence vital rates that shape life-history strategies, it is also critical to understand the effects of climate change on rapid life history evolution, which might modify the influence of...
In plant species that rely on mycorrhizal symbioses for germination and seedling establishment, seedling recruitment and temporal changes in abundance can be expected to depend on fungal community composition and local environmental conditions. However, disentangling the precise factors that determine recruitment success in species that critically...
Herbivores can have a major influence on plant fitness. The direct impact of herbivory on plant reproductive output has long been studied, and recently also indirect effects of herbivory on plant traits and pollinator attraction received increasing attention. However, the link between these direct and indirect effects has seldom been studied. In th...
Multispecies assemblages often consist of a complex network of interactions. Describing the architecture of these networks is a first step in understanding the stability and persistence of these species-rich communities. Whereas a large body of research has been devoted to the description of above-ground interactions, much less attention has been p...
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Although rewarding orchids are believed to have a high pollination efficiency, pollination success is often low, suggesting that rewarding orchids may be prone to pollen limitation. Assuming that selfing contributes significantly to fruit and seed set (i.e., reproductive assurance) and that the quality of selfed seeds is high (i.e., low inbreedin...
Background and Aims Distyly is a floral polymorphism characterized by the presence of two discrete morphs with reciprocal positioning of anthers and stigmas in flowers on different plants within the same population. Although reciprocal herkogamy and associated floral traits are generally thought to be discrete and strict polymorphisms, little is kn...
Approximately 3.4% of the predicted total number of species on Earth is plants. Plants and their communities
are an indispensable part of the Earth’s biosphere as plants not only affect ecosystem functioning, but also
provide essential ecosystem services for the benefit of humans. However, plants face many threats and current extinction rates have...
This account presents information on all aspects of the biology of Epipactis palustris (L.) Crantz that are relevant to understanding its ecological characteristics and behaviour. The main topics are presented within the framework of the Biological Flora of the British Isles: distribution, habitat, communities, responses to biotic factors, response...
