Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
Learning, motivation, and social interaction in modern dolphin training
Published: 2026-04-30
Subjects: Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Dolphin training is widely practiced in zoological facilities for performance, husbandry, research, and daily management, yet many of its practical principles remain insufficiently formalized in the scientific literature. This Perspective aims to provide a citable academic framework for modern dolphin training by synthesizing trainer-based practical knowledge within established concepts from [...]
Spatial Behavior and Long-Term Decline of Radiocesium in Green Pheasants (Phasianus versicolor) in Fukushima: A Left-Censored Regression Approach
Published: 2026-04-30
Subjects: Life Sciences
Long-term monitoring of radiocesium (137Cs) in wildlife is important for assessing environmental recovery after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident. We integrated GPS telemetry data with muscle 137Cs concentrations in green pheasants (Phasianus versicolor) to evaluate whether observed declines in radiocesium are consistent with reduced local environmental availability. Winter [...]
Reindeer habitat selection and movement changes with cumulative impacts from mining and wind power development
Published: 2026-04-30
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Forest Management, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Zoology
Industrial expansion often occurs in landscapes already affected by multiple disturbances, leading to cumulative impacts on biodiversity and local communities. With the societal pressure for an rapid ‘green transition’, land-use changes intensifies, yet most impact assessments remain local and project-based, disregarding cumulative impacts. We conceptualized and disentangled key dimensions of [...]
Opportunities, Enablers and Requirements in Advancing Earth Observation for Scaling Nature Finance
Published: 2026-04-29
Subjects: Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
The Leveraging Earth Observation for Nature Finance (LEON) project, supported by the European Space Agency (ESA), seeks to transform the use of Earth Observation (EO) data in enabling, mobilising and scaling nature-positive finance globally. This report builds upon six months of structured research, landscape analysis and multi-stakeholder engagement to map the opportunities and requirements for [...]
Earth Observation to Scale Nature Finance: Survey 2025
Published: 2026-04-29
Subjects: Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
This report presents the results of the LEON User Requirements Survey conducted in summer 2025 to understand how Earth Observation (EO) data can support the mobilisation and scaling of nature finance. The survey targeted financial institutions, data providers, and other stakeholders engaged in nature-related investment, risk management, and policy. A total of 27 organisations responded to the [...]
A National Application of the Species Habitat Index for Ethiopia Reveals Uneven Habitat Change Across Plant Groups and Ecosystems
Published: 2026-04-29
Subjects: Life Sciences
Accelerating delivery of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) requires indicators that can detect species-level habitat change at policy-relevant scales. The Species Habitat Index (SHI) offers a method to optimise resource allocation and enhance national biodiversity reporting, but its broader utilisation has been constrained by significant data gaps, particularly for taxa [...]
Parasite species identity reshapes geographic patterns of morphology in the hermit crab Pagurus filholi across Japan
Published: 2026-04-29
Subjects: Life Sciences, Marine Biology
Geographic variation in morphological traits of marine invertebrates is commonly attributed to local adaptation or phenotypic plasticity, yet such interpretations can be confounded when parasite assemblages — and their morphological effects on hosts — differ systematically among localities. Here, we tested whether the identity of five parasite species—rhizocephalans Peltogaster postica and [...]
The Positive Influence of Compost and Cover Crops on Key Soil Health Indicators in Nut Orchards
Published: 2026-04-29
Subjects: Life Sciences
Sustainable management practices in nut orchards are crucial for enhancing soil health and minimizing environmental impacts associated with conventional production. Over three years, this study evaluated the effects of stacked soil health practices in five nut orchards (almonds and walnuts) in California. Experimental plots received annual applications of 19 Mg/ha of yard waste and manure [...]
Toward repurposing global passive air sampling networks for insect monitoring: Promises and pitfalls of airborne eDNA
Published: 2026-04-29
Subjects: Entomology, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Zoology
1. Polyurethane foam passive air samplers (PUF-PAS) are widely deployed to monitor environmental pollutants, yet their capacity to capture biological signals such as environmental DNA (eDNA) remains largely unexplored. Recent advances in airborne eDNA research create a timely opportunity to evaluate PUF-PAS as a tool for biodiversity monitoring and to leverage existing global sampling networks [...]
Representational limits in detecting ecological change
Published: 2026-04-28
Subjects: Agriculture, Animal Sciences, Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology, Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Biology, Biotechnology, Cell and Developmental Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Food Science, Forest Sciences, Genetics and Genomics, Immunology and Infectious Disease, Laboratory and Basic Science Research Life Sciences, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Microbiology, Neuroscience and Neurobiology, Other Life Sciences, Pharmacology, Toxicology and Environmental Health, Physiology, Plant Sciences, Research Methods in Life Sciences, Systems Biology
Detecting ecological change remains a persistent challenge, even in systems with extensive monitoring data and increasingly sophisticated analytical tools. Uncertainty is usually attributed to stochasticity, limited observations, or imperfect models. Here, I argue that an additional and largely overlooked constraint arises from representational limits: systematic ways in which graphs, indicators, [...]
Virtual Population Analysis of the critically endangered Scalloped Hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini) in the Eastern Tropical Pacific
Published: 2026-04-28
Subjects: Life Sciences
The scalloped hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini) is one of the most critically endangered shark species in the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP). Despite its wide distribution and relatively high fecundity, overfishing and bycatch have led to sustained population declines across the region. We developed a spatially implicit, stage-structured, two-sex virtual population model for the ETP population of S. [...]
IUCN Red List of Ecosystems, Mangroves of the East Central and Southeast Australian Shelf
Published: 2026-04-27
Subjects: Life Sciences
Mangroves of the East Central and Southeast Australian Shelf is a regional ecosystem subgroup (level 4 unit of the IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology). It includes the marine ecoregions of Bassian, Cape Howe, Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands, Manning-Hawkesbury, Tweed-Moreton, and Western Bassian. The East Central and Southeast Australian Shelf mangrove province mapped extent in 2020 was 462.2 km2, [...]
IUCN Red List of Ecosystems, Mangroves of the Northwest Australian and Sahul Shelf
Published: 2026-04-27
Subjects: Life Sciences
Mangroves of the Northwest Australia and Sahul shelf is a regional ecosystem subgroup (level 4 unit of the IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology). It includes the marine ecoregions of Arafura Sea, Arnhem Coast to Gulf of Carpentaria, Bonaparte Coast, Exmouth to Broome, Gulf of Papua, Houtman, Lesser Sunda, Ningaloo, Shark Bay, Southeast Papua New Guinea and Torres Strait Northern Great Barrier Reef. In [...]
Wolf – human interactions in a shared landscape: spatio-temporal distribution and visitors' perception in The Hoge Veluwe National Park
Published: 2026-04-26
Subjects: Life Sciences
Large carnivores are increasingly recolonizing human-dominated landscapes, yet the mechanisms enabling their persistence in intensively used landscapes and how this shapes risk perception and tolerance remain insufficiently understood. In particular, few studies have integrated fine-scale ecological data with on-site assessments of visitor perceptions from the same recreational area. Using the [...]
Status and conservation assessment of southern marginal populations of the Golden Eagle Aquila chrysaetos under IUCN criteria
Published: 2026-04-24
Subjects: Life Sciences
The Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) is one of the most widely distributed raptors worldwide and is currently classified as Least Concern at the global scale. However, global assessments may obscure pronounced regional asymmetries in population status and extinction risk, particularly at the geographical margins of a species’ range. At the southern edge of its distribution, encompassing the [...]