Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
A consumer-facing application for radiance field-based 3D reconstruction enables accessible measurement of urban tree structure
Published: 2026-11-11
Subjects: Life Sciences
Urban forests are key in mitigating the effects of climate change and urbanisation on human well-being. Yet, evaluating and managing these benefits requires accurate, scalable monitoring of trees. Laser scanners operated from ground-based and airborne platforms have enabled urban trees to be monitored in unprecedented structural detail and across large spatial extents, respectively. However, [...]
Evaluating Cittarium pica for reef restoration: From grazing effects to post-release retention
Published: 2026-11-11
Subjects: Life Sciences
Caribbean coral reefs have experienced extensive coral loss, accompanied by increased algal cover which inhibits coral recovery. Enhancing native herbivore populations is being explored as a means of controlling excessive algal growth. The gastropod Cittarium pica (C. pica) may represent an option, but its suitability for reef restoration is unknown. We therefore evaluated its grazing, survival, [...]
Integrating the concept of acoustic diversity into the functional ecology framework
Published: 2026-11-11
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
The ecological relevance of sounds in ecosystems has gained increasing attention in the recent decade. While ecoacoustics seeks to study these roles, a majority of studies to date have focused on using Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) for species monitoring or calculating integrative ecoacoustic indices as rapid proxies for biological diversity. This paper proposes an ecological perspective on [...]
Which camera-trap images to review? Estimating occupancy from a small part of a survey
Published: 2026-11-11
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Context. Camera-trap surveys produce more images than people can review. Computer-vision classifiers such as SpeciesNet label animals but miss some species, so people still review images. Aims. To find how many and which images should be reviewed to reliably estimate species occupancy, and how a project can tell when it has reviewed enough. Methods. On four fully labeled camera-trap surveys (in [...]
Between Hill evenness and Hill diversity: how fixed-range evenness indices disagree
Published: 2026-11-11
Subjects: Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Research Methods in Life Sciences, Statistical Methodology, Statistics and Probability
Ecologists use evenness to describe the distribution of species abundances and compare communities across space and time. Yet the indices in use are not interchangeable. Chao and Ricotta (2019) identified five fixed-range evenness classes built on Hill numbers. At each Hill order α they are values of one normalized Sharma–Mittal family indexed by a scale parameter β. I show that this family is [...]
Ecological and evolutionary significance of bark feeding: implications for mammal and plant
Published: 2026-11-10
Subjects: Life Sciences
Bark feeding is a widespread but under-reported form of mammalian herbivory that can buffer herbivores against seasonal food shortages while imposing disproportionate damage on woody plants. Despite its ecological significance, the drivers and adaptations underlying bark feeding remain poorly understood. Here we synthesise evidence for the ecological and evolutionary significance of bark feeding [...]
NAHPU: An integrated approach to natural history data acquisition and management in the extended specimen era
Published: 2026-11-09
Subjects: Life Sciences
Natural history museums collect, curate, and distribute the data that underpin biodiversity science. Modern, holistic collection practices have increased the number of specimen parts, associated parasites, and derivative digital assets, challenging researchers to maintain data integrity for a vast set of data types representing the extended specimen. We developed the NAHPU digital field catalog [...]
Movement-surface interactions of flying insects in three-dimensional space
Published: 2026-11-09
Subjects: Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Three-dimensional movement is increasingly measurable for flying insects. However, modelling approaches have lagged behind, limiting mechanistic understanding of how flight behaviour influences interception by planar trapping surfaces. We simulate insect movement in three-dimensional space using biased and correlated random walks, distinguishing panel contact from edge leakage and accounting for [...]
Evolutionary origins of a latitudinal plant height gradient
Published: 2026-11-09
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Latitudinal gradients are among the most pervasive patterns in biodiversity, yet their evolutionary origins remain poorly understood, especially in plants. Here we identify a latitudinal gradient in plant height within cacti, an iconic and rapidly evolving plant family spanning the Americas, with taller species inhabiting warmer, lower latitudes. To uncover how this gradient arose, we [...]
MetaWeave: a reproducible framework for the spatial inference of ecological networks
Published: 2026-11-09
Subjects: Life Sciences
A regional species-interaction network, or metaweb, describes interactions that potentially occur among species within a region. MetaWeave is an R package that combines regional metawebs, local species assemblages, and alternative interaction models to reconstruct local networks. Its main feature is to separate the effects of interaction assumptions from changes in community composition. We [...]
Vulnerability of Atlantic salmon to climate warming across the life cycle
Published: 2026-11-06
Subjects: Life Sciences
Climate change is inducing more frequent and severe heat waves than organisms have encountered in recent evolutionary history. Predicting the consequences of extreme temperatures for biodiversity depends on understanding how thermal tolerance varies within species, yet this is limited by a lack of empirical data across all life stages, particularly those predicted to be most vulnerable: embryos [...]
The Geography of Speciation Across Andean-Centred Clades
Published: 2026-11-06
Subjects: Evolution, Life Sciences
Aim: Mountains harbour a disproportionate share of global biodiversity, yet the geographic pathways through which this diversity arises remain debated. In the Andes, diversification has been linked both to geographic isolation generated by complex topography and climatic dynamics, and to ecological divergence across steep environmental gradients. Here, we assess the predominant geographic modes [...]
Seven myths about causal inference in ecology: clarifications and common ground
Published: 2026-11-06
Subjects: Life Sciences
Identifying and quantifying causal relationships from data is a central goal in ecology and conservation. To achieve this goal, ecologists are increasingly applying frameworks and methods from the broader, multidisciplinary causal inference literature. These applications have generated both enthusiasm and skepticism. Here, we address seven common sources of skepticism that we see as myths. Much [...]
Marine Group II Archaea: A Review with a Focus on the Arctic Ocean
Published: 2026-11-06
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Microbiology
Marine Group II (MGII) archaea are among the most abundant planktonic archaea in the global ocean, yet no cultured representative exists, and most of what is known about them comes from 16S rRNA gene surveys and metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs). Here we review the taxonomy, biogeography, physiology, and metabolism of MGII archaea, now proposed as the order Candidatus Poseidoniales, with its [...]
Can't see the forbs for the grasses – Forb ecology in Indian grasslands
Published: 2026-11-06
Subjects: Life Sciences
Grasslands are one of the world's most widespread and diverse ecosystems. However, ecological research in grasslands has largely focused on grasses and woody plants, while forbs, which are non-graminoid herbaceous plants, are often overlooked despite their considerable contributions to biodiversity and ecosystem functioning of grasslands. In this review we synthesize current knowledge on the [...]