Preprints

Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences

New horizons for comparative studies and meta-analyses

Patrice Pottier, Daniel W.A. Noble, Frank Seebacher, et al.

Published: 2023-09-25
Subjects: Life Sciences

Comparative analyses and meta-analyses are key tools to elucidate broad biological principles, yet the two approaches often appear different in purpose. We propose an integrated approach that can generate deeper insights into eco-evolutionary processes. Marrying comparative and meta-analytic approaches will allow for 1) a more accurate investigation of drivers of biological variation; 2) a [...]

Don’t make genetic data disposable: Best practices for genetic and genomic data archiving

Deborah M Leigh, Amy Vandergast, Maggie Hunter, et al.

Published: 2023-09-25
Subjects: Bioinformatics, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences

In ecology and evolution, genetic and genomic data are commonly collected for a vast array of scientific and applied purposes. Despite mandates for public archiving, such data are typically used only once by the data-generating authors. The repurposing of genetic and genomic datasets remains uncommon because it is often difficult, if not impossible, due to non-standard archiving practices and [...]

Cooler and drier conditions increase parasitism in subtropical damselfly populations

Md Kawsar Khan, Shatabdi Paul, Mostakim Rayhan, et al.

Published: 2023-09-22
Subjects: Life Sciences

Host-parasite interactions are impacted by climate, which may result variation of parasitism across landscapes and time. Understanding how parasitism varies across these spatio-temporal scales is crucial to predicting how organism will respond to and cope under a rapidly changing climate. Empirical work on how parasitism varies across climates is limited. Here, we examine the variation of [...]

Invasion trends: An interpretable measure of change is needed to support policy targets

Melodie A. McGeoch

Published: 2023-09-20
Subjects: Life Sciences

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) calls for a 50% reduction in rates of invasive alien species establishment by 2030. However, estimating changes in rates of introduction and establishment is far from straightforward, particularly on a national scale. Variation in survey effort over time, the absence of data on survey effort, and aspects of the invasion process itself [...]

Sources of confusion in global biodiversity trends

Maëlys Louise Boënnec, Vasilis Dakos, Vincent Devictor

Published: 2023-09-19
Subjects: Life Sciences

Populations and ecological communities are changing worldwide, and empirical studies exhibit a mixture of either declining or mixed trends. Confusion in global biodiversity trends thus remains while being of major social, political, and scientific importance. Part of this variability may arise from the difficulty to reliably assess global biodiversity trends. Here, we conducted a literature [...]

Plant mutations, beyond the clichés

Thibault Leroy

Published: 2023-09-18
Subjects: Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences, Plant Sciences

Monitor indicators of genetic diversity from space using Earth Observation data

Meredith Christine Schuman, Claudia Röösli, Alicia Mastretta Yanes, et al.

Published: 2023-09-15
Subjects: Biodiversity, Life Sciences

Use Earth Observation (EO) for monitoring and re- porting on the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) indicators of genetic diversity. EO has high potential and practical importance for advancing biodiversity monitoring within the GBF. We propose that these advances are artificially limited by the consensus that genetic variation cannot be observed from space. Here, we [...]

Towards integrating and standardising information on plant invasions across Australia

Irene Martin-Fores, Greg R. Guerin, Donna Lewis, et al.

Published: 2023-09-14
Subjects: Life Sciences

Over the last decades, terminology to refer to invasion status along the introduction-naturalisation-invasion continuum have been based either on overcome barriers or on impact-based frameworks, generating debates within the scientific community. The lack of agreement with regards to definitions have sometimes hampered combining information from sources based on different criteria. In Australia, [...]

Towards a unified framework for studying behavioural tolerance to anthropogenic disturbance

Catherine Čapkun-Huot, Daniel T. Blumstein, Dany Garant, et al.

Published: 2023-09-14
Subjects: Life Sciences

Animals vary in how much they respond to risk and the extent to which they can modify their responsiveness over time. How and why animals vary has important consequences for understanding demographic and evolutionary responses to novel or rapidly changing environments. Behavioural tolerance is seen when animals do not have any or have a limited behavioural reaction to a potentially risky [...]

Lasting effects of avian-frugivore interactions on seed dispersal and seedling establishment

Elena Quintero, Juan M. Arroyo, Rodolfo Dirzo, et al.

Published: 2023-09-13
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences

1 - The outcomes of plant-animal interactions often transcend the mere encounter stage, as those encounters are followed by a chain of subsequent stages on the plant’s reproductive cycle that ultimately determine fitness. In particular, the dissemination and recruitment stages of animal-mediated seed dispersal are seldom jointly analysed, hindering a full understanding of the ecology of seed [...]

Taking cues from ecological and evolutionary theories to expand the landscape of disgust

Allegra Love, Alexis Heckley, Quinn Webber

Published: 2023-09-12
Subjects: Life Sciences

1. Individual animals can attempt to prevent or mitigate parasite risks by altering their behaviour or space use. Behavioural change in response to the presence of parasites in the environment generates what is known as the “landscape of disgust” (analogous to the predator-induced “landscape of fear”). Using a spatial description of cues that indicate parasite risk, and characterizing individual [...]

Changing precipitation regime threatens population growth and persistence of a declining grassland songbird

Nikole Freeman, Katy Silber, Trevor Hefley, et al.

Published: 2023-09-12
Subjects: Life Sciences

The interplay of biogeographic history, floral morphology, and climatic niche in Palicourea (Rubiaceae), an ecologically important group of Neotropical plants

Ana Maria Bedoya, Charlotte Taylor, Aislinn Mumford, et al.

Published: 2023-09-12
Subjects: Life Sciences

Investigating how biotic and abiotic factors interact to shape species distributions is critical to understanding current biodiversity patterns. This is particularly relevant in the Neotropics, a species-rich region home to several biodiversity hotspots, where the interplay of factors promoting diversification resulted in the assembly of the world’s richest flora. Using Palicourea, a species-rich [...]

Limits to modeling the (thermal) limits of Wolbachia

Perran A Ross, Ary A Hoffmann

Published: 2023-09-12
Subjects: Life Sciences

Wolbachia release programs with the wMel strain are suppressing the incidence of dengue following releases in many countries. Vasquez et al use models to predict the impact of increasing temperatures and heatwaves on the replacement of wild mosquito populations with wMel carriers that are poor dengue vectors. They claim that wMel replacement is resilient to pre-2060 climate change including [...]

Comparative approaches in social network ecology

Greg Albery, Shweta Bansal, Matthew Silk

Published: 2023-09-08
Subjects: Life Sciences

Social systems vary enormously across the animal kingdom, with important implications for ecological and evolutionary processes such as infectious disease dynamics, anti-predator defense, and the evolution of cooperation. Comparing social network structures between species offers a promising route to help disentangle the ecological and evolutionary processes that shape this diversity. Comparative [...]

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