Summary
Hoverflies are essential pollinators enormously contributing to plant diversity and agricultural production, but they are declining. However, despite their importance for preserving both biodiversity and food security, hoverflies have been severely understudied compared to other major pollinators such as bees. This substantial gap in knowledge is even more problematic in Luxembourg, one of the most urbanized countries in the world, where future land use change for new infrastructure and urban development will likely be considerable, because of demographic growth. To protect their functional role in the provision of key ecosystem services, we need to document the diversity and distribution of hoverflies. Indeed, developing this basic knowledge about hoverflies is a necessary first step towards a better understanding of how landscape disturbance affect the dynamics of their populations and, in the end, for developing future conservation projects and red lists. Developing an atlas of hoverflies in Luxembourg is, therefore, crucial. Beyond actively hand netting and trapping specimens, we plan to use georeferenced bulk samples from the historical wet collection of the MNHN, as well as collect data from recent and ongoing projects from other institutions to complement our datasets.
Project status
- Proposal accepted by the Ministre de l’Environnement, du Climat et du Développement durable in the context of the funding line Appel à projets « Pollinisateurs ». Duration: 57 months (04/2023 – 12/2027).
- Host institution: Fondation faune-flore @ Centre de recherche scientifique, Musée national d’histoire naturelle.
- Partners: MECB
Funding
With financial support from the Fonds pour la protection de l’environnement
Contacts
- Dr. Julian Wittische, Data Science
phone (+352) 24 76 66 65
Julian.wittische@mnhn.lu - Dr. Alain Frantz, Department of Zoology
phone: (+352) 462240 210
alain.frantz@mnhn.lu - Alexander Weigand, Department of Zoology
phone: (+352) 462240 212
alexander.weigand@mnhn.lu
National Museum of Natural History (MNHNL)
Research center
Life science department
25, rue Münster
L-2160 Luxembourg
Populations of the pond-breeding Northern crested newt (Triturus cristatus) have severely declined in Luxembourg during the last century. The species is listed on Annexes II and IV of the EU Habitats Directive (Council of the European Communities, 1992) and EU member states must therefore ensure the maintenance or, where appropriate, the re-establishment of a favourable state of conservation of the species’ and its habitats. In order to maintain the species’ metapopulation dynamics, more than 350 artificial freshwater bodies have been created in the west and southwest of the country since 1993. This conservation measure lacked a certain degree of effectiveness as fewer than 75% of the engineered ponds have been colonized by the target species. There is thus an urgent need to generate an evidence-based understanding of the movement ecology of crested newts in the Luxembourg context and to design and place engineered ponds appropriately. We present three work packages that will operate at different spatial scales and that will use population and landscape genetic methods to identify landscape factors influencing newt dispersal and population connectivity. Specifically, we will i) analyse the population genetic structure of the crested newt across Luxembourg in order to identify isolated populations and environmental factors that hinder exchange between populations, ii) model landscape connectivity at the regional scale to empirically identify landscape features that impact on exchange between ponds and to predict crested newt movements across the landscape, iii) identify optimal locations for new ponds using a systematic conservation planning (site-selection algorithm) approach. The overriding objective of the proposed research project is to identify efficient conservation measures that will ensure the long-term survival of crested newts in Luxembourg.
David PORCO
Climate is a key factor determining plant distribution. Predictions of rapid climate change have resulted in a renewed interest in the possible responses of plants to changes in climate, such as migration to other localities, phenotypic plasticity and local adaptation. The aim of this project is to study the possible impact of predicted climate change on the short-lived perennial plant Anthyllis vulneraria along environmental gradients. We will analyze natural populations and their habitats along altitudinal and latitudinal gradients to investigate relationships between population characteristics and environmental conditions. We will also investigate molecular genetic diversity in relation to the same gradients. The variation in a number of quantitative traits and its distribution among spatial scales will be studied in a lowland common garden and compared with that of the variation in neutral genetic markers.
Parasitic nematodes can cause serious diseases and their emergence in new areas can be an issue of major concern for human health, agricultural productivity and biodiversity conservation. Molecular studies of nematode invasions can make a significant contribution to a better understanding of the underlying mechanism of the emergence, spread and persistence of the parasites. Also, they will clarify the evolutionary potential of the invaders in their new range and help with the elaboration of adequate management strategies against helminthic disease. The raccoon roundworm (Baylisascaris procyonis) is a common gastrointestinal parasite of the raccoon (Procyon lotor), that is emerging as an important helminthic zoonoses that mainly affects young children. Translocations of raccoons have increased the global geographic range of its roundworm as well. Raccoons are particularly abundant and wide-spread in Germany, where they can occur at high densities in urban areas. Recent genetic work has provided evidence for at least four independent introduction events, which gave rise to genetically differentiated subpopulations in incipient contact of relatively high genetic diversity. The roundworm, however, does not occur in all raccoon populations and might therefore be much less genetically diverse due to reduced propagule pressure. The overall objective of this study is to use population genetic techniques to analyse the genetic diversity and gene flow in the invasive nematode B. procyonis to understand the evolutionary potential of the parasite and allow the implementation of successful control programmes. We aim in particular to establish how frequently the parasite was introduced into Western Europe, to estimate the geographic origin of the introduced parasites, to examine the changes in genetic diversity during the invasion process and to the landscape genetic structure of the raccoon and its roundworm in parallel.