Preprints
There are 1574 Preprints listed.
Quantifying intermediary processes in ecology using causal mediation analyses
Published: 2024-05-13
Subjects: Applied Statistics, Longitudinal Data Analysis and Time Series, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Statistical Methodology
Ecologists seek to understand the intermediary ecological processes through which changes in one attribute in a system affect other attributes. Yet, quantifying the causal effects of these mediating processes in ecological systems is challenging. Researchers must define what they mean by a “mediated effect”, determine what assumptions are required to estimate mediation effects without bias, and [...]
Simple and robust models of ecological abundance
Published: 2024-05-13
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
1. Counts of species in ecological samples are of interest when they tell us about community assembly processes. Older process-based models of count distributions are either complex, widely rejected, or not able to predict high unevenness. 2. I leverage a general strategy for deriving simple one-parameter models. A distribution of abundances x on a continuous scale is predicted from a transform [...]
Factors Influencing Support for Bat Management and Conservation in the Wildland-Urban Interface
Published: 2024-05-13
Subjects: Biodiversity, Environmental Studies, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about bats often underlie social support for bat management and intentions to conserve bats. Effective bat conservation and management hinges on understanding these drivers across contexts. Lands classified as wildland-urban interface (WUI) are rapidly expanding in the USA, increasing the likelihood of human-bat interactions from management practices and [...]
Evidence for avian core-Merge is indisputable: A reply to Beckers et al. (2024)
Published: 2024-05-13
Subjects: Life Sciences
It has been hypothesized that the generative power of language stems from a cognitive capacity called “Merge,” which enables senders to combine two linguistic items (e.g., two words or two phrases) into a sequence and receivers to recognize it as a single unit (Chomsky, 1995, 2001). In an experimental study published in Nature Communications (Suzuki and Matsumoto, 2022), we demonstrated that a [...]
Microevolutionary change in wild stickleback: using integrative time-series data to infer responses to selection
Published: 2024-05-13
Subjects: Life Sciences
Identifying microevolutionary change in the wild requires linking trait change to shifts in allele fre-quencies, but existing approaches poorly account for different modes of selection that act simulta-neously on correlated traits. Using an integrative phenome-genome time-series dataset collected on wild threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus), we identified how different modes of [...]
Brownification shapes the food web of aquatic invertebrates: a review
Published: 2024-05-13
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Brownification, a global phenomenon of increasing surface water colour to yellow-brown hues, has an array of effects on drinking water supply and aquatic biodiversity. Aquatic invertebrates, as indicators of aquatic ecosystem health and providers of ecosystem services, have received limited attention in the context of water browning. In this review, we explored the effects of brownification on [...]
Uncovering multiple influences on space use by deer mice using NEON data
Published: 2024-05-10
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Life Sciences
Space use by animals is affected by multiple factors; previous researchers have examined the effects of influences such as sex, body condition, and population density on home range area. However, evaluating the simultaneous influences of multiple factors on animal space use has been relatively intractable due to sample size limitations. We capitalize on National Ecological Observatory Network [...]
Revised molecular phylogenetic analysis of Leucheria Lag. sensu lato (Asteraceae; Nassauvieae) and implications for morphological and ecological evolution
Published: 2024-05-10
Subjects: Biodiversity
In a preceding work, I reanalyzed published ribosomal and plastome DNA sequence data for selected species of Leucheria Lag. and related Nassauvieae (Asteraceae). I reported that the genus Polyachyrus Lag. is phylogenetically nested within Leucheria, hence I transferred species of the former into the latter. I also demonstrated that the monotypic Oxyphyllum Phil. pertains to the Leucheria crown [...]
Advancing single species abundance models: robust models for predicting abundance using co-occurrence from communities
Published: 2024-05-10
Subjects: Aquaculture and Fisheries Life Sciences, Biology
Accurate estimates of abundance are crucial for successful conservation and management. However, gathering abundance data is costly. Species Abundance Models (SAMs) are increasingly used to predict variation in abundance for resource management for single species, but collecting enough relevant environmental information to build effective SAMs can often be challenging. Species co-occurrence [...]
IUCN Red List of Ecosystems, Mangroves of New Zealand
Published: 2024-05-08
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Mangroves of New Zealand is a regional ecosystem subgroup (level 4 unit of the IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology). It includes the marine ecoregions of Central New Zealand, Northeastern New Zealand and Three Kings-North Cape. Their mapped extent in 2018 was 281.7 to 296.2 km2, representing 0.2% of the global mangrove area. The biota is characterized by a single species: Avicennia marina subsp. [...]
IUCN Red List of Ecosystems, Mangroves of South India and Sri Lanka, and Maldives
Published: 2024-05-08
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Mangroves of South India and Sri Lanka, and Maldives is a regional ecosystem subgroup (level 4 unit of the IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology). It includes the marine ecoregions of Western India, South India and Sri Lanka, and Maldives. The mapped extent in 2020 was 249.2 km2, representing 0.2% of the global mangrove area. The environmental settings of this ecoregion differ widely ranging from open [...]
A wrap-around movement path randomization method to distinguish social and spatial drivers of animal interactions
Published: 2024-05-08
Subjects: Life Sciences
Studying the spatial-social interface requires tools that distinguish between social and spatial drivers of interactions. Testing hypotheses regarding the factors determining animal interactions often involves comparing observed interactions with reference or ’null’ models. One approach to accounting for spatial drivers of social interactions in reference models is randomizing animal [...]
Global review of shorebird tracking publications: Gaps and priorities for research and conservation
Published: 2024-05-07
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Ornithology, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Research Methods in Life Sciences
Electronic tracking has enabled rapid advances in knowledge of the movement behaviour and habitat use of shorebirds (Charadriiformes), and is thus making a growing contribution to their conservation. However, developing a useful coherent global strategy for tracking these taxa requires an overview of the current availability of data and how it varies along regional and ecological lines. To this [...]
MECHANISTIC MODEL OF VEGETATION STRUCTURE AND ANIMAL COMMUNITY INTERACTIONS-INTEGRATING GEDI & TLS DATA IN THE MADINGLEY MODEL
Published: 2024-05-07
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Population Biology
Background Vegetation structure is increasingly recognized as a key variable to explain ecosystems states and dynamics. New Remote Sensing tools are available to complement labor intensive field investigations and consider the global biogeography of this parameter. Objectives We propose to model the processes explaining the interaction between vegetation structure and animal community assembly [...]
Integrating animal tracking and trait data to facilitate global ecological discoveries
Published: 2024-05-06
Subjects: Life Sciences
Understanding animal movement is at the core of ecology, evolution, and conservation science. Big data approaches for animal tracking have facilitated impactful synthesis research on spatial biology and behavior in ecologically important and human-impacted regions. Similarly, databases of animal traits (e.g., body size, limb length, locomotion method, lifespan) have been used for a wide range of [...]