Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
Soma as transmission control in multicellular evolution: a population-genetic framework for germline restriction and cellular altruism
Published: 2026-06-09
Subjects: Genetics, Integrative Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
A central question in the evolution of multicellularity is why lineages repeatedly transition from germ-dominated unicellular states to organizations with extensive somatic investment. If somatic cells are largely excluded from future generations, why are they produced at all, and why do soma-free multicellular alternatives appear limited in stability, persistence, or attainable complexity? Here, [...]
Intertidal Exposure Modulates Time-Integrated Heat Tolerance of the Eastern Oyster Crassostrea virginica
Published: 2026-06-08
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Integrative Biology, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
The rise of unprecedented heatwaves globally has caused an increase in mass mortality events, motivating the need for accurate predictions of population declines. Predicting organismal function under fluctuating thermal regimes is a central challenge in thermal biology, particularly in intertidal systems where organisms experience rapid shifts between submerged and aerial exposure. Here, we [...]
Comparative urban behaviour of two sympatric columbids: Columba palumbus and Columba livia
Published: 2026-06-05
Subjects: Life Sciences
Urban environments favour species tolerant of human disturbance. We compared time budgets and anti-predator behaviour of the common wood pigeon (Columba palumbus) and rock pigeon (Columba livia) in five urban parks in León (Spain) using video recordings and predator approach tests. The common wood pigeon devoted most time to foraging (81.1%) with moderate vigilance (9.9%), while the rock pigeon [...]
Trophic interactions of ants are robust to tree species loss
Published: 2026-06-05
Subjects: Entomology, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
1. How changes in habitat conditions influence insect diversity has been intensively studied. However, whether trophic interactions of insects are also influenced by such changes is largely unknown. Higher habitat heterogeneity is often hypothesized to promote niche partitioning and complementarity in resource use among interacting species, yet evidence from animal interaction networks is sparse. [...]
Problems of geometry, sampling, and scale in gridded biodiversity data, and proposed solutions
Published: 2026-06-03
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Grids, and gridded biodiversity data such as regional or country-level atlases, play a prominent role in ecology, particularly in the study of spatial patterns of species occupancy, geographic ranges, biodiversity, and their drivers and temporal dynamics. However, managing, exploring, and analyzing data in grids comes with problems. Here, we review the problems with gridded data, and the existing [...]
Predicting substrate size at a watershed scale to inform conservation planning for a declining salmonid species
Published: 2026-06-02
Subjects: Biology, Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Life Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Good quality spawning habitat is critical for fish embryo development, survival, and overall population productivity. Appropriate riverbed substrate size is particularly important for riverine-spawning salmonids but the availability of suitable substrate may vary across a watershed. Predicting substrate size at watershed extents may therefore be critical to inform management and conservation of [...]
From social experience to social behaviour: hormonal and behavioural phenotypes during adolescence in male guinea pigs
Published: 2026-06-02
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Biology, Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Adolescence is the transition from juvenility to adulthood and is characterized by prominent endocrine, neural and behavioural alterations. Thus, adolescence represents a sensitive phase during which social experiences can shape endocrine and behavioural phenotypes. Although the influence of the social environment during adolescence has been widely investigated, most studies assessed such effects [...]
Concise guidelines and complementary checklists for improving research reliability and reproducibility
Published: 2026-06-02
Subjects: Life Sciences
Checklists to address reproducibility shortfalls have proliferated but tend to be discipline- or research stage-specific and lack context or learning opportunities. We offer an alternative: one page, every stage, with a reason for each recommendation.
Evaluating the potential of molecular dietary analysis of predators for the detection of emerging plant pests
Published: 2026-06-01
Subjects: Agriculture, Behavior and Ethology, Biodiversity, Biosecurity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Forest Biology, Forest Management, Forest Sciences, Genetics, Laboratory and Basic Science Research Life Sciences, Life Sciences, Research Methods in Life Sciences
Monitoring plant pests is crucial for maximising yields across agricultural and forest production systems, but also for the mitigation of invasive species spread. Traditional monitoring methods, such as mass trapping and direct observation, scale poorly and introduce latency between collection, detection and response. Since many plant pests are frequently consumed by predators, molecular dietary [...]
Cryptic diversity constrains biogeographical inference in microscopic animals: evidence from bdelloid rotifers in Greenland
Published: 2026-06-01
Subjects: Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Zoology
Species are fundamental units of biodiversity, yet their delimitation remains challenging in many organismal groups. The increasing use of DNA data has revealed widespread cryptic diversity, in which genetically distinct lineages are morphologically indistinguishable. Consequently, many morphology-based biogeographical inferences have likely overestimated species ranges, particularly in [...]
A simple demographic explanation for the evolution of the dietary restriction response and its ecological relevance
Published: 2026-06-01
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Considerable life history plasticity is observed in response to variation in food availability and composition. This is perhaps best known in the context of dietary restriction, which consistently induces lower reproduction and higher survival across taxa, with nutritional geometry studies further demonstrating the importance of food composition as well as amount. Although there is a huge amount [...]
Do the benefits of hybridization outweigh the costs under conditions of global change?
Published: 2026-06-01
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Global change is predicted to facilitate hybridization but whether the hybrid populations persist and shape biodiversity remains unknown. At the grey zone, before speciation is completed, hybridization is likely leading to simultaneous costs and benefits for hybrid fitness. Whether the benefits outweigh the costs depends on the environment, as hybrid fitness, and potential incompatibilities, can [...]
Still Money for Nothing? Two Decades of Empirical Evaluation of Conservation Investments
Published: 2026-05-29
Subjects: Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Twenty years ago, the landmark paper “Money for Nothing?” argued that biodiversity conservation relied too little on empirical evidence. It called for more evaluations of conservation effectiveness based on explicit counterfactuals, comparing observed outcomes with those that would likely have occurred in the absence of intervention. To assess progress towards this goal, we systematically [...]
Disentangling the global drivers of species use and use-driven extinction risk
Published: 2026-05-29
Subjects: Biodiversity, Life Sciences
The use and trade of wild species is a cornerstone of subsistence livelihoods and global economies. Understanding which drivers of use threaten species is critical in distinguishing between beneficial sustainable exploitation and harmful overexploitation, and ensuring that conservation efforts are targeted where they are most urgently needed. We provide the first nuanced global assessment of [...]
Reimagining Training for the Next Generation of Ecologists
Published: 2026-05-29
Subjects: Education, Life Sciences
Rampant environmental degradation and biodiversity loss underscore an urgent need for ecological knowledge that can directly help address social‑environmental challenges. We argue that improved Earth stewardship needs ecologists to integrate foundational ecological knowledge to contextual understanding, relational practices, and engagement with decision‑making when proposing effective solutions. [...]