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Comparing fruit fly infestations in agroecological and conventional cucurbit farming. A test case in East-Central Tanzania
No full textDiversity of tree and liana species in Lomami National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Get PDFDisentangling national carbon fluxes of African rainforest countries.
Get PDFAfrican tropical ecosystems possess great potential for nature-based solutions in mitigating fossil fuel emissions through absorbing and storing carbon in soil and vegetation. However, past studies mostly focused on pan-continental carbon balance quantification, often ignoring regional differences. Remarkably, few science-informed attempts have been made to refine carbon flux estimates at the national level within African rainforest countries. Yet, such refined estimates are essential to improve the quantification of Nationally Determined Contributions for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. In this contribution, we present preliminary results on quantifying national carbon budgets for African rainforest countries by disentangling three major carbon fluxes for the period 2001-2015: (1) net carbon uptake in tropical savannas, woodlands, and forests, (2) carbon losses from land use change, and (3) fossil fuel emissions. Carbon fluxes in intact forests are quantified using ground-based data1 , while the carbon uptake by intact savannas and woodlands is based on Net Primary Productivity assessments estimated from remote sensing products2,3. Furthermore, carbon emissions from land-use change are estimated by analyzing various satellite images and related products providing data on land-use change4 6, soil and tree carbon stocks7 12, fire emissions3,13,14, and carbon recovery in regrowing forests15 18 in tropical Africa. Country-level fossil fuel emissions are taken from the Global Carbon Project database19 to complete the national carbon balances. We reveal that most Central and East African rainforest countries acted as net carbon sinks between 2001 and 2015, while West African rainforest countries exhibited minimal net carbon loss. Overall, tropical ecosystems have played an important role in mitigating carbon emissions due to land-use change and fossil fuels in African rainforest countries, particularly in Congo Basin countries. Our insights into nation-level carbon fluxes will be crucial for informing African rainforest countries, guiding climate policies to stay on track to keep global warming well below 2°C
A reference library of plant DNA barcodes to identify pollen loads in cultivated areas of East-Central Tanzania
No full textIntroduction: Pollen metabarcoding represents a valuable tool for the characterisation of pollen loads and pollination networks in agricultural landscapes. However, a significant limitation lies in the frequent lack of comprehensive taxon coverage within plant reference databases. This is especially the case for the Afrotropical Region. With the general objective of characterising the pollination networks in a large experimental setup established in Morogoro (East-Central TZ), we assembled a library of reference DNA barcodes from plants from this area. Methods: Herbarium vouchers were collected in plots where agroecological and conventional cucurbit farming was implemented. Duplicated herbarium samples were obtained from the same plant, morphologically identified and deposited at the Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania and the herbarium of Meise Botanic Garden in Belgium (herbarium code: BR). DNA was extracted from leave clips and used to amplify four loci (matK, rbcL, ITS1, ITS2). Results: The 140 samples collected belong to 106 plant taxa from 33 families. The plant DNA barcodes obtained for the four target markers have been made accessible through the Barcoding of Life Data Systems (BOLD, project: ISeBAF). Conclusions: These data will further improve the performance of metabarcoding identification in pollen loads from Afrotropical pollinators
Design overview and performances evaluation of the VenSpec-U instrument: a double UV imaging spectrometer to analyze sulfured gases in Venus’s atmosphere
No full textVenSpec-U is one of the three channels of the VenSpec suite onboard the ESA’s mission Envision to Venus, whose launch is foreseen in 2031. It is a UV spectrometer operating in the 190-380 nm range aiming at analyzing the sulfured gases in the high atmosphere of Venus by absorption spectroscopy and investigating the unknown “UV absorber”, thus contributing to answer one of the key questions the Envision mission will address: “How has Venus’ climate become so hostile”. VenSpec-U, developed under LATMOS (Guyancourt, France) PI-ship, is part of the spectrometer suite named ”VenSpec” led by DLR (Berlin, Germany). After presenting the Envision mission, the VenSpec suite and the scientific objectives and requirement of VenSpec-U, this manuscript provides a short overview of the current instrument design and presents the expected performances as well as the methods used to assess them
Following the HCl cycle over three Martian seasons in Mars year 36
No full textHydrogen chloride (HCl) was recently discovered in the Mars atmosphere using the ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) onboard ESA's ExoMars mission. Its discovery is the first confirmation of an active presence of any chlorine-bearing species in the modern Mars atmosphere. TGO permitted investigations of HCl altitude profiles with high precision and showed that water vapor and ice clouds play an important role in the production and temporary loss of HCl. TGO cannot always sample the Martian atmosphere near the surface, and when those measurements are possible, they are highly affected by the increase in dust opacity, nor can TGO observe at equatorial latitudes with high cadence, due to orbital constraints, so its measurements are not suitable to obtain instantaneous global coverage. In this work, we present a methodic investigation of the Martian atmosphere, in support of the ExoMars TGO mission, targeting HCl and water using iSHELL at NASA/InfraRed Telescope Facility. Our observations mapped the Martian atmosphere, exploring three seasons in Martian Year 36. We observed the beginning of an increase in the HCl abundances around LS = 249°–301°, followed by a drop in the abundances around LS = 319°. We confirmed a strong correlation between the spatial distribution of water vapor and HCl—both globally and locally—suggesting that water vapor plays an important role in the production of HCl, in agreement with previous studies. Our observations also suggest the presence of two competing processes involving the dust, one supporting HCl production and another one contributing to its destruction
FedOSC: Belgium's Federal Open Science Cloud - Connecting Institutions for FAIR and Open Research
No full textThis poster has been presented at the RDA in Europe annual summit Paris on November 18th, 2025.
The project aims to facilitate the integration of the Belgian Federal Scientific Institutions (FSIs) scientific data and results into the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). Within this framework, the Data Steward team set up a survey on data management in the FSIs and included some results from the challenges faced by the FSIs in terms of data management. One of FedOSC end goal is to align with RDA standards and implement RDA strategies in our digital services, our strategies and policies, our capacities and community building
Leaking Outside the Box: Kinetic Turbulence with Cosmic-Ray Escape
No full textWe study particle acceleration in strongly turbulent pair plasmas using novel 3D particle-in-cell simulations, featuring particle injection from an external heat bath and diffusive escape. We demonstrate the formation of steady-state, nonthermal particle distributions with maximum energies reaching the Hillas limit. The steady state is characterized by the equilibration of plasma kinetic and magnetic pressures, which imposes upper limits on the acceleration rate. With growing cold plasma magnetization 0, nonthermal power-law spectra become harder, and the fraction of energy channeled into escaping cosmic rays increases. At 0 ≳1, the escaping cosmic rays amount to more than 50% of the dissipated energy. Our method allows for kinetic studies of particle acceleration under steady-state conditions, with applications to a variety of astrophysical systems
Urban pollution monitoring with the AOTF-based NO2 camera: validation with other DOAS instruments
No full textElevated surface concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) are associated with poor air quality, making its detection and monitoring important for human health and the environment. Existing instruments such as the TROPOMI satellite currently deliver daily global maps of NO2 tropospheric columns, and the future Sentinel-4 instrument will return hourly maps. While areas of strong concentrations (cities, large industries) can be detected in these satellite observations, their spatiotemporal resolution remains too coarse to capture local hot spots and quick variations. In the context of urban air quality monitoring, we present a new type of remote sensing instrument capable of observing spatial and temporal gradients in the NO2 field, which is not currently possible with either space instruments or from the routine operations of conventional diffraction grating and other ground-based remote sensing instruments. This novel instrument is based on an acousto-optical tunable filter (AOTF) located at the heart of a telecentric imaging system. The instrument acquires spectral images in the region 430–455 nm, where NO2 exhibits strong absorption features. A dense spectral sampling was commanded in order to enable the application of the DOAS (differential optical absorption spectroscopy) method in the processing of the spectra measured by each detector pixel. In March 2024, the instrument was deployed at the BAQUNIN supersite for atmospheric research, located in the center of Rome. In order to validate the NO2 camera measurements, coincident acquisitions by a MAX-DOAS and a Pandora spectrometer were performed. The results show very good agreement among the three instruments. They also illustrate the additional capabilities of the NO2 camera in observing the spatial and temporal variability of the urban NO2 field
Inventaire des archives du Tribunal de première instance de Mons : Tribunal de la Jeunesse : Versement 2023 (1967-2018)
No full textÀ Mons, le Tribunal de la jeunesse est bien plus qu’une juridiction : depuis 1966, il incarne la protection, l’écoute et l’accompagnement des jeunes. Héritier de la loi visionnaire du 8 avril 1965, il agit au cœur des situations les plus délicates : enfants en danger, familles en détresse, adolescents en conflit avec la loi. Son credo ? Privilégier la prévention, l’éducation et l’aide personnalisée, tout en disposant de leviers civils et pénaux pour garantir la sécurité et l’avenir des mineurs. Derrière chaque jugement ou ordonnance, il y a une enquête minutieuse, un souci constant de préserver l’anonymat, et la volonté de trouver des solutions durables. Ses archives, riches de plus d’un demi-siècle d’histoires humaines, aujourd’hui conservées aux Archives de l’État, témoignent de cette mission essentielle : protéger et guider la jeunesse, avec humanité et détermination.The records described in this inventory are held at the State Archives in Mons (inventory code 524 - AEM.05.183).This inventory is the fixed published version dated 15-08-2025. For the dynamic inventory under active revision, including recent updates and additions, please consult our online search platform AGATHA. In AGATHA, you can also request the archival items you wish to consult in the reading room