BackgroundEcosystem restoration is as a critical tool to counteract the decline of biodiversity and recover vital ecosystem services. Restoration efforts, however, often fall short of meeting their goals. Although functionally important levels of biodiversity can significantly contribute to the outcome of ecosystem restoration, they are often overlooked. One such important facet of biodiversity is within-species genetic diversity, which is fundamental to population fitness and adaptation to environmental change. Also the diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), obligate root symbionts that regulate nutrient and carbon cycles, potentially plays a vital role in mediating ecosystem restoration outcome. In this study, we investigated the relative contribution of intraspecific population genetic diversity, AMF diversity, and their interaction, to population recovery of Succisa pratensis, a key species of nutrient poor semi natural grasslands. We genotyped 180 individuals from 12 populations of S. pratensis and characterized AMF composition in their roots, using microsatellite markers and next generation amplicon sequencing, respectively. We also investigated whether the genetic makeup of the host plant species can structure the composition of root-inhabiting AMF communities.ResultsOur analysis revealed that population allelic richness was strongly positively correlated to relative population growth, whereas AMF richness and its interaction with population genetic diversity did not significantly contribute. The variation partitioning analysis showed that, after accounting for soil and spatial variables, the plant genetic makeup explained a small but significant part of the unique variation in AMF communities.ConclusionsOur results confirm that population genetic diversity can contribute to population recovery, highlighting the importance of within-species genetic diversity for the success of restoration. We could not find evidence, however, that population recovery benefits from the presence of more diverse AMF communities. Our analysis also showed that the genetic makeup of the host plant structured root-inhabiting AMF communities, suggesting that the plant genetic makeup may be linked to genes that control symbiosis development.

BackgroundMedication use during pregnancy is ex-tremely common and has increased over the past decades.1–3 Unfortunately, no Belgian data are available on the number and type of products used. The aim of the PREVIM-study (Pregnancy related use of vitamins and medication) is therefore to provide a detailed overview of the prevalence of different types of health products’ use among Belgian pregnant women.MethodsAll pregnant women, ≥18 years, attending the obstetrics department of the University Hospitals Leuven and understanding Dutch, French or English were asked to complete an online web-survey once between No-vember 2016 and February 2017 (cross-sectional study). The questionnaire consisted of sociodemographic and pregnancy-related questions, questions about the use of health products and questions about medication beliefs and information desire. Support from a study collabo-rator was available. The questionnaire could be finished at home if necessary. The questionnaire was linked with a database consisting of more than 100 000 pictures of available health products in Belgium. A draft Dutch ver-sion was pilot tested in ten pregnant women and the final version was translated into English and French. Approv-al of the Ethics Committee was obtained; participants signed informed consent prior to the study.ResultsIn total, 379 pregnant women (40,4%0–13 w, 26,4%14–27 w, 33,2%28–40 w), mean age 32 years (range 18–48), participated in the study. Most women were pro-fessionally active (88.9%), of which one-fifth was working in health care. In 14.5% of cases, the pregnancy was the result of a fertility treatment. Almost all women (98,2%) had used a health product in the preceding week; 86.0% had used folic acid or a pregnancy-specific multivitamin; 52% had used a prescription or OTC medication reg-istered in Belgium. In 53.8% of those, it concerned one medicine; 3.56% had used four or more medicines. 64.1% of pregnant women indicated to have used alcohol in the three months preceding the pregnancy; 12.4% were at that time smokers and 2.6% used drugs. Only 34.8% of women mentioned to have changed life style before pregnancy. 91.6% of smokers stopped smoking at the time they realised they were pregnant or later during pregnancy, while 89,6% of alcohol drinkers did so. 6.1% of women had still smoked cigarettes in the week preced-ing the survey; 5.5% had used alcohol and 0.53% were substance-users.ConclusionPreliminary data from this cross-section-al study show that almost all Belgian pregnant women used one or more health products in the week preceding the survey. Only one third of women adapted life style in the months before pregnancy; most women who quitted smoking or drinking alcohol did it too late.