Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
Developmental temperature affects phenotypic means and variability: a meta-analysis of fish data
Published: 2018-12-09
Subjects: Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Fishes are sensitive to their thermal environment, and face an uncertain future in a warming world. Theoretically, populations in novel environments might express greater levels of phenotypic variability to increase the chance of surviving – and eventually thriving – in the new conditions. Most research on the effect of the early thermal environment in fish species focuses on average phenotypic [...]
Temperature as a modulator of sexual selection
Published: 2018-12-03
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
A central question in ecology and evolution is to understand why sexual selection varies so much in strength across taxa, and it has long been known that ecological factors are crucial to this respect. Temperature is a particularly critical abiotic ecological factor that can drastically modulate a wide range of physiological, morphological and behavioural traits, impacting individuals and [...]
Early-life telomere length predicts survival to adulthood and lifespan in a wild mammal
Published: 2018-11-22
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Telomeres, protective caps at the end of chromosomes, maintain genomic stability and function as a biomarker of senescence in many vertebrate species. Telomere length at different ages has been related to (subsequent) lifespan, but to date only one laboratory-based study has shown a direct link between early-life telomere length and lifespan. Whether this relationship holds in wild populations, [...]
Subspecies status and methods explain strength of response to local versus foreign song by oscine birds in meta-analysis
Published: 2018-11-10
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
To understand the implications of geographical variation in vocal culture in songbirds, researchers have often compared territorial responses to playback of local songs versus responses to playback of songs from ‘foreign’ conspecifics. This body of work has the potential to help us move towards a general understanding of factors driving divergence in signal recognition. We conducted a systematic [...]
Research Weaving: Visualizing the Future of Research Synthesis
Published: 2018-11-10
Subjects: Life Sciences, Research Methods in Life Sciences
We propose, and formalize, a new framework for research synthesis of both evidence and influence, named ‘research weaving’. It summarizes and visualizes information content, history, and networks among a collection of diverse publication types on any given topic. Research weaving achieves this feat by combining the power of two methodologies: systematic mapping and bibliometrics. Systematic [...]
Female Maylandia zebra prefer victorious males
Published: 2018-11-09
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Zoology
Females of a widespread species of the rock‐dwelling haplochromine cichlids of Lake Malawi, Maylandia zebra, show preference for males that successfully evict intruding males from their territory. This behaviour, experimentally induced by the investigators in a laboratory setting, was also preferred over males that were not permitted to interact with any other individual.
Empowering peer reviewers to improve transparency
Published: 2018-04-17
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Peer review is widely considered fundamental to maintaining the rigor of science, but it is an imperfect process. In that context, it is noteworthy that formal standards or guidelines for peer reviews themselves are rarely discussed in many disciplines, including ecology and evolutionary biology. Some may argue that a dearth of explicit guidelines is not a problem. After all, a tremendous amount [...]
Questionable Research Practices in Ecology and Evolution
Published: 2018-03-21
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
We surveyed 807 researchers (494 ecologists and 313 evolutionary biologists) about their use of Questionable Research Practices (QRPs), including cherry picking statistically significant results, p hacking, and hypothesising after the results are known (HARKing). We also asked them to estimate the proportion of their colleagues that use each of these QRPs. Several of the QRPs were prevalent [...]