Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
Confirmation of the presence of Squalius squalus (Bonaparte, 1837) in Sicily.
Published: 2026-10-24
Subjects: Life Sciences
The occurrence of the Italian chub Squalius squalus (Bonaparte, 1837) in Sicily has always been reported in the literature in a contradictory manner and without certain documentation, being regarded as doubtful by the most recent reviews of the xenodiversity of Sicilian inland waters. Recently, the DNA of the species was detected in an artificial lake. Here we report the first confirmed record of [...]
Benefits and challenges of public engagement: how can systemic changes enhance researcher well-being and sustained participation?
Published: 2026-10-23
Subjects: Life Sciences
Discussions of public engagement typically emphasize its benefits for society and research outcomes, but far less attention has been given to its effects on researchers' well-being. In this viewpoint, we explore how public engagement can contribute to positive work experiences. Drawing on examples from our own projects, we illustrate how engagement activities can foster meaning, connection, [...]
Oak gall wasps lack conserved microbial symbionts
Published: 2026-10-23
Subjects: Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Life Sciences
Herbivorous insects frequently rely on microbial partners to exploit their host plants, yet for gall-inducing insect taxa, there were few attempts to comprehensively resolve their microbial associations. To address this gap, we characterised microbial abundance, composition and specificity in three Polish populations of cherry oak gall wasps (Cynips quercusfolii), a highly specialized [...]
SORTEE five years on: taking stock of the Society for Open, Reliable, and Transparent Ecology and Evolutionary biology
Published: 2026-10-23
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
In five years, the Society for Open, Reliable, and Transparent Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (SORTEE) has grown from a small network of like-minded researchers into a grassroots, international community. Founded in late 2020, SORTEE works to make ecology and evolutionary biology more open, reliable, and transparent at a time when prevailing incentives in academia often reward novelty and [...]
Teaching dynamical systems modeling, analysis and simulation using a Lotka-Volterra Predation Narrative and a Numerus WebKit App
Published: 2026-10-23
Subjects: Education, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The Lotka-Volterra prey-predator (LVPP) equations are among the few ecological models that have become a standard part of the undergraduate mathematics curriculum. Rather than looking elsewhere for fresh examples, we use this familiar story as a single narrative thread along which the toolkit of dynamical systems analysis and simulation is introduced, one modeling assumption at a time. Five [...]
Human-mediated community assembly reshapes urban phytochemical diversity
Published: 2026-10-23
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Plant Sciences
Human activities increasingly determine which plant species coexist, particularly in cities, yet whether this reshapes the chemical dimension of biodiversity remains largely unknown. Here, we investigated how human-mediated plant community assembly influences phytochemical diversity by integrating community composition, functional traits, phylogenetic relationships, leaf metabolomes, and floral [...]
Heathland above-ground biomass estimation using UAV and LiDAR
Published: 2026-10-23
Subjects: Life Sciences
1. Heathland is an important carbon sink and habitat for biodiversity. It is heavily managed Heathland is an important carbon sink and habitat for biodiversity. It is heavily managed through grazing and prescribed fire and faces increasing threats from wildfire and forest encroachment. Because the proportion of overall heathland carbon stock is predominately below-ground, above-ground biomass [...]
The e14 cryptic prophage belongs to a temperate phage lineage distributed across Escherichia and retains genes with potential anti-phage defence functions
Published: 2026-10-22
Subjects: Bacteriology, Bioinformatics, Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Other Microbiology
The e14 region of Escherichia coli str. K-12 is a cryptic prophage that retains functional excision and integration machinery despite extensive loss of phage reproductive functions. However, its evolutionary relationship to other bacteriophages remains poorly resolved. Here, we identify related prophages across four Escherichia species, alongside related, independently isolated bacteriophages. [...]
Hydrodynamic Feedbacks in Coral Reefs: from Organisms to Geomorphic Development
Published: 2026-10-22
Subjects: Life Sciences
Coral reefs are shaped by tightly coupled interactions among geomorphology, hydrodynamic forcing, and ecological processes. In this review, we synthesize current knowledge on how hydrodynamic processes regulate coral reef functioning across scales, from exchanges at organismal surfaces to reef-scale morphodynamics. Hydrodynamic forcing governs mass and momentum transfer across scales through [...]
Where the fluke meets the snail: climate, ensemble models, and fasciolosis risk in Ukraine
Published: 2026-10-22
Subjects: Life Sciences
Fasciolosis, caused by the liver fluke Fasciola hepatica, is an economically important zoonotic disease that is endemic in Ukraine, yet the environmental drivers of its distribution remain insufficiently understood and no national-scale risk model has been produced. We compiled occurrence records for F. hepatica and its intermediate snail host Galba truncatula and used an ensemble species [...]
Gaps and biases in the ecological evidence underlying global biodiversity impact assessments
Published: 2026-10-22
Subjects: Biodiversity, Life Sciences
1. Halting global biodiversity loss requires methods that link biodiversity impacts to both their direct drivers and the human activities that generate them. Biodiversity footprint assessment has emerged as a key framework for establishing these connections, resulting in the rapid development of diverse methods and applications. Central to these approaches are characterisation factors (CFs), [...]
Size-dependent beak shape divergence between Parrot and Common Crossbills likely involves major developmental changes
Published: 2026-10-22
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Forest Biology, Life Sciences, Ornithology, Zoology
We studied allometry, here defined as shape-size covariation, to explore the unresolved case of divergence between the Parrot and Common Crossbill. Using geometric morphometrics, we compared beak shape and allometry among the Parrot Crossbill, the Common Crossbill and the more distantly related Two-Barred Crossbill. The Parrot Crossbill differed from the two other species in shape changes that [...]
Gaussian processes on phylogenies: a kernel framework for building, checking and comparing models of trait evolution
Published: 2026-10-22
Subjects: Life Sciences
Phylogenetic comparative methods for continuous traits, such as phylogenetic generalised least squares, Brownian motion and Ornstein–Uhlenbeck models, Pagel's tree transformations, early-burst and multi-rate models, phylogenetic mixed models and ancestral-state reconstruction, can all be regarded as Gaussian processes on a phylogeny that differ only in their covariance function, or kernel. This [...]
Conspecific density enhances sound seed production during high-seed years in European beech
Published: 2026-10-22
Subjects: Life Sciences
Climate change is reducing the supply of sound seeds available for forest regeneration, creating a need to identify management strategies that can counteract these losses. Managing local tree density offers one potential approach, as neighbouring trees can enhance pollination but also increase losses to seed predators. In masting species, which produce highly variable but synchronised seed crops, [...]
Genetic diversity must underpin area-based conservation and restoration targets
Published: 2026-10-22
Subjects: Biodiversity, Environmental Policy, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences
The mid-term review of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework reveals highly uneven progress in halting biodiversity loss, especially for genetic diversity (Target 4) which underpins ecosystem function and species’ adaptive potential in a changing environment (Des Roches et al., 2018). Over 70% of the Parties have set national targets to conserve and restore genetic diversity, yet, so [...]