Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
Continental scale light-temperature extremes reveal key behavioural trade-offs
Published: 2026-02-16
Subjects: Life Sciences
Daily rhythms determine ecological interactions, but we rarely know how animals convert activity schedules into movement and space use across extreme light–temperature regimes. Using multi-annual GPS data from 76 Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) tracked across Scandinavia and Iberia (spanning 35° latitude), we quantified diel activity and displacement to test how photoperiod and temperature [...]
Temporal and Spatial Variation in Temperature and Oxygen at the Microscale: Key Niche Axes for Aquatic Life
Published: 2026-02-16
Subjects: Life Sciences
To understand animal adaptations we need accurate estimates of the ecological factors impacting on organisms in nature. Whilst temperature is a well-established driver of physiological performance, its effects in aquatic systems are closely linked to water oxygenation. Oxygen levels are expected to differ spatially and fluctuate temporally much more strongly in water than on land, but our [...]
Cities alter the latitudinal diversity gradient of birds in North America
Published: 2026-02-16
Subjects: Life Sciences
The latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG) is a widely recognized biogeographic pattern, yet its persistence under increasing human impacts remains unclear. Leveraging 17 million eBird records, we investigated how urbanization alters LDGs in North America. We quantified LDGs across 662 cities and their surroundings, and found that LDGs vary by season and native status: non-native species exhibited [...]
No seed size–number trade-off in European beech: climate governs investment per seed
Published: 2026-02-13
Subjects: Life Sciences
Mast-seeding trees can vary seed output by orders of magnitude among years, but it remains unclear whether high seed production comes at the cost of reduced per-seed investment, as predicted by fixed-budget allocation models. We quantified individual seed production with seed mass in European beech across 2,792 trees and 123 populations spanning the species’ European range and quantified seed [...]
Unstructured community science data reveal constriction of breeding distribution for a common montane bird across the Fennoscandian peninsula
Published: 2026-02-13
Subjects: Life Sciences
The threat of climate change is particularly acute for species in arctic and montane habitats, where changes are happening the most rapidly. Species are generally expected to shift their ranges northward and upslope in response to changing climates, but actual measured shifts in species distributions have been nuanced and large quantities of data are needed to accurately assess shifts. The [...]
Insect monitoring without pitfalls: seven steps for robust insect sensing systems
Published: 2026-02-13
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Biodiversity, Computer Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Life Sciences
Data shortages fuel controversy about an ongoing insect biodiversity crisis. Insects are immensely diverse and functionally critical for ecosystems, yet data on insect trends remain patchy and biased. Sensors, ranging from camera-equipped light traps to weather radar stations, are set to transform entomological data collection. Meanwhile, AI models that extract biological information from sensors [...]
A systematic map and comprehensive database of animal organ sizes
Published: 2026-02-12
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Biodiversity, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Pharmacology, Toxicology and Environmental Health
The relationship between individual organ size and overall body size in animals is a fundamental biological phenomenon that spans multiple disciplines. However, a comprehensive synthesis of the sources of variation in organ-specific scaling remains lacking, even among mammals, the most extensively studied vertebrate group. We developed a systematic map and compiled a large database of paired [...]
The incredible vulnerability that reproduction poses for plant species in a warming world
Published: 2026-02-12
Subjects: Life Sciences
Temperatures are rising globally and threatening the persistence of natural plant populations. Elevated temperatures disrupt gametogenesis, fertilization, and seed filling, often at lower thresholds than those affecting photosynthesis, growth, or survival. While crop scientists have found that key reproductive stages are particularly vulnerable to heat stress across plant systems, ecological and [...]
Oxygen limitation is not a major physiological mechanism restricting early life development in zebrafish
Published: 2026-02-12
Subjects: Life Sciences
Early life stages are considered particularly vulnerable to warming because tissue oxygen supply is thought to become limiting, given their underdeveloped gill function and reliance on passive oxygen diffusion. Here, we tested whether oxygen availability constrains early development under warming in zebrafish (Danio rerio). We exposed embryos and early-stage larvae to a high-resolution factorial [...]
Comments on “Mateus-Aguilar, B., Díaz-Salazar, A. F., Andrade-Rivas, F., Batista, N. M., Cárdenas-Navarrete, A., Arenas, A. D., ... & Echeverri, A. (2025). Assessing Biocultural Diversity Across Scales Using Ecological Indicators. Ecological Indicators, 176, 113616.”
Published: 2026-02-11
Subjects: Anthropology, Biodiversity, Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Towards an integrated understanding of animal weapons
Published: 2026-02-11
Subjects: Life Sciences
Animals resolve conflict using an astonishing array of weapons – from electric fields and sonic shockwaves to deadly venom and high-impact strikes. Most weapon research has typically considered only a single weapon modality at a time with a focus separately on weapons under sexual selection or natural selection. Further, few studies have examined how weapons are integrated into the larger [...]
Ecological facilitation hinders adaptation to climate change in a stressful environment
Published: 2026-02-10
Subjects: Life Sciences
Many plants, in (semi-)arid ecosystems in particular, rely on so-called nurse plants for protection and growth, in a species interaction called ecological facilitation. However, it is not clear whether facilitation will protect the facilitated plant from extinction if the environmental conditions change, for example due to climate change. Here, we use an evolutionary model to study the impact of [...]
Modeling evolutionary rescue
Published: 2026-02-09
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
A population that avoids extinction by adapting to environmental change is said to be rescued by evolution. Evolutionary rescue is of fundamental interest in ecology and evolution and of great relevance in conservation, where rescue of endangered species is wanted, and in medicine and agriculture, where rescue (resistance evolution) of pathogens, cancers, and pests is unwanted. Theory plays a key [...]
Life cycle complexity drives variation in thermal tolerance and plasticity
Published: 2026-02-09
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Evolution, Integrative Biology, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Zoology
Accumulating evidence suggests that heat tolerance varies substantially across insect development, yet patterns of variation remain difficult to generalise across species. We discuss how the diversity of insect developmental strategies shapes both the intensity and predictability of thermal environments across ontogeny, and how this likely generates variation in heat tolerance, plasticity, and [...]
The potential for passive acoustic monitoring and automated detection to improve conservation efforts of tarsiers in Sulawesi, Indonesia
Published: 2026-02-09
Subjects: Life Sciences
Tarsiers are small, haplorrhine primates that occur in Southeast Asia. Tarsiers on the island of Sulawesi range from Vulnerable to Critically Endangered, and many are data deficient, which means there is a great need for improved monitoring approaches. Sulawesi tarsiers are pair-living, territorial, and engage in duets within human hearing range, which makes them ideal candidates for passive [...]