Projects
FunBat: Tritrophic interactions among FUNgi, flies, and BATs: systematics, taxonomy, and community ecology Ghent University
This is a story across multiple trophic levels: bats are host to bloodsucking flies that in turn serve as hosts for minute ectoparasitic fungi, the Laboulbeniales. Laboulbeniales fungi are obscure, microscopic ectoparasites, and have been traditionally understudied by the mycological community. With this project, moving forward from a previous FWO-funded fellowship, we propose to exploit the TriTrophic Traits (3T) database consisting of ...
Laboulbeniales hyperparasitic fungi of bat flies: host specificity and patterns of speciation Ghent University
This is a story about hyperparasitism: flies that live as parasites on bats in turn serve as hosts for small ectoparasitic fungi, the Laboulbeniales. Laboulbeniales fungi are microscopic, obscure, and understudied, even neglected by the mycological community. The small community of researchers studying Laboulbeniales primarily focus on taxonomy (description of species) and ecology (effects of the fungi on their hosts). With this project, we ...
Paradi2s: PARAsitic DIversity, vectors, host and transfers in Early Cretaceous DInosaur-aSsociated vertebrates Ghent University
Over geological times, biological crises and diversification events have fashioned the evolutionary history of plants and animals. Palaeontologists usually interpret the evolutionary success of a lineage and its demise in direct relation to environmental variations, including its food web and climate changes. The impact of interspecific associations, like parasitism, is usually completely neglected by palaeontologists, although parasitism and ...
Bats, bat flies, and Laboulbeniales fungi: A model for studying hyperparasitism Ghent University
This is a story about hyperparasitism: flies that live as parasites on bats in turn serve as hosts for small ectoparasitic fungi, the Laboulbeniales. Laboulbeniales fungi are microscopic, obscure, and understudied, even neglected by the mycological community. The small community of researchers
studying Laboulbeniales primarily focus on taxonomy (description of species) and ecology (effects of the fungi on their hosts). With this ...
Prioritizing conservation and restoration targets for freshwater biodiversity in Flanders KU Leuven
Riverine biodiversity is deteriorating rapidly as a result of multiple interacting anthropogenic pressures. Freshwater species are subject to physico-chemical pollution originating from various sources (e.g. agriculture, industries, households), hydro-morphological alterations (e.g. construction of dams, river calibration), and the introduction of invasive species (e.g. topmouth gudgeon, Chinese mitten crab, round goby in Flanders). ...
Individual variation and evolutionary potential of parasite traits in a songbird-tick system: direct and indirect genetic effects. University of Antwerp
Promoting good health and welfare in European organic laying hens Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
In the organic poultry (laying hens) industry in 8 European countries, can we find a correlation between prevention of endo-and ectoparasitic infections, feather pecking and cannibalism, health and welfare problems (e.g. keelbone deformations) and the characteristics of the housing (design, management and use of free-range) of the management, and nutrition of the animal itself? The HealthyHens ...
iNoLa - Inventory of the Norwegian species of thallus-forming Laboulbeniales associated with beetles, with particular focus on the superfamily Staphylinoidea Ghent University
Our project will inventory a large group of microscopic fungi (order Laboulbeniales) ectoparasitic on terrestrial arthropods, primarily on beetles, for the first time in Norway. The order is considered extremely poorly known in Norway and there is no taxonomic expertise in the country. We expect to discover at least 100 species new to Norway. The work will be implemented as collaboration between an expert in beetles (Natural History Museum, ...