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VLIZ Young Scientists' Day, Brugge, Belgium 25 February 2005: book of abstracts
No full textThe Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) supports marine scientific research in Flanders. VLIZ offers logistic support, promotes expertise internationally, and serves as an interface between the scientific community, governmental bodies, and the public at large. VLIZ wants to give exposure to marine, coastal and estuarine research in Flanders, whereby coordination and dissemination of information play key roles. Marine research in Flanders is carried out by the six Flemish universities, research institutes and departments of the Flemish and federal authorities, and to a lesser extent by private enterprises. The major broad disciplines covered are: biology, earth sciences, chemistry, physics, aquaculture and fisheries, engineering, and maritime affairs. Annually, VLIZ bundles the scientific contributions of the Flemish marine researchers in the ‘VLIZ Collected Reprints’. VLIZ increases the visibility of marine research in Flanders by producing publications, organizing symposia and granting scientific awards. On Friday, 25 February 2005, the fifth ‘VLIZ Young Scientists’ Day’ (161 pre-registered participants) was organized in Provinciehuis Boeverbos, Sint-Andries (Brugge), Belgium.This ‘VLIZ Special Publication 20’ comprises the abstracts of the oral, poster and demo presentations as well as the summaries submitted by the laureates and applicants of the VLIZ aanmoedigingsprijzen mariene wetenschappen 2004’ and ‘Annual VLIZ North Sea Award 2004’
VLIZ Young Scientists' Day, Brugge, Belgium 13 March 2002: book of abstracts
No full textOn Wednesday, 13 March 2002, the second 'Young Scientists' Day' was organized in Provinciehuis Boeverbos, Sint-Andries (Brugge), Belgium. The programme included a plenary lecture by a post-doc scientist; four oral presentations by young scientists; a poster competition for young scientists; the presentation by the laureates of 'VLIZ Annual Grants in Marine Sciences 2001' and the 'Annual VLIZ North Sea Award 2001'. This volume comprises the abstracts of the oral and poster presentations, and thus gives an overview of results in marine sciences in Belgium for the past year
Growing dunes, eroding shoreface
No full textAbstract to presentation on the VLIZ Marine Science Day.status: Accepte
Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee : Flanders Marine Institute, marine and coastal research in Flanders.
No full text1. 292. 303. 314. 325. 33-34Jacobs, PatrickJacobs, PatrickJacobs, PatrickJacobs, PatrickJacobs, Patric
TISBE: Taxonomic Information System for the Belgian Continental Shelf
No full textTISBE was developed to serve as a species register for the Belgian Coast and adjacent areas (including the Scheldt Estuary). It contains detailed taxonomic information, and information on the distribution within the area of interest. An effort will be made to minimize duplication of other initiatives, both those within the VLIZ (e.g. the North Sea Benthos Survey project in collaboration with ICES), and those from other institutions (e.g. the databases developed at the University of Gent and the Dutch Centre for Estuarine and Coastal Ecology; the European Register of Marine Species, the Biodiversity Database and CD ROM series of ETI). The TISBE database is integrated in the other databases of VLIZ: literature, databases, experts and institutions will be taken from the Integrated Marine Information System (IMIS). The objective of TISBE is to become a comprehensive list of all records of species from the area. Links with the taxonomic literature and to the original publication of the distribution record will assist in tracing the history of records. By providing a synonymised list of species records, TISBE will be a tool to assess marine biodiversity and to monitor the species composition of the ecological communities along the Belgian coast
Shelter from the storm? Use and misuse of bioshields for managing natural disasters on the coast
No full textinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedYoung Marine Scientists’ Day Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee (VLIZ), 27 Novembre, Oostende, Belgiqu
VLIZ Science Symposium on Belgian marine biodiversity, Wednesday, 23 May 2018 Oostende, Belgium
Get PDFDo marine aerosols improve human health?
No full textThroughout mankind’s history, exposure to seawater and sea-air have been linked to positive human health effects. The first records of thalassotherapy date back to the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans (Verhaeghe, 1843; Lucchetta et al., 2007). Epidemiological research has fairly recently started to reveal and understand these coastal health effects (Brereton et al., 2008; Wheeler et al., 2012; White et al., 2013). Several hypotheses, related to immunoregulation and physiological mechanisms, have been put forward to explain the blue space/gym effect (Rook et al., 2013; White et al., 2014). Moore (2015) suggested that part of this coastal health effect is caused by the regular exposure to natural or biogenic compounds in sea spray aerosols (SSAs). It is proposed that these compounds induce the health effect via an inhibitory activity on the phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase/protein kinase B/mechanistic target of rapamycin (PI3K/Akt/mTOR) cell signaling pathway. This is based on the fact that the augmented activity of this kinase pathway, is related to multiple pathological conditions (i.e. cancers, inflammation, diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases, and immunosuppression) (Laplante et al., 2013).Interesting marine bioactive compounds, potentially taking part in the suggested biogenics theory, are algal toxins. Phycotoxins are best known for the shellfish poisoning syndromes (i.e. amnesic, neurotoxic, diarrhetic and paralytic) they may cause, via contaminated seafood, during harmful algal blooms (HABs). There are, however, also a few published cases where phycotoxins like brevetoxins (Cheng et al., 2005) and ovatoxins (Ciminiello et al., 2014) have been measured in sea spray aerosols (SSAs) on Floridian and Mediterranean beaches, respectively. While these extreme cases induced temporary respiratory syndromes, aerosolised phycotoxins conventionally occur at much lower (harmless) background concentrations. One of the most interesting phycotoxins is yessotoxin (YTX). In our study, we demonstrated that YTXs have a potential positive effect at much lower concentrations as compared to effect concentration of other phycotoxins (i.e. brevetoxin, okadaic acid).In this part of our research, the potential positive health effects of air-borne exposure to YTXs were examined. Since the respiratory system is the first level of exposure in this scenario, in vitro experiments were performed, using human lung tissue (A549 cell line). These epithelial adenocarcinoma alveolar cells were exposed for two days to pure standards and artificially produced aerosol extracts of homoyessotoxin (hYTX), a YTX analogue. Additionally, a natural aerosol extract, collected along the surf line in Ostend, was spiked at different doses to lung cell cultures. Both the phosphorylation status of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR kinase pathway and the related effects on gene-expression level were simultaneously assessed as endpoints in the performed experiments. The effects on the kinase pathway were examined using SDS-PAGE and western blotting. The analysis of the gene-expression was performed with RNA sequencing. Together with cell viability assays, previously performed in our study, a unique effects assessment on three different levels of biological organization is possible. An additional exploratory and holistic approach of this research lies in the use of artificial and natural aerosol extracts.The results of this study will contribute to the mechanistic understanding of the role of biogenics in regulating the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway, and thus in understanding the role of SSAs in coastal health promotion.This research was partly supported by a VLIZ (2017) Brilliant Marine Research Idea (BMRI) grant.Throughout mankind’s history, exposure to seawater and sea-air have been linked to positive human health effects. The first records of thalassotherapy date back to the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans (Verhaeghe, 1843; Lucchetta et al., 2007). Epidemiological research has fairly recently started to reveal and understand these coastal health effects (Brereton et al., 2008; Wheeler et al., 2012; White et al., 2013). Several hypotheses, related to immunoregulation and physiological mechanisms, have been put forward to explain the blue space/gym effect (Rook et al., 2013; White et al., 2014). Moore (2015) suggested that part of this coastal health effect is caused by the regular exposure to natural or biogenic compounds in sea spray aerosols (SSAs). It is proposed that these compounds induce the health effect via an inhibitory activity on the phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase/protein kinase B/mechanistic target of rapamycin (PI3K/Akt/mTOR) cell signaling pathway. This is based on the fact that the augmented activity of this kinase pathway, is related to multiple pathological conditions (i.e. cancers, inflammation, diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases, and immunosuppression) (Laplante et al., 2013).Interesting marine bioactive compounds, potentially taking part in the suggested biogenics theory, are algal toxins. Phycotoxins are best known for the shellfish poisoning syndromes (i.e. amnesic, neurotoxic, diarrhetic and paralytic) they may cause, via contaminated seafood, during harmful algal blooms (HABs). There are, however, also a few published cases where phycotoxins like brevetoxins (Cheng et al., 2005) and ovatoxins (Ciminiello et al., 2014) have been measured in sea spray aerosols (SSAs) on Floridian and Mediterranean beaches, respectively. While these extreme cases induced temporary respiratory syndromes, aerosolised phycotoxins conventionally occur at much lower (harmless) background concentrations. One of the most interesting phycotoxins is yessotoxin (YTX). In our study, we demonstrated that YTXs have a potential positive effect at much lower concentrations as compared to effect concentration of other phycotoxins (i.e. brevetoxin, okadaic acid).In this part of our research, the potential positive health effects of air-borne exposure to YTXs were examined. Since the respiratory system is the first level of exposure in this scenario, in vitro experiments were performed, using human lung tissue (A549 cell line). These epithelial adenocarcinoma alveolar cells were exposed for two days to pure standards and artificially produced aerosol extracts of homoyessotoxin (hYTX), a YTX analogue. Additionally, a natural aerosol extract, collected along the surf line in Ostend, was spiked at different doses to lung cell cultures. Both the phosphorylation status of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR kinase pathway and the related effects on gene-expression level were simultaneously assessed as endpoints in the performed experiments. The effects on the kinase pathway were examined using SDS-PAGE and western blotting. The analysis of the gene-expression was performed with RNA sequencing. Together with cell viability assays, previously performed in our study, a unique effects assessment on three different levels of biological organization is possible. An additional exploratory and holistic approach of this research lies in the use of artificial and natural aerosol extracts.The results of this study will contribute to the mechanistic understanding of the role of biogenics in regulating the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway, and thus in understanding the role of SSAs in coastal health promotion.This research was partly supported by a VLIZ (2017) Brilliant Marine Research Idea (BMRI) grant.C
De Zuid-Nederlandse Prize Papers: onderzoek naar de geschiedenis op zee aan de hand van 18de -eeuwse boorddocumenten
No full textDutch language general audience article on new maritime historical research in Belgium using the 18th century Prize Papers as a source, in the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ)'s magazine publication De Grote Rede 51. Full issue to be consulted at http://www.vliz.be/groterede/magazine/51#de-grote-redestatus: Publishe
VLIZ Young Scientists' Day, Brugge, Belgium, 29 February 2008: book of abstracts.
No full textMombasa Marine Park and Reserve is one of the Marine Protected Areas in Kenya established more than ten years ago. The Park is a no-take-zone, while the Reserve is a zone where regulated extractive uses such as artisanal fishing are allowed. Since the year 2004, ecological monitoring of the MPA has been going on aimed at generating information on the MPA status with a view to improve its management. Four year monitoring data (2004 to 2007) of percentage benthic cover using the Line Intercept Transect (LIT) method reveal relatively high average percentage benthic cover for algal turf in both the Park and Reserve with sampling sites and seasons. If not checked, algal turf could easily out compete and degrade the hard corals and sea grass beds that are important for MPA ecological and biological health status. The growth of algal turf is triggered by nutrient input mainly from land sources. It is therefore important to identify the nutrient input sources into the MPA so as to address management measures to remedy this ecological threat.Publishe
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