Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
Seed biology and regeneration niche of the threatened cold desert perennial Ivesia webberi A. Gray
Published: 2025-01-21
Subjects: Life Sciences
Understanding the regeneration niche is of critical importance for the conservation of rare plants, yet species-specific information is often lacking for key components of the plant life cycle such as seed dormancy and germination. We conducted a detailed study of the regeneration niche for Ivesia webberi, a U.S. federally threatened forb that is endemic to the Great Basin Desert. Using seeds [...]
Weather and landscape morphology drive thermal regime variation among Mývatn ponds, and implications for resident Arctic charr
Published: 2025-01-21
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Thermal stratification is common in lentic freshwater systems, and has extensive effects on ecosystem function and the interactions between aquatic organisms and their surroundings. Although thermal regimes in temperate systems are well-characterized, small arctic and subarctic lakes and ponds can have irregular thermal regimes, and the conditions leading to stratification and mixing are less [...]
Assessing migration and moulting strategy in closely related taxa based on stable isotope analysis: a population study of Balearic and Yelkouan shearwaters across their breeding range
Published: 2025-01-20
Subjects: Life Sciences
Animal migrations are unique phenomena involving mass movements of individuals, which pose significant challenges to develop conservation strategies. Migratory seabirds, particularly, face many anthropogenic threats across their distributions, and populations are declining worldwide. We provided a thorough isotopic method to characterise individual migratory patterns and identify main moulting [...]
Bottom-up interactions in age-structured stock assessment and state-space mass-balance modelling
Published: 2025-01-20
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Population Biology
Age-structured stock assessment models are used worldwide to predict the likely impact of changing harvest on future fisheries yield. However, age-structured models ignore the impacts of predator consumption on prey survival (top-down impacts) and prey availability on predator growth (bottom-up impacts), whereas multispecies statistical catch-at-age models often incorporate top-down but not [...]
Can transcriptome size and off-target effects explain the contrasting evolution of mitochondrial vs nuclear RNA editing?
Published: 2025-01-20
Subjects: Life Sciences
Mitochondrial RNA editing has evolved independently in numerous eukaryotic lineages, where it generally restores conserved sequences and functional reading frames in mRNA transcripts derived from altered or disrupted mitochondrial protein-coding genes. In contrast to this “restorative” RNA editing in mitochondria, most editing of nuclear mRNAs introduces novel sequence variants and diversifies [...]
From Policy to Practice: Progress towards Data- and Code-Sharing in Ecology and Evolution
Published: 2025-01-20
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
High quality research data and analytical code are essential for ensuring the credibility of scientific results, are key research outputs, and are crucial elements to facilitate reproducibility. However, in ecology and evolution (E&E) in particular, it is currently unknown how many journals have policies on data- and code-sharing for peer review purposes, or upon manuscript acceptance. [...]
What’s On The Menu Today? First Report of Nectarivory for Rhynocorus cuspidatus (Hemiptera: Reduviidae)
Published: 2025-01-17
Subjects: Life Sciences
This study reports the first observation of nectarivory in the predator reduviid Rhynocoris cuspidatus (Ribaut, 1921) in Spain. One individual of R. cuspidatus was observed sucking nectar from a Jacobeae vulgaris Gaertn flower inflorescence in a grassland meadow in Berrecil de la Sierra (Spain). Our observation suggested that R. cuspidatus can use floral resources to obtain sugar or moisture [...]
Charles Brook, Newfoundland – watershed overview and recommendations for conservation of its Atlantic salmon
Published: 2025-01-17
Subjects: Life Sciences
Using seed germination as a proxy of restoration success
Published: 2025-01-17
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Ecological restoration of post-mining landscapes is critical to mitigating the environmental impacts of extraction activities. This study compares the effectiveness of geomorphic restoration (GR) versus conventional restoration (CR) techniques in improving soil water availability and seed germination dynamics in the Fortuna quarry, a Mediterranean post-mining site in Spain. Soil water content [...]
Reproductive consequences of mate retention and divorce in a short-lived migratory passerine
Published: 2025-01-16
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
In socially monogamous birds, pair bond duration varies widely across species, from single-breeding associations to long-lasting, multi-year bonds. Studies on mate retention and divorce have predominantly focused on long-lived species, while research in short-lived and migratory species is limited. Consequently, the fitness consequences of divorce or remating in these species remain unclear. [...]
A concept highlighting the interplay between α-niche evolution and β-niche evolution in bacteria
Published: 2025-01-16
Subjects: Life Sciences
When bacteria evolve new traits, this can be either to our benefit or harm. Trying to steer and control evolution in desirable directions is a major, but daunting aspiration of recent research. In natural systems and complex communities, however, it is repeatedly observed that trait evolution regularly deviates from predicted avenues suggested by in vitro experimentation on monocultures. This [...]
Integrating Morphological and Molecular Data for Resolving Lucinidae (Bivalvia) Phylogenies: Implications for Taxonomy and Fossil Inclusion
Published: 2025-01-14
Subjects: Life Sciences
Lucinidae, an ancient clade of chemosymbiotic bivalves dating back to the Late Jurassic, have undergone changing taxonomic classifications. Older morphology-based classifications conflict with recent molecular phylogenies. Current taxonomies rely on molecular data, limiting phylogenetic placement to extant taxa with available molecular data. To better understand lucinid evolutionary history, a [...]
Strategies to transform natural resource extension with iNaturalist and engage the public in biodiversity conservation
Published: 2025-01-14
Subjects: Biodiversity, Education, Life Sciences
Participatory citizen science is an increasingly popular tool which provides non-formal education and learning activities. iNaturalist—a free open-access—participatory citizen science platform provides a place to engage the public in natural resource programming. Here, we explore practical applications for integrating iNaturalist into extension programming. We highlight two approaches: (1) [...]
The implementation of network meta-analysis in Ecology; a case study using crop yield data
Published: 2025-01-13
Subjects: Agriculture, Biodiversity, Life Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy
Network meta-analysis (NMA) is a method commonly used in medical research that allows for the comparison of multiple interventions in a single, coherent analysis. In this study, we explore how NMA can be applied in ecological studies – specifically, in comparing the effectiveness of multiple interventions in field experiments. Our study aims to provide a general and non-technical introduction of [...]
The origin of life; the first self-replicating molecules were RNA nucleotides.
Published: 2025-01-13
Subjects: Life Sciences
Difficulty to efficiently synthesize RNA nucleotides by joining their subunits in modern labs under simulated prebiotic Earth environments leads us to propose an alternative process by cross complimentary self-replication with help of abiotic catalysts such as minerals which are known to be good catalysts and certainly existed on prebiotic Earth. The process took place in areas with cyclic [...]