Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
An energetic unification of ecological theory
Published: 2026-04-10
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Ecological communities can persist for long periods despite strong competition and environmental variability, yet they can also reorganize or collapse abruptly after seemingly modest change. Explaining persistence, diversity, and collapse has produced several major traditions in ecology, including species-interaction models, consumer--resource theory, coexistence theory, feasibility analysis, and [...]
Microplastics and forest fungi: A review and call for comprehensive research
Published: 2026-04-10
Subjects: Life Sciences
Fungi are the main drivers of the global carbon and nutrient cycle and act as ecosystem engineers in forest ecosystems by regulating primary production and decomposition. Moreover, fungi are among the most diverse organisms in forest ecosystems and affect almost all forest microhabitats, from the canopy to the soil. In contrast to aquatic and agricultural ecosystems, forest ecosystems have [...]
When does sampling uncertainty matter in matrix population models? Evidence from published projection matrices
Published: 2026-04-09
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Population Biology
1. The collation of thousands of population projection matrices in the COM(P)ADRE Matrix Databases has enabled large-scale comparative analyses in ecology, evolution, and demography. A persistent challenge is that transition rates are estimated from finite samples, yet the resulting sampling uncertainty is rarely reported and typically ignored in downstream analyses. Although sampling uncertainty [...]
Why are embodied social signals concentrated towards the rostral region? — The rostrum concentration hypothesis
Published: 2026-04-09
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Biological Psychology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Psychology, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Although frequently embodied, the relationship of animal social communication with body layout has rarely been investigated from a unified cognitive perspective. Across animal taxa, socially relevant signals, ranging from facial expressions and gaze to colouration and morphology, are strikingly concentrated towards the anterior region of the body. Here, we propose the Rostrum Concentration [...]
MCT-05: Un marco de evaluación para la planificación de la restauración fluvial. Validación con 9 años de datos de seguimiento de un río mediterráneo.
Published: 2026-04-08
Subjects: Life Sciences
Long-term monitoring of Mediterranean rivers often reveals contrasting ecological trajectories even where restoration interventions are similar. These long-term datasets provide limited guidance for interpreting whether observed changes reflect structural ecological condition or temporal variability of indicators. Using nine years of monitoring data from 21 stations in the Ripoll River (NE [...]
The signal of admixture can decay rapidly when using clustering-based methods
Published: 2026-04-08
Subjects: Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences, Molecular Genetics
Gene flow shapes evolutionary trajectories by introducing novel alleles, facilitating or retarding adaptation, or eroding divergence among populations. Studies commonly infer gene flow through estimates of genetic admixture from methods that cluster individuals by allele-frequency similarity. However, the ability of these methods to reliably detect historical admixture remains poorly understood, [...]
What is the human germline mutation rate? methodological innovations, challenges, and evolutionary implications
Published: 2026-04-08
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Genetics, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences
Germline mutations are the ultimate source of heritable genetic variation, driving evolution, enabling adaptation, and underlying disease. Despite their fundamental importance, key questions remain unanswered: How frequently do germline mutations arise? Do mutation rates vary systematically across individuals, populations, and local genomic context? And what determines whether a mutation arising [...]
Unraveling contaminant effects on biodiversity across scales: the macroecotoxicology perspective
Published: 2026-04-08
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Pharmacology, Toxicology and Environmental Health
With the spread of contaminants across the globe, ecosystems are increasingly exposed to pollutants at varying levels of biological organization. The effects of a wide range of contaminants on individuals have been extensively studied within the discipline of ecotoxicology, but understanding the generality of species’ responses across taxa and ecosystems remains a major challenge. This is because [...]
Harry Potter shows mirror to dire wolf de-extinction: perils of chasing ghosts of species’ past
Published: 2026-04-08
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Biology, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences, Other Life Sciences
Abstract 1. Conservation faces a paradox. As urban expansion and industrial-scale agriculture erode relational values between people and nature, a privileged minority dictates global biodiversity narratives. This shift is reinforced by media and technological interventions that frequently override lived, local experiences. For instance, gene editing tools like CRISPR are incorporated for [...]
Diversity and co-occurrence patterns of wood inhabiting insects along a tropical forest regeneration gradient
Published: 2026-04-08
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Life Sciences
More than 90% of global carbon released during dead wood decomposition comes from the tropics, where insects contribute significantly to this process, especially in lowland rainforests. Understanding community assembly of dead wood-inhabiting insects is therefore important. We investigated diversity patterns between habitats and host trees, and co-occurrence of wood-inhabiting ants, termites, and [...]
Microplastic ingestion induces changes in coelomocyte composition of Eisenia fetida
Published: 2026-04-08
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Life Sciences, Toxicology
The earthworm Eisenia fetida is a widely used model organism for environmental toxicity assessment, including microplastic particles (MPP). Impacts of MPP at the organismic level have been extensively documented. Effects on the cellular level and in particular the immune system of E. fetida are less well understood. Here we exposed earthworms outside soil for six days to food pellets containing [...]
Archaeal genes code for GGDEF domain proteins with diguanylate cyclase activity
Published: 2026-04-07
Subjects: Life Sciences
A biofilm-like tightly surface-associated mode of growth of pre-cellular life protected by an extracellular matrix has been hypothesized to be a prerequisite for the emergence of cellular life and its persistence under challenging environmental conditions. Ubiquitous in Bacteria including members of the deepest branching phyla, cyclic di-GMP, a positive regulator of biofilm formation, has not yet [...]
Population genomic processes in Brassicaceae in the light of mating system variation
Published: 2026-04-07
Subjects: Life Sciences
Mating system in plants is a highly variable trait ranging from obligatory outcrossing to full self-fertilization, i.e. selfing. In nature, there are various mechanisms to prevent self-fertilization, indicating evolutionary advantages of outcrossing. Still, self-fertilization is very common in plants. In addition, selfing is a useful property in plant breeding and research since it allows [...]
Celebrating 50 years of virus genomics by revisiting the first decade (1976-1985)
Published: 2026-04-07
Subjects: Life Sciences
Whole genome sequencing was pioneered in viruses, beginning with the publication of the third and final portion of the levivirus MS2 genome on April 8th, 1976. Fifty years and incalculable viral genomes later, we chose to examine the first decade of viral genomics for posterity. We found that 97 whole genome sequences were published between 1976 and 1985, with some species having as many as [...]
Network architecture and vulnerability of macroalgal epiphyte-host interactions in Caribbean coastal ecosystems: implications for marine conservation
Published: 2026-04-07
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Background and Aims Tropical coastal marine ecosystems depend critically on macroalgal epiphyte–host interaction networks to sustain biodiversity, primary production, and ecosystem services, yet the architecture and vulnerability of these networks remain poorly characterised in the Caribbean. This study aimed to characterise the topological structure of the epiphyte–host interaction network in [...]