Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
The highly pathogenic H5N1 outbreak did not increase mortality rates of adult Atlantic Puffins (Fratercula arctica) in Newfoundland, Canada
Published: 2026-07-15
Subjects: Life Sciences
Heart Rate and R–R Interval Recording in a Bottlenose Dolphin: Toward a Keeper-Led Framework for HRV-Based Welfare Assessment
Published: 2026-07-14
Subjects: Life Sciences
Monitoring physiological states in managed animals is important for health management and welfare assessment. Heart rate variability (HRV) may provide welfare-relevant information on autonomic regulation, but practical keeper-led approaches for obtaining cardiac data during routine husbandry remain limited in zoos and aquariums. To address this gap, we propose a keeper-led framework in which [...]
Within- and across-genus scaling of vessel diameter reveals consistent hydraulic responses to rainfall
Published: 2026-07-14
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Plant Biology, Plant Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
· Xylem vessel diameter and lumen fraction are expected to track water availability via the hydraulic safety–efficiency trade-off yet observed trait–rainfall relationships are weak and inconsistent. This discrepancy may partly reflect the conflation of within- and across-lineage effects in comparative datasets. · We tested this possibility by analysing hydraulically weighted vessel [...]
Why trait gradients across environments differ within species and across communities: Insights from a theoretical model
Published: 2026-07-14
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Trait-environment relationships within plant species are both flatter on average and more variable than community-mean trends, yet the mechanisms driving this variation remain poorly understood. Classic theory attributes this flattening to maladaptive gene flow, but the theory has been underused and its scope, in particular how multiple factors interact to shape trait slopes, remains largely [...]
Origin of Zygnematophyceae algae from mitotically dividing anydrophyte zygotes
Published: 2026-07-14
Subjects: Life Sciences
It is now generally accepted that Zygnematophyceae evolved from the multicellular common ancestor with Embryopyta - Anydrophyta - by reduction to unicellular state. Here we propose and discuss possible scenarios how this reduction might have proceeded - either via stepwise evolutionary reduction or via an abrupt life-cycle reduction, establishing a single cell lineage and rendering a number of [...]
Social complexity does not lead to more stable demographic histories across bird species
Published: 2026-07-13
Subjects: Life Sciences
Species’ responses to environmental variability can include evolutionary changes in social behaviours, leading to variation among species in characteristics including their mating systems, care systems (e.g., cooperative breeding), the rate of group formation, and the strength of interaction between individuals. These social traits can influence the physiology of individuals, potentially [...]
Food resources shape bird assemblages, rendering trophic structure globally convergent
Published: 2026-07-13
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Species persist only when energy resources are available and organisms have traits to exploit them. Because resources such as fruit or carrion differ in abundance and diversity, general principles of energy flow and niche theory should shape differences in species richness among trophic guilds within assemblages. Yet, this hypothesis remains empirically untested. Here, we analyze 31,251 local [...]
Climate isolation and percolation as drivers of terrestrial vertebrate richness
Published: 2026-07-13
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
The warmer, the yellower? Colour patterns of fire salamanders across different scales in the face of rising temperatures
Published: 2026-07-13
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Zoology
The unprecedented increase in global temperatures might lead to phenotypical changes in many species to account for increased thermoregulatory processes. This could be due to increased selection pressures on traits such as colouration or body size. Using specimens from the Natural History Museum in Vienna for a long-term series and recent data from an ongoing fire salamander monitoring programme [...]
Precipitation predictability shapes plant growth trajectories, climate sensitivity, and fitness pathways within and across generations
Published: 2026-07-13
Subjects: Life Sciences
Environmental predictability is increasingly altered under climate change, particularly through shifts in the temporal structure and autocorrelation of climatic variables. In plants, the interaction between precipitation predictability and temporal climatic variation can shape the magnitude, timing, and trajectory of growth, with cascading effects on phenological coordination, and ultimately on [...]
Marine subsidies, spatial heterogeneity, and territoriality drive trophic ecology in desert predators
Published: 2026-07-10
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
1. Allochthonous (including marine) subsidies can have far-reaching effects on recipient ecosystems. By altering local resource availability, the combined effects of these subsidies and landscape heterogeneity can structure consumer diets, shape communities and influence ecosystem dynamics. 2. We examined how marine subsidies, landscape heterogeneity, and territoriality drive resource use in [...]
The roles of contrasting host types on the environmental abundance of Anaplasma phagocytophilum, an emerging zoonotic pathogen
Published: 2026-07-10
Subjects: Life Sciences
Fundamental knowledge of the role of hosts in shaping vector-borne pathogen abundance is critical to understanding the ecology of these disease systems; yet the roles can be challenging to tease apart, especially for pathogens vectored by generalist feeders with multiple hosts. In this study, we aimed to quantify the relative contributions of hypothesised pathogen transmission hosts (deer and [...]
From Scalable Biodiversity Measurement to Credible Biodiversity Metrics
Published: 2026-07-10
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Biodiversity, Business, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Life Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Other Economics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Statistical Models, Sustainability, Technology and Innovation
Governments struggle to develop effective policies to counter the decline of species and ecosystems. An obstacle to command-and-control and incentive-based mechanisms is that biodiversity is costly to measure, creating an information asymmetry in which firms and governments are incentivised to withhold information on adverse impacts. Using a principal-agent model, we show that credible reporting [...]
A comprehensive dataset on plant-associated invertebrates and gardening activities, from 100 sites across five urban green space types in Zurich, Lugano, and Geneva, Switzerland
Published: 2026-07-09
Subjects: Life Sciences
This dataset describes plant-associated invertebrates, gardening activities, and habitat diversity across five urban green spaces (UGS) types in the cities of Zurich, Lugano, and Geneva, Switzerland. The UGS types, namely allotment lot, private garden, residential estate, park, and ruderal area, cover different purposes, ownership, and management regimes. While Zurich was the core study region, [...]
Threat intensification reshapes trait-response relationships in birds and mammals
Published: 2026-07-09
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Predicting which species are most at risk of extinction, and by which threats, is central to effective biodiversity management (1). Trait-based frameworks, linking species traits to extinction risk, are increasingly used to predict global biodiversity trends, with applications from species-specific prioritisations (2) to estimations of global diversity loss (3). However, despite the strong [...]