Belgium

Lithium (Li) is a valuable metal with industrial applications, primarily used in Li-ion batteries for electric vehicles (89% of lithium production). The industry uses a variety of lithium forms, including lithium hydroxide, carbonate, chloride, and bromide. Nowadays, the majority of ecotoxicological studies assess lithium toxicity with lithium chloride (LiCl), followed by lithium carbonate (Li2CO3), and finally lithium hydroxide (LiOH). However, no studies have directly compared the toxicity of various lithium salts based on the release of their respective counter-ions after lithium dissolution in water. Nonetheless, these counter-ions are important to consider because they will alter the environmental physicochemical conditions as well as the physiology of bivalves, potentially affecting lithium bioaccumulation and toxicity. On the other hand, Sodium (Na) has the ability to compete with lithium. Thus, variations in environmental salinity may influence the toxicity of lithium released during mining and industrial activities. Global changes can also cause salinity fluctuations in freshwater ecosystems (heavy rain reduces salinity, while drought increases salinity), potentially altering lithium toxicity. In this study, we compared the biological impact of lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate on a freshwater organism (Dreissena polymorpha) exposed to different lithium concentrations and salinities (i.e., different Li/Na ratios). Bioaccumulation and several biomarkers associated with important physiological functions were assessed after 7 and 21 days. The findings will help us decide whether to consider lithium speciation or treat it as a single entity when assessing its toxicity, as well as how salinity may influence risk assessments.

SEB Conference 2025

Lithium bioaccumulation and toxicity: The influence of Li/Na ratio and lithium salts.

bioaccumulation

ecotoxicology

salinity

osmoregulation

lithium

biomarkers

**General Chair Welcome**

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Welcome to ICALEO® 2023!
	
We were excited to host the world’s leading international conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics in Chicago. The Laser has been shown to have the potential to revolutionize solutions for major global challenges like energy usage and supply, global warming, and CO2 footprint. Even the fusion energy breakthrough is based on laser technology. The conference, with peer-reviewed scientific and technical presentations, focused on the newest results in Micro Applications, Macro Applications, Additive Manufacturing, Beam Shaping and Frontiers in Laser Applications. Additionally, the Battery-Manufacturing Track gave an overview of the process combined with the newest advances in laser application results. 

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Managing Director, Precitec GmbH

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ICALEO 2023

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One goal of musculoskeletal modelling is to explain dynamic behaviour in terms of fundamental muscle properties, such as the force-velocity (FV) relationship.  However, this is challenging because the complexity of anatomically realistic models (namely, their high degrees of freedom, DOF) often prohibits detailed analysis; the number of mechanical interactions is too large for thorough investigation.  Consequently, we may struggle to explain “high-level” behaviours such as joint kinematics and forces in terms of muscle-level dynamics.  To address this, we developed a descriptive and visual framework for presenting intricate musculoskeletal modelling data.  We computed a “joint-fv” curve as the activation weighted sum of instantaneous FV states of all muscles within a total “joint-FV space”.  We applied our framework to two previously published models: 1) A low-DOF human arm during reaching and 2) a high-DOF human knee during walking.  In both cases, we found that the instantaneous shape of the joint-fv curve morphs depending on synergistic and antagonistic co-contraction.  Additionally, we found broad similarities in joint-fv trajectories, despite the biomechanical, behavioural and anatomical differences between reaching/walking.  Specifically, joints followed a clockwise trajectory through joint-FV space, except when in the presence of non-contractile forces (i.e. contacts or cross-joint interaction forces).  Hence, we propose that joint-fv trajectories communicate not only how mechanical energy flows through joints, but also how this flow is governed by interactions among intrinsic muscle properties (activation, FV) and extrinsic properties (multibody dynamics and contact forces) during dynamic activity.

Joint-level force-velocity properties for arbitrarily complex musculoskeletal models

Over-fishing is a consequential anthropogenic driver of demographic and phenotypic changes in aquatic fish populations. In Lake Malombe, Malawi, over the past 40 years, intense fishing pressure has led to local extinctions, dramatic population declines, and rapid life history shifts in several commercially important benthic cichlid species. In some of these species, size at maturation has decreased by approximately 50% within only 20 generations, suggesting a strong effect of either fisheries-induced evolution or phenotypic plasticity in response to human induced harvest pressure.
To disentangle the genetic and plastic components of this life history shift, we conducted a common garden experiment using offspring from populations experiencing contrasting fishing pressures. Juveniles from heavily fished and weakly fished populations were reared under standardised laboratory conditions to control for environmental effects and isolate genetic differences. We observed an accelerated growth, earlier maturation, but reduced reproductive investment in offspring from heavily fished populations, consistent with a rapid evolutionary responses to fisheries pressure. Importantly, because of the non-size selective fisheries in Lake Malombe these shifts in life history traits are driven by biotic interactions such as competition for mates and reproductive opportunities, with smaller, faster-maturing individuals potentially gaining an advantage in heavily fished populations.
This work and evolutionary genomic investigations we have carried out highlight how human-induced pressures reshape the genetic determination of life history strategies, with cascading consequences for intra- and interspecific interactions, population stability, and the long-term resilience of biodiversity hotspots like Lake Malawi.

Disentangling evolutionary and plastic responses to over-fishing of Malawi Cichlid fish in a common garden experiment

Plant hydraulics is a growing field that investigates links between the structure and the hydrodynamic function of plants, from cellular to ecosystem scales. Recently, a collaboration of plant hydraulic physiologists and palaeobotanists began re-examining the fossil record to identify the function of key elements of plant vascular structure at the time of their origin.Xylem conduits, which mediate water transport in vascular plants, are subject to blockage by vapour-phase embolism. Under drought, the uncontrolled spread of embolism through the xylem results in mortality through hydraulic failure. Vascular anatomy and morphology can facilitate or constrain embolism spread by affecting the connectivity of the xylem conduit network. Insofar as vascular structure affects the risk of hydraulic failure, it must be subject to selection by drought.Network analysis suggests that drought selection shaped the well-known trend of increasing vascular complexity with plant or organ size. Selection by hydraulic failure would thus have promoted the early diversification of primary vascular forms during the Silurian-Devonian Radiation of plant life onto land. The early Devonian emergence of secondary xylem (wood) conferred resistance to hydraulic failure on par with increasingly complex contemporaneous primary vascular anatomies. Woody growth was particularly effective at maintaining embolism resistance with increasing plant size, although the earliest known woods could not support hydraulically safe arborescent habit without further anatomical innovations. The ongoing reanalysis of the fossil record aims to reinterpret the function of emerging vascular structures with respect to hydraulic safety, ultimately setting the hydraulics of extant plants in a revised evolutionary perspective.

Selection by drought in the early evolution of plant vascular networks

Human activities release increasing amounts of chemical contaminants into aquatic environments, raising concerns about their impact on wildlife. Many pollutants act as endocrine disruptors, interfering with hormone-regulated processes essential for growth, reproduction, and development. In fish, such disruptions affect skeletal formation, muscle function, and neural signaling, all of which also affect behaviour. While chemical exposure is indeed known to alter fish behaviour, such as reducing responses to light-dark stimuli, it remains unclear whether these effects stem from skeletal changes or physiological disruptions. To address this, we study how altered skeletal mineralization affects zebrafish swimming behaviour. Using larval zebrafish (Danio rerio), a well-described animal model for skeletal development, we first manipulated calcium availability during early development to induce either increased or decreased bone mineralization. Larvae raised in low-calcium conditions lacked bone mineralization and moved less in 24-hour observations. In light-dark transition assays, they also failed to respond properly. Since calcium is critical for bone formation, muscle contraction, and neural signaling, we extended our study to F0 knockout larvae. F0 knock-outs of enpp1 (promotes mineralization by generating inorganic pyrophosphate) and entpd5a (inhibits mineralization by hydrolyzing nucleotide triphosphates) were generated and validated using genotyping, skeletal staining, and elemental analysis. Swimming behaviour was quantified at 5 days post-fertilization using automated tracking. Even at this early stage, altered mineralization resulted in reduced locomotion. We anticipate that a better understanding of the effect of skeletal mineralization on behaviour will allow for a more thorough understanding of the effect chemical pollutants have on fish behaviour.

Behaviour to the bone: linking skeletal mineralization to behaviour in larval zebrafish (Danio rerio)

Historically relatively sheltered from human disturbance, Arctic regions now face increasing threats from expanding maritime routes and industrial activities. These pressures add to existing environmental stressors, raising concerns about the conservation of fragile polar ecosystems, which are particularly vulnerable to cumulative impacts such as ocean acidification (OA) and widespread pollution. Combined stressors may cause unpredictable non-additive effects on marine ectotherms. Furthermore, by using traditional approaches limited to whole-organism levels, such as metabolic rates and mortality, we have overlooked sublethal, early-signals of physiological failure occurring at the cellular level. Therefore, we aimed at exploring the molecular responses of a key Arctic zooplankton species to different environmentally-realistic doses of a toxic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon under an OA scenario. For this purpose, the metabolome and lipidome of field-collected copepodid IV specimens of the copepod Calanus glacialis were profiled after two and ten days of exposure within an orthogonal design of four pyrene concentrations (0, 10, 100 and 200 nM) and two levels of OA (ambient and low pH). Multivariate analyses evidence an interaction between OA and pyrene contamination over time, albeit pyrene is a major driver. OA seemingly shifts the metabolomic dose response to pyrene compared to ambient pH. Further integrative analyses will help to decipher the functional consequences of such molecular alterations, to identify early-signals of physiological failure. Implementing multilayer knowledge from such multifactorial experimental approaches will be critical in improving our ability to predict the fate of Arctic species in future, more disturbed polar oceans.

In the Search of Sublethal Biomarkers: Metabolomic and Lipidomic Profiling of Arctic Copepods Facing Ocean Acidification and Pyrene Pollution

The ecological success of scleractinian reef-building corals is often attributed to the high growth rates of their calcium carbonate skeletons through the process of calcification. However, this capacity is increasingly threatened by multiple environmental stressors, including ocean acidification and thermal stress. Light plays a crucial role in enhancing coral calcification rates, a phenomenon known as light-enhanced calcification (LEC), which has been widely observed in both laboratory and field studies. Certain research suggests that LEC may provide resilience to coral calcification under unfavorable environmental conditions, such as reduced seawater pH.
The physiological mechanisms underlying LEC remain debated, but many hypotheses focus on the symbiotic relationship between scleractinian corals and dinoflagellate algae of the family Symbiodiniaceae, which influence calcification through their photosynthetic activity. Our research investigates the link between light and coral calcification by examining how symbiont photosynthesis affects trans-epithelial pH regulation, from the growing front of the coral skeleton, through the coral tissues, and into the surrounding seawater.
To achieve this, we employ a combination of live tissue imaging using confocal microscopy and pH-sensitive microelectrodes to measure both intracellular and extracellular pH across the complex spatial structure of coral tissues. Our findings reveal that Symbiodiniaceae photosynthetic activity drives pH gradients within coral tissues, which correlate with enhanced calcification rates and mitigate the effects of ocean acidification. In contrast, the impacts of acidification are more pronounced in darkness or in coral tissue regions lacking symbionts. However, energy-dependent pH regulation mechanisms enable corals to sustain calcification even under these challenging conditions.

From Light to Limestone: physiological links between reef coral photosynthesis and calcification via pH regulation

Weeds are, if left unmanaged, the most serious problem faced by farmers around the globe, causing higher crop losses than pests and pathogens. Our work investigates the traits that determine “weediness”, i.e. high competitive ability and high fecundity inAvena fatua(wild common oat), which is closely related toAvena sativa(oat) and reduces crop yields of, e.g. wheat and barley, through competition.A. fatuapopulations from around the Republic of Ireland, gathered from predominantly arable agricultural land, were compared in glasshouse, growth chamber and field experiments. Leaf traits, functional strategies and photosynthetic data were compiled to analyse the differences among populations, based on herbicide tolerance/sensitivity. We found highly significant differences of traits such as height, tiller number, and leaf area among the populations. However, initial analysis did not reveal any link of these traits to herbicide tolerance. Field work compared cereal crops andA. fatuain a working agricultural setting. Analysis based on the competitive-stress tolerant-ruderal (CSR) system showed that grass weeds are more competitive than cereal crops and exhibit very low stress tolerance scores. Plant stress responses are being investigated to examine the impact of climate change on grass weeds (A. fatuaandLolium multiflorum(Italian ryegrass)) and a commonly used pasture grass (Lolium perenne(perennial ryegrass)). Our research clearly shows a high fecundity inA. fatuawith an abundance of smaller seeds when compared to cereal crops as well as a higher overall competitive ability, which may be associated with lower stress tolerance.

Functional traits and strategies that determine 'weediness' of an agricultural weed, Avena fatua

Autochthonous landraces or local varieties are plant genetic resources characterized by high genetic variability, specific adaptation to environmental growth condition, and the presence of health-promoting specialized metabolites. However, these varieties are at risk of extinction due to their replacement by genetically uniform modern varieties. Untargeted metabolomics, based on liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), is a powerful tool to explore metabolite diversity, promote the valorization, and support the conservation of these landraces. This study investigated the metabolite diversity of three autochthonous lentil landraces from Molise region (Italy) — Capracotta (CA), Rionero Sannitico (RS), and Agnone (A) — compared to one landrace from Umbria region (Italy) — Castelluccio di Norcia (CS) — and three bean landraces from Molise (Ciliegino, CI), and Basilicata (San Spanish Ciliegino, CI SP), respectively. Untargeted metabolomics allowed the detection of 662 and 344 differentially accumulated metabolic features (DAMfs) in lentil (Le) and bean (Be) landraces, respectively. Metabolite annotation, supported by molecular network analysis, assigned 53% and 54% of DAMfs to different metabolic categories, with flavonoids, amino acids, and cinnamic acids as the most represented. Multivariate statistical analyses (PCA, PLS-DA, and HCA) highlighted the distinctiveness of each landrace. The antioxidant, and antibacterial activities of legume seed extracts were evaluated, correlating bioactivity with their metabolic profiles. Ongoing enrichment analysis will further define landrace-specific metabolic features, enhancing the understanding of their health-promoting potential and supporting conservation efforts of traditional varieties.

In depth characterization of autochthonous bean (Phaseolus vulgarisL.) and lentil (Lens culinarisMedik) landraces from Apennine Italian regions

Accurately predicting phenotypic variation across diverse genotypes and environments is vital for accelerating crop improvement. Process‐based crop growth models can capture complex genotype–by–environment interactions, yet estimating genotype‐specific parameters typically relies on labor‐intensive measurements. Here, we developed a data assimilation pipeline that integrates high‐throughput phenotyping with the SiriusQuality wheat model to predict phenology and yield. In multi‐year trials (six years) involving seven wheat varieties in France, we simultaneously assimilated the dynamics of the fraction of intercepted photosynthetically active radiation, heading dates, and final yield. This enabled single‐step estimation of 12 key genotypic parameters controlling both phenology and yield. We compared a Bayesian inference method with a lookup table (LUT)‐based inversion approach and found the LUT method to be faster and more accurate in both simulated and field experiments. We then applied this framework to multi‐environment trials in China with 565 varieties across 13 site–year experiments. Using leave‐one‐environment‐out cross‐validation, we calibrated six phenological parameters and achieved prediction errors of about three days for heading and flowering dates. A genome‐wide association study of these phenological parameters (including Phyllochron, Response of vernalization rate to temperature, and Daylength response of leaf number) identified major quantitative trait loci (QTL). We further built a GBLUP‐based model that incorporated these QTL to estimate the phenological parameters. Overall, our study establishes a robust framework that integrates high‐throughput phenotyping, a crop growth model, and genomic data. This approach offers a powerful tool for enhancing the accuracy and efficiency of large‐scale multi‐environment germplasm evaluations.

Increasing Wheat Phenotypic Prediction Through a Unified Framework Integrating High‐Throughput Phenotyping, Genomics, and Crop Growth Model

Harvest-related traits are key agronomic traits for cereal crops. Understanding the influence of abiotic stress on yield and the ability to find the most predictive traits for final yield are important for understanding and characterizing crop resilience strategies. Using a high spatial and temporal phenotyping approach with multiple imaging sensors we monitored the growth dynamics of plants and assessed their physiological responses throughout development until reaching the maturity stage under control and drought conditions. Here we present a dataset comprising 145 traits over 70 time points under two conditions for six barley lines including elite, cultivated, and wild lines. We applied advanced data analysis using machine learning approaches for effective integrative visualisation and subsequent modelling. The main objectives of this study were to identify distinct traits that differentiate drought-stressed from well-watered plants and to accurately predict harvest traits. Using a classification model, we observed an accurate separation between control and drought treatments and ranked the tolerance levels of different lines. For the harvest prediction models, we evaluated all time points under different watering regimes compared with models using only early time points and determined the importance of traits. Finally, we analysed the variance components of highly predictive traits and identified which traits are mostly driven either by genetic, environmental or time components. With the applied modelling approach, we were able to predict the harvest-related traits and pinpoint the most predictive traits at specific time points. Identifying predictive traits early in the developmental stage can help breeders find stress-tolerant traits of interest.

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Joint-level force-velocity properties for arbitrarily complex musculoskeletal models

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