RBINSc (Network coordinator)

Name Prof. Dr KOEN MARTENS
Institution Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINSc)
Department Freshwater Biology
Address Vautierstraat 29, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Telephone +32/2/627.43.15
Fax +32/2/646.44.33
E-mail Koen.martens@naturalsciences.be
Website www.naturalsciences.be
Expertise For more than 150 years, fundamental as well as applied biological research has been the main activity of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. The Freshwater Biology section of the RBINSc is one of the fastest growing in the RBIBSc and has one of the most active research groups as it produces dozens of publications every year, most of these in international peer reviewed journals. For the past decade, the research group of Koen Martens has concentrated on various aspects of aquatic biodiversity : speciation in ancient lakes, life histories in temporary pools and aspects of scientific policy related to biodiversity. Martens is the coordinator of the Belgian Biodiversity Platform at the RBINSc, a structure which ensures communication between scientists and policy makers and which also ensures the implementation of various projects at national and international levels such as the Belgian node of GBIF, SCARMARBIN on Antarctic biodiversity databases and FADA, a project aiming to provide an inventory of Global animal diversity in non-marine habitats. He was the coordinator of the MANSCAPE project, the precursor of PONDSCAPE; Martens also coordinates the European Marie Curie RTN ‘Sexasex’ on interactions between sexual and asexual reproduction in temporary pools, a project which involves 9 partners in 9 countries and employs 6 postgraduate and 4 postdoctoral researchers. Martens is at present responsible for an (external) research budget of close to 5 ME.
Selection of 5 recent publications
  1. Martens, K. 2010. Editorial. The International Year on Biodiversity. Hydrobiologia 637: 1-2. (DOI 10.1007/s10750-009-0045-x)
  2. Pieri, V., K. Martens, F. Stoch and G. Rossetti. 2009. Distribution and ecology of non-marine ostracods (Crustacea, Ostracoda) from Friuli Venezia Giulia (NE Italy). Journal of Limnology 68(1): 1-15.
  3. Martens, K. and I. Schön. 2008. Ancient asexuals: darwinulids not exposed! Nature 45 : 587.
  4. Balian, E., H. Segers, C. Lévèque and K. Martens. 2008. The freshwater animal diversity assessment: an overview of the results. In: BALIAN, E. et al. (eds.): Freshwater animal diversity assessment. Hydrobiologia 595: 627-637.
  5. Segers, H. and K. Martens (eds.) 2005. The Diversity of Aquatic Ecosystems. Hydrobiologia 542, 390 pp.