Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
Edge-of-range camera-trap records of Superb Lyrebird (Menura novaehollandiae) in western and central-north Tasmania (2018–2025)
Published: 2025-11-18
Subjects: Biodiversity, Life Sciences, Ornithology
Tasmania’s Superb Lyrebird (Menura novaehollandiae) was deliberately introduced to south‑east Tasmania in 1934 and has since dispersed across much of the island’s central bioregions. Despite this expansion, the Lyrebird’s future range dynamics remains uncertain, with recent modelling projecting that it will take over 50 years for the species to establish in the north-west of the island. Here we [...]
Humanity’s redistribution of global biomass flows
Published: 2025-11-18
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
The biosphere is connected by flows of organic material (biomass), through biogenic (e.g., animal migration) or anthropogenic pathways (e.g., trade). We argue that humans have drastically altered Earth’s biomass flows by disrupting animal movement, directly transporting biomass and creating novel biotic pathways. In 2023, transnational anthropogenic transport of biomass through trade far exceeded [...]
Sex-specific mutation accumulation: A parsimonious explanation for sex differences in lifespan and ageing
Published: 2025-11-18
Subjects: Life Sciences
Sex differences in lifespan and ageing pervade the tree of life, yet their evolutionary origin is still debated. Adaptive trade-off models have long dominated the field but show mixed empirical support. Here we argue that sex-specific mutation accumulation is the most parsimonious evolutionary cause of sex-biased ageing. Because anisogamy and ecology shape reproductive and survival schedules, [...]
Bioclimatic modelling of the spread of Dirofilaria spp. in Europe, with a special focus on Ukraine
Published: 2025-11-18
Subjects: Life Sciences
Background: The zoonotic disease dirofilariosis, caused by Dirofilaria spp., is expanding geographically in Europe, a phenomenon increasingly linked to climate change. Understanding the environmental drivers of this spread is crucial for surveillance and public health planning. Objective: This study aims to model the ecological niche of Dirofilaria spp. in Europe, identify key climatic drivers, [...]
Microevolutionary consequences of social structure in wild spotted hyenas
Published: 2025-11-14
Subjects: Life Sciences
Social structure - arising from non-random associations and interactions among conspecifics - is a defining feature of most animal populations, yet evolutionary theory typically assumes genetic and social homogeneity. This disconnect limits our ability to predict how natural populations evolve. We combined nearly 30 years of behavioural, life-history, and genomic data from wild spotted hyenas [...]
Ecological, demographic and social factors shape helping decisions at different spatial scales in a facultative cooperative breeder
Published: 2025-11-13
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
The fitness consequences of cooperative breeding are increasingly well understood, but the ecological and demographic factors driving helping remain contentious. Comparative and single-species studies have identified factors that promote the evolution of helping, but analyses typically test single hypotheses so the relative importance of different factors, and the spatial scale of their [...]
Barking up the wrong tree? Indian street dog woes are emblematic of ecological governance failures for multispecies coexistence
Published: 2025-11-13
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Population Biology, Social and Behavioral Sciences
On August 11, 2025, India’s Supreme Court mandated relocating 2.5 million dogs to address bites and zoonotic disease/death concerns—but reversed course twice since then—revealing that solutions require sequential waste management, education, and sterilization that prioritize addressing root demographic and behavioral drivers over reactive management.
The Queer & Trans Field Safety Assessment: a tool for protecting minoritized field scientists
Published: 2025-11-12
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Ecological fieldwork poses heightened risks for LGBTQIA+ scientists due to inadequate safety protocols and identity-based vulnerabilities. Best practices to improve safety for queer field researchers exist, yet over 50% of LGBTQIA+ field scientists report feeling unsupported, with structural and cultural barriers unaddressed. Our team of 15 researchers from the University of California developed [...]
Identifying deforestation and defaunation fronts in Indonesia’s tropical forests
Published: 2025-11-11
Subjects: Life Sciences
Tropical forests are central to global climate regulation and biodiversity conservation, yet continue to face intense pressure from agricultural expansion, resource extraction, and infrastructure development. Indonesia contains some of the world’s largest remaining tropical forests and exceptionally high vertebrate diversity, but its islands differ widely in both historic forest loss and emerging [...]
Taxonomic revisions, strategic decisions research and management priorities for the threatened greater glider complex
Published: 2025-11-11
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Zoology
Collating and synthesising ecological information is critical for guiding effective conservation policy and management plans. This is especially pertinent for species of conservation concern. This task may be further complicated when taxonomic revisions of species and species complexes occur. Species previously managed as a single taxon may be reclassified into multiple species, and hence [...]
Another brick in the wall of European subterranean spider knowledge: adding Macaronesian species and their traits to the picture
Published: 2025-11-11
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Caves and other subterranean ecosystems impose highly selective environmental filters, driving the evolution of convergent and specialized traits in subterranean organisms. Here, we present the first comprehensive checklist and trait database for subterranean spiders of Macaronesia, thereby filling a significant knowledge gap relative to continental Europe. We compiled data through direct [...]
The ecology of resting behaviour in terrestrial vertebrates, and potential effects of anthropization
Published: 2025-11-10
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Inactive behaviours are a major component of animals’ lives, generally representing important proportions of time budgets. The conditions in which they occur are thus likely to have key effects on individual fitness. Yet, relatively little research has focused on the determinants and ecological consequences of inactive behaviours, likely in part because of the inherent difficulties associated [...]
Artificial light at night has life stage-specific effects on biological rhythms in a specialist insect
Published: 2025-11-10
Subjects: Life Sciences
Artificial Light at Night (ALAN) has infiltrated many once-dark nightscapes, introducing a novel cue on biological clocks. Recent research has uncovered effects of ALAN on behavior, physiology, and fitness across taxa. However, questions remain about ALAN’s effects on key biological rhythm functions like diapause and sleep, and how disruptions to these rhythms can be linked to fitness declines. [...]
Proportion of native plants is a key predictor of pollinator richness in urban greenspaces
Published: 2025-11-10
Subjects: Life Sciences
Pollinator declines are caused by a multitude of factors including pollution, global warming, disease, urbanization, deforestation, and habitat loss. Given the global increase in urbanization, identifying ways to support pollinators in cities has become an important conservation priority. Here, we investigate the effect of urbanization on pollinator richness. Using >100,000 iNaturalist [...]
A conceptual guide to studying multilevel societies
Published: 2025-11-10
Subjects: Life Sciences
1. Multilevel societies—social systems composed of multiple nested social units—have long intrigued scholars in anthropology, behavioral ecology, and evolutionary biology. Classically described in mammals, new evidence shows that multilevel societies are more widespread across taxa than previously acknowledged, raising both conceptual and methodological challenges for comparative research. 2. We [...]