Natacha Brion

Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Department of Analytical Environmental and Geochemistry, Post-Doc

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I'm a senior scientist working in the field of biogeochemistry in aquatic systems. My major research topic are nutrients in water ecosystems: Where do they come from? Where do they go? Where, when, how and by whom are they transformed? How did they change over the past decades? How do humans influence these? What is the normal situation? Which problems can they cause? etc... To answer these questions, I use specific analytical techniques to determine quantities, concentrations and isotopic ratios in various matrixes such as water, suspended matter, sediments and biota (mostly aquatic plants) from natural aquatic systems such as lakes, ponds, rivers, estuaries and coastal seas but also artificial systems such as canals, sewers, and wastewater treatment plants.Interesting places under study vary a lot according to projects priority and include Tanganyika Lake, The Seine catchment from rivers to estuary (France), The Scheldt estuary (Belgium and the Netherlands), The Zenne river and catchment (Belgium), the sewers of Paris, the wastewater treatment plants of Paris and Brussels, …
Address: Oudergem, Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest, Belgium

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Papers by Natacha Brion

Building water and chemicals budgets over as complex hydrographic network

Towards impact based monitoring of Estrogenic Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (eEDC). eEDC sources and behaviour in the Zenne river, Brussels

Evaluatie van de chemische contaminatie van de Noordzee en schatting van de verontreiniging van land: samenvatting van het onderzoek = Quality status and terrestrial inputs for the North Sea: summary of the research

Stable isotopic composition of inorganic nitrogen substrates represent an efficient tool to investigate long term evolution of the Scheldt health condition

VLIZ Special Publication, 2016

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Stable isotope measurements confirm consumption of submerged macrophytes by macroinvertebrate and fish taxa

Aquatic Ecology, Oct 13, 2018

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Planktonic and Whole System Estuary (the Scheldt Estuary) Metabolism in a Nutrient-rich

Planktonic gross primary production (GPP), community respiration (CR), and nitrification (NIT) we... more Planktonic gross primary production (GPP), community respiration (CR), and nitrification (NIT) were measured monthly in the Scheldt estuary by the oxygen incubation method in 2003. No significant evolution of planktonic GPP was observed since the 1990s with high rates in the freshwater area (salinity 0:97 + 65 mmol C m 2 d ~) decreasing seaward (22-37 mmol C m 2 d 1). A significant decrease of NIT was observed with regard to previous investigations although this process still represents up to 20% of total organic matter production in the inner estuary. Planktonic CR was highest in the inner estuary and seemed to be mainly controlled by external organic matter inputs. Planktonic net community production was negative most of the time in the estuary with values ranging from -300 to 165 mmol C m ~ d 1. Whole estuary net ecosystem production (NEP) was investigated on an annual scale using the results mentioned above and published benthic metabolic rates. A NEP of 39 + 8 mmol C m 2 d lwases~mated, which confirms the slrong heterolrophic s-tatus of this highly nutrified estuary. NEP rates were computed from June to December 2003 to compare with results derived from the Land-Ocean Interaction in the Coastal Zone budgeting procedure applied to dissolved inorganic phosphorus and carbon (DIP and DIC). DIP budgets failed to provide realistic estimates in the inner estuary where abiotic processes account for more than 50 % of the nonconservative DIP flux. DIC budgets predicted a much lower NEP than in situ incubations (- 109 + 31 versus 42 + 9 mmol C m ~ d 1) although, as each approach is assodated with several critical assumptions, the source of this dJscTepanc y remains unclear.

Trace metal enrichment and sediment quality in coastal-urban rivers along the Indian Ocean coast, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

International Journal of Energy and Water Resources

Nitrogen dynamics in Northern Lake Tanganyika: inputs by rivers and use by phytoplankton

Finds and Results from the Swedish Cyprus Expedition: A Gender Perspective at the Medelhavsmuseet, 2006

Metal recovery for Brussels-North (Aquiris) wastewater treatment plant

Stable isotopic composition of inorganic nitrogen substrates represent an efficient tool to investigate long term evolution of the Scheldt health condition

The biogeochemical cycle of nitrogen in marine and freshwater environments is complex since subje... more The biogeochemical cycle of nitrogen in marine and freshwater environments is complex since subject to different within-system processes (uptake, mineralization, ammonification, nitrification), as well as varying input – output functions (discharge, N2 fixation, denitrification). The past decade the concentrations of the different inorganic nitrogen species in the river Scheldt have changed significantly, as a result mainly of extended waste water treatment efforts. Main features are a drastic decrease of the ammonium load, as a result mainly of increased oxygen saturation levels and with a more efficient nitrification as a result.

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