Preprints
There are 1649 Preprints listed.
Analysis of ecologically relevant sea ice and ocean variables for the Southern Ocean using a high-resolution model to inform ecosystem studies
Published: 2024-06-28
Subjects: Marine Biology, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology
Southern Ocean organisms are uniquely adapted to the extreme environmental conditions that characterise this region, making them especially vulnerable to climate change. Alterations to the physical environment have already been linked to alterations in the structure and functioning of entire ecosystems, and ecological disruptions are expected to continue to occur. Although our understanding of [...]
From eggs to adulthood: sustained effects of early developmental temperature and corticosterone exposure on physiology and body size in an Australian lizard
Published: 2024-06-28
Subjects: Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology, Biology, Integrative Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
As global temperatures continue to rise due to climate change, developing animals may be increasingly exposed to elevated temperatures. Additionally, elevated temperatures could affect developing animals through indirect effects such as increased exposure to maternal glucocorticoid hormones. Exposure to elevated levels of glucocorticoids during development can have immediate and sustained effects [...]
Phenological Patterns of Woody Plant Species in a Tropical Dry Forest, Bannerghatta National Park, Bengaluru
Published: 2024-06-27
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences, Plant Sciences
Phenology is the study of the timing of recurring natural stages in the life cycle of an organism. These natural stages, such as the plant's reproductive cycles, are being affected by the changing climate. The current study aims to understand the effect of weather parameters on the phenology of dry forests in Bannerghatta National Park. Two transects with 504 reproductively mature individuals [...]
Spatial bias in dietary studies can limit our understanding of the feeding ecology of large carnivores
Published: 2024-06-26
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Many large carnivores have broad geographical ranges, encompassing ecosystems with a different prey base. Our understanding of their diet could therefore be biased by the spatial concentration of dietary studies into few areas. We propose a protocol to divide the geographical range of large carnivores, into areas that are homogeneous with respect to available food sources, by using the grey wolf [...]
ExActR: A Shiny app for creating ecosystem extent accounts
Published: 2024-06-25
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Ecosystem accounting is a structured way to integrate nature into sustainable decision-making. The System of Environmental Economic Accounting-Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EA) was adopted by the United Nations as a set of international standards for the collection of habitat data and compiling ecosystem accounts. The ecosystem extent account is one of the four pillars of the SEEA-EA framework, [...]
Range size variably predicts genetic diversity in Gehyra geckos
Published: 2024-06-25
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences
Genetic diversity is a fundamental population genetic parameter, and predicts adaptive capacity. Neutral theory predicts a positive correlation between population (or range) size and genetic diversity, but this can be confounded by other demographic processes. To investigate the role of range size, population fluctuation and introgression in determining genetic diversity, we generate and analyse [...]
We need to talk about (sublinear) density dependence
Published: 2024-06-24
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Sublinear density dependence has been reported in numerous empirical studies, and yet it is seemingly incompatible with most resource-explicit models of competition. Reconciling this disconnect will likely necessitate substantive revision of the assumptions of mechanistic models and/or empirical methods, but it also presents rich opportunities for original research with wide-ranging implications.
Taxonomic imbalances in animal sleep studies
Published: 2024-06-24
Subjects: Life Sciences
Although sleep is essential for the survival of all animals, this behaviour is far from being studied in all species, especially in invertebrates. In this dissertation, we attempted to bring together current knowledge about sleep with a focus on arthropods, which have been much less studied in this regard than vertebrates. While some species appear to exhibit rest periods that combine all the [...]
Species lists of the Koffler Scientific Reserve at Jokers Hill, Ontario, Canada
Published: 2024-06-24
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
This document includes taxonomically-organized lists of all vascular plants, amphibians and reptiles, birds, and mammals recorded from the 350 ha Koffler Scientific Reserve of the University of Toronto, in King Township, Regional Municipality of York, Ontario, Canada (44° 01' N, 79° 31' W). These lists were initially compiled by C.S. Blaney and were published as an appendix to his M.Sc. thesis [...]
Tundra vegetation community, not microclimate, controls asynchrony of above and belowground phenology
Published: 2024-06-24
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Plant Sciences, Plant Biology, Plant Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
The below-ground growing season often extends beyond the above-ground growing season in tundra ecosystems. However, we do not yet know where and when this occurs and whether these phenological asynchronies are driven by variation in local vegetation communities or by spatial variation in microclimate. Here, we combined above- and below-ground plant phenology metrics to compare the relative [...]
New insights to be gained from a Virtual Ecosystem
Published: 2024-06-24
Subjects: Life Sciences
The myriad interactions among individual plants, animals, microbes and their abiotic environment generate emergent phenomena that will determine the future of life on Earth. Here, we argue that holistic ecosystem models – incorporating key biological domains and feedbacks between biotic and abiotic processes – capable of predicting emergent phenomena are required if we are to understand the [...]
trophiCH - a national species-level trophic metaweb of 23k species for Switzerland
Published: 2024-06-20
Subjects: Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Environmental pressures on species can cascade within food webs and even extend beyond individual ecosystems to interconnected systems at large spatial scales. To facilitate the exploration of these dynamics, we construct a data-based national trophic meta-food web (henceforth metaweb), that includes well-documented vertebrates, invertebrates, and vascular plants within Switzerland's national [...]
Microbial growth in soil
Published: 2024-06-20
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences, Life Sciences
The growth rate of a microorganism is a simple yet profound way to quantify its impact on the world. Microbial fitness in the environment depends on the ability to reproduce quickly when conditions are favorable and adopt a survival physiology when conditions worsen, which cells coordinate by adjusting their growth rate. At the population level, per capita growth rate is a sensitive metric of [...]
L’espèce incertaine et les taxons flous
Published: 2024-06-20
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
La question de la « bonne » définition de l’espèce, qui unit les biologistes, les naturalistes et les personnes impliquées dans l’usage ou la conservation de la biodiversité, est constamment réactualisée par les progrès des connaissances sur l’évolution et la spéciation. Cette question est loin [...]
Genetic variation of heat tolerance in a model ectotherm: an approach using thermal death time curves
Published: 2024-06-19
Subjects: Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Physiology
The assessment of thermal tolerance holds significant importance in predicting the physiological responses of ectotherms, particularly in elucidating their capacity for evolutionary adaptation in the context of global warming. Current approaches to assessing thermal tolerance have limitations that can lead to misleading results, especially with regard to the heritability of thermal limits. [...]