Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
Algorithmically-controlled ecosystems and biodiversity
Published: 2026-06-18
Subjects: Life Sciences
Algorithmically-controlled ecosystems are ecosystems in which at least one key process rate or property (e.g. biodiversity) is under control by algorithms, or if ecosystems contain robots/ machines. Algorithmic influence on ecosystems will be matter of degree, and we highlight the risks and opportunities of such algorithm-influenced ecosystems, as well as the need to have discussions about [...]
A mathematical foundation of modelling thermal injury and repair dynamics in ectotherms
Published: 2026-06-18
Subjects: Animal Experimentation and Research, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Sciences, Evolution, Life Sciences, Physiology, Plant Sciences, Population Biology, Research Methods in Life Sciences, Statistical Models, Statistics and Probability, Survival Analysis
As global temperatures rise and extreme heat events impair ectotherm performance and survival, it is becoming increasingly important to predict how organisms accumulate and repair thermal injury under realistic benign and stressful temperatures. The thermal death time (TDT) model quantifies how heat events translate into thermal injury, but under natural temperature fluctuations the TDT model is [...]
What Artificial Intelligence Cannot Replace in Ecology?
Published: 2026-06-18
Subjects: Life Sciences
Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly integrated into ecological research, from literature synthesis and hypothesis generation to statistical modelling and data analysis. As AI systems become more autonomous, discussions about ecology's future are often framed as a competition between human and machine intelligence. Yet this perspective overlooks a more fundamental question: what [...]
Mind the Gap: A critical 40-fold workforce shortfall for protecting 30% of the ocean
Published: 2026-06-18
Subjects: Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Other Social and Behavioral Sciences, Public Economics
Despite being tasked with protecting ocean biodiversity, the marine protected area (MPA) workforce remains poorly described. Using a global site-level questionnaire, we assessed staffing, workforce adequacy, technology use, and personnel requirements for effectively and equitably conserving 30% of the ocean by 2030 (30 x 30). Responses represented 52.8% of global MPA area across 63 countries and [...]
The first systematic map of evidence syntheses on the use of artificial intelligence in ecology
Published: 2026-06-16
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly used in ecology to automate data-intensive tasks, from species identification and environmental monitoring to ecological prediction. As primary studies have proliferated, evidence syntheses reviewing AI applications have also increased, but their thematic coverage, methodological emphasis, and reporting transparency remain unclear. We conducted a [...]
Saved by the Symbiont: Environmental Stress Intensity and Endosymbiont-Mediated Stress Response Determine Evolved Host Complexity
Published: 2026-06-16
Subjects: Evolution, Life Sciences
Understanding how stress responses affect the trajectory of host–symbiont coevolution is central to predicting and managing species outcomes in the face of disturbances to ecosystems. Critically, it remains an open question how exactly we expect stressors to influence the coevolutionary dynamics of symbioses (on either end of the parasitism–mutualism continuum). In this work, we use in silico [...]
prepR4pcm: An R Package for Preparing Data and Trees for Phylo- genetic Comparative Methods
Published: 2026-06-16
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
1. Phylogenetic comparative methods require species names in a trait dataset to match tip labels in a phylogenetic tree. Yet this apparently simple prerequisite is often one of the most fragile steps in a comparative workflow. Names may differ because of, for example, formatting, taxonomic revisions, synonyms, or spelling errors. If these differences are resolved informally, species can be lost [...]
The human wildlife conflict: towards a theoretical foundation
Published: 2026-06-16
Subjects: Life Sciences
Multiple angles of human wildlife conflict have been increasingly haunting conservation biology over the last few decades despite many mitigation attempts. We argue here that the field suffers from the lack of a theoretical foundation. As a result, researchers have failed to collect data on some of the most critical variables, and are unable to determine the predominant causes of the conflict. In [...]
Sexual size dimorphism, reproductive ecology and antipredator coloration in poison frogs: Rensch's rule revisited
Published: 2026-06-16
Subjects: Life Sciences
Body size differences are the most commonly studied form of sexual dimorphism. The extent of sexual size dimorphism (SSD) varies between species and in function of e.g. ecological factors and phylogenetic constraints. Rensch’s rule (RR) states that SSD is larger in species with male-biased SSD and smaller in species with female-biased SSD. RR assessments in amphibians, which tend to have [...]
History, challenges, and opportunities in the study of entomopathogenic fungi in tropical regions: Borneo as a model ecosystem
Published: 2026-06-16
Subjects: Biodiversity, Entomology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Fungal pathogens tend to have a poor reputation as a disease among the general public and policy-makers. However, entomopathogenic fungi, adapted to infect and kill arthropod hosts, play a wide range of roles in ecosystems, provide key ecosystem services, and offer interesting models to understand pathogen interaction networks. Tropical regions provide especially favorable conditions for [...]
Towards integrating interaction networks into global parasite conservation: insights from bats, bat flies and their fungal associates
Published: 2026-06-16
Subjects: Biodiversity, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Parasites are a key conservation blind spot. Even though parasitism is a widespread ecological lifestyle, most parasite diversity remains unknown, as do the interactions in which they are involved. Some parasite species are involved in multitrophic interactions, meaning they span multiple trophic levels. These complex interactions are generally understudied, and conservation frameworks fail to [...]
Gastronomy meets nature positive through the conservation of invisible microbial terroir
Published: 2026-06-16
Subjects: Food Science, Life Sciences
Anthropogenic climate change and the expansion of mass-consumption societies pose existential threats to "microbial terroir", the cryptic microbiological assemblages that underpin the organoleptic identity and quality of traditional fermented foods. Here, we propose a framework that bridges microbial diversity, regional gastronomy, and "Microbial PES", an extension of Payments for Ecosystem [...]
Co-existence of large carnivores and Dhangar community in Maharashtra’s Western Ghats: is it close to the tipping point?
Published: 2026-06-16
Subjects: Life Sciences
Gavli Dhangar are semi-nomadic pastorals scattered in small hamlets along the western ghats and Konkan area who mainly keep cattle and buffalo. The Sahyadri Tiger Reserve was established in 2010 relocating some of the hamlets while others continued to occupy their traditional habitats overlapping with three species of large mammalian carnivores. While leopard presence continued over a long time, [...]
Resolving the Conservation Stewardship Paradox: A Dual-Pathway Architecture for Biodiversity Credits and Stewardship Certificates
Published: 2026-06-16
Subjects: Life Sciences
Voluntary biodiversity credit markets are expanding rapidly, but their credibility depends on demonstrating that claimed outcomes would not have occurred without intervention. This requirement, additionality, is essential for high-integrity conservation finance and is operationalized through dynamic baselines, ex post issuance, and independent monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) of [...]
WildMAPS: A Global repository and visualisation tool for habitat suitability predictions
Published: 2026-06-16
Subjects: Life Sciences
The Global Biodiversity Framework outlines a consensus of global targets for reversing the decline of biodiversity. A core theme that underpins the framework is the identification of areas that hold the most potential for realising positive outcomes for biodiversity. Identifying these areas is a complex process involving large scientific datasets and stakeholders from a range of background and [...]