Projects per year
Personal profile
Research expertise
Claude Belpaire is an INBO researcher in the Monitoring and Restoration of Aquatic Fauna (MHAF) team. He started his scientific career as a biologist at KU Leuven, where he helped build the starting Laboratory of Ecology and Aquaculture at the Zoological Institute. The laboratory later developed into an important research unit in aquatic ecology. His research focused on fish farming and ecology of freshwater fish species. He holds a PhD in biological sciences from KU Leuven.
In 1991, Claude started as a researcher at the Institute for Forestry and Wildlife Management in Groenendaal, the former more than 100-year-old National Station for Forest and Hydrobiological Research, where he had the chance to gather an enthusiastic team of biologists, technicians and green workers. Together they carry out all kinds of policy-oriented fisheries research in Flemish freshwater ecosystems, usually at the request of local to international target groups.
In that period Claude is mainly active in drawing the contours of a number of future MHAF research lines. Even before the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) came into effect, the Freshwater Fish Monitoring Network was operational in Flanders and Fish Indices were developed later used for European reports on ecological water quality. He lays the first foundations of the Fish Database, which is currently an essential tool for accessing Flemish fish data. In addition, he developed a Flemish eel pollutant monitoring network, in which the accumulation of toxic substances is monitored in eel as a bioindicator. This principle will later be applied on a European scale in a WFD daughter directive.
Claude is currently coordinating several ecological and ecotoxicological projects for governmental partners. His research focuses on ecological and ecotoxicological aspects of eel, and he is active in international advisory bodies for eel management.
Policy
- aquatic management
- biodiversity policy
- Water Framework Directive
- fisheries policy
Thematic List
- Fish
- Pollution
- Water Framework Directive
- Fish reference network
- Fisheries (society)
Geographic List
- river catchments
- Flanders
- Belgium
Taxonomic List
- fishes (Pisces)
- eel-like fishes (Anguillidae)
Fingerprint
- 1 Similar Profiles
Network
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Monitoring of harmful substances in freshwater fish
Belpaire, C., Geeraerts, C. & Teunen, L.
3/01/22 → 31/12/23
Project: Evinbo
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Roll-out of Species Protection Programme Misgurnus fossilis: research, breeding and coordination (EVINBO)
Auwerx, J., Belpaire, C., Brys, R., Van Wichelen, J. & Van Driessche, C.
1/01/21 → 31/12/25
Project: Evinbo
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Winterbeek II - Biota Sampling and analyis for the follow-up of the environmental remediation works on the Winterbeek
Belpaire, C., De Bruyn, A., Dens, F., Dewit, M., Galle, L., Lambeens, I., Maes, Y., Terrie, T., Van Thuyne, G., Van Wichelen, J. & Teunen, L.
1/01/21 → 31/12/23
Project: Evinbo
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Knowledge Platform Aal2 - Goodfish (EVINBO)
Belpaire, C. & Van Wichelen, J.
1/01/21 → 31/12/23
Project: Evinbo
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Species Protection Plan Otter (EVINBO)
Cox, K., Everaert, J., Brys, R., Vandamme, L., Van Wichelen, J., Belpaire, C., Van Den Berge, K., De Bruyn, L. & Teunen, L.
1/01/20 → 31/12/23
Project: Evinbo
Research output
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Advies over de problematiek van vervuilende stoffen in Vlaamse zoetwatervissen
Geeraerts, C., Belpaire, C., De Charleroy, D. & Hoffmann, M., 16-Dec-2022, Instituut voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek. (Adviezen van het Instituut voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek; no. INBO.A.4547)Research output: Book/Report › Advices of the Research Institute for Nature and Forest
Open AccessFile463 Downloads (Pure) -
Anthropogenic Contaminants Shape the Fitness of the Endangered European Eel: A Machine Learning Approach
Bourillon, B., Feunteun, E., Acou, A., Trancart, T., Teichert, N., Belpaire, C., Dufour, S., Bustamante, P., Aarestrup, K., Walker, A. & Righton, D., 5-Oct-2022, In: Fishes. 7, 5Research output: Contribution to journal › A1: Web of Science-article › peer-review
Open Access -
Glass eel (Anguilla anguilla L. 1758) feeding behaviour during upstream migration in an artificial waterway
Van Wichelen, J., Verhelst, P., Perneel, M., Van Driessche, C., Buysse, D., Belpaire, C., Coeck, J. & De Troch, M., 19-Jul-2022, In: Journal of Fish Biology. n/a, n/a, 11 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › A1: Web of Science-article › peer-review
3 Downloads (Pure) -
Invasive weatherfish (Misgurnus bipartitus) may sound the death knell for its native relative (M. fossilis) in Belgium
Van Wichelen, J., Brys, R., Van Driessche, C., Auwerx, J., Belpaire, C. & Verreycken, H., 2022. 1 p.Research output: Contribution to conference › Poster
Open AccessFile726 Downloads (Pure) -
Invasive weatherfish (Misgurnus bipartitus) may sound the death knell for its native relative (M. fossilis) in Belgium
Van Wichelen, J., Brys, R., Van Driessche, C., Auwerx, J., Belpaire, C. & Verreycken, H., 2022. 1 p.Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper/Powerpoint/Abstract
Open AccessFile17 Downloads (Pure)
Datasets
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Checklist of non-native freshwater fishes in Flanders, Belgium
Verreycken, H. (Contributor), Belpaire, C. (Contributor), Adriaens, T. (Contributor), Desmet, P. (Contributor) & Reyserhove, L. (Contributor), 1-Jan-2018
DOI: 10.15468/xvuzfh, https://www.gbif.org/dataset/98940a79-2bf1-46e6-afd6-ba2e85a26f9f
Dataset
Activities
- 1 Organisation and participation in conference, workshop, training, seminar, meeting
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World Fisheries congress 2021
Jeroen Van Wichelen (Speaker), David Buysse (Participant), Pieterjan Verhelst (Participant), Claude Belpaire (Participant), Maarten Goegebeur (Participant), Kristof Vlietinck (Participant) & Johan Coeck (Participant)
20-Sep-2021 → 24-Sep-2021Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Organisation and participation in conference, workshop, training, seminar, meeting
File