Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
Investigating sex differences in genetic relatedness in great-tailed grackles in Tempe, Arizona to infer potential sex biases in dispersal (version 5 of this preprint has been peer-reviewed and recommended by Peer Community In Ecology [https://doi.org/10.24072/pci.ecology.100074])
Published: 2020-08-23
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
In most bird species, females disperse prior to their first breeding attempt, while males remain closer to the place they hatched for their entire lives. Explanations for such female bias in natal dispersal have focused on the resource-defense based monogamous mating system that is prevalent in most birds. In this system, males are argued to benefit from philopatry because knowing the local [...]
A systematic review of ecological responses to variation in seasonal snow cover
Published: 2020-08-21
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Seasonal snow is among the most important factors governing the ecology of many terrestrial ecosystems, but rising global temperatures are changing snow regimes and driving widespread declines in the depth and duration of snow cover. Loss of the insulating snow layer will fundamentally change the environment. Understanding how individuals, populations, and communities respond to different snow [...]
Differential effects of steroid hormones on levels of genetic variance in a wild bird: possible mechanism of maternal-effects x genetic variance interaction?
Published: 2020-08-20
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Genetic variation is one of the key concepts in evolutionary biology and an important prerequisite of evolutionary change. Still, we know very little about processes that modulate its levels in wild populations. In particular – we still are to understand why genetic variances often depend on environmental conditions. One of possible environment-sensitive modulators of observed levels of genetic [...]
Studies of insect temporal trends must account for the complex sampling histories inherent to many long-term monitoring efforts
Published: 2020-08-20
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Life Sciences, Population Biology
In a recently published study, Crossley et al. (2020, Nature Ecology & Evolution, “No net insect abundance and diversity declines across US Long Term Ecological Research sites”) examine patterns of change in insect abundance and diversity across US Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites, concluding “a lack of overall increase or decline”. This is notable if true, given mixed conclusions [...]
Diet modulates components of animal personality in house sparrows: insights into a possible hormone-mediated mechanism
Published: 2020-08-18
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Animals do not eat whatever food item they find. They usually balance the intake of key nutrients, for example, essential amino acids that cannot be synthesized by animals and must be provided in the diet. However, ability to gain optimal ratios, proportions, and amounts of nutrients may be hampered by a changing environment, competitive conspecifics or species, and predators. Here, we used an [...]
Adaptation, Local Frequency-Dependent and Global Frequency-Independent Selection
Published: 2020-08-18
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Population Biology
There is a tension between, on the one hand, the view that natural selection produces adaptations, and on the other hand, the theoretical results showing that the links between natural selection are weakened in different evolutionary scenarios such as situations of (negative) frequency-dependent selection or more generally in situations where fitnesses are not constant. If these results are taken [...]
Evolution, Origins and Diversification of Parasitic Cnidarians
Published: 2020-08-17
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Parasitism has evolved in cnidarians on multiple occasions but only one clade – the Myxozoa – has undergone substantial radiation. We briefly review minor parasitic clades that exploit pelagic hosts and then focus on the comparative biology and evolution of the highly speciose Myxozoa and its monotypic sister taxon, Polypodium hydriforme, which collectively form the Endocnidozoa. Cnidarian [...]
Predation as a driver of behavioural variation and trait integration: effects on personality, plasticity, and predictability
Published: 2020-08-17
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Predation is increasingly viewed as an important driver in maintaining ecological and phenotypic diversity. In contrast to classic evolutionary theory which predicts that predation will shift trait means and erode variance within prey species, several studies indicate higher behavioural trait variance and integration in high predation populations. These results come predominately from [...]
Connected data landscape of long-term ecological studies: the SPI-Birds data hub
Published: 2020-08-11
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
The integration and synthesis of the data in different areas of science is drastically slowed and hindered by a lack of standards and networking programmes. Long-term studies of individually marked animals are not an exception. These studies are especially important as instrumental for understanding evolutionary and ecological processes in the wild. Further, their number and global distribution [...]
Coexistence of large mammals and humans is possible in Europe’s anthropogenic landscapes
Published: 2020-08-11
Subjects: Biodiversity, Life Sciences
A critical question in the conservation of both large carnivores and wild ungulates is where they are able to live. In Europe, large mammals have persisted, and recently expanded, alongside humans for millennia, but surprisingly little quantitative data is available about large scale effects of human disturbance on their broad scale distribution. In this study, we quantify the relative importance [...]
Integrating dynamic plant growth models and microclimates for species distribution modelling
Published: 2020-08-11
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Plant Sciences
Climate is a major factor determining the distribution of plant species. Correlative models are frequently used to model the relationships between species distributions and climatic drivers but, increasingly, their use for prediction in novel scenarios such as climate change is being questioned. Mechanistic models, where processes limiting plant distribution are explicitly included, are regarded [...]
Echolocation and Navigational Distortion Hypothesis of the Short Finned Pilot Whale Beaching in Southern Coast of Tamil Nadu
Published: 2020-08-11
Subjects: Life Sciences, Marine Biology
Cetacean strandings have been a common occurrence in the past and has been recorded in various places. There have been attempts to explain the phenomenon of mass beaching with various theories. Here in this article we propose a hypothesis on the recent mass stranding of Short-finned pilot whales Globicephala macrorhynchus in the southern coast of Tamil Nadu, India. We propose that navigation [...]
The effects of population synchrony, life history, and access constraints on benefits from fishing portfolios
Published: 2020-08-11
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Population Biology
Natural resources often exhibit large interannual fluctuations in productivity driven by shifting environmental conditions, and this translates to high variability in the revenue resource users can earn. However, users can dampen this variability by harvesting a portfolio of resources. In the context of fisheries, this means targeting multiple populations, though the ability to actually build [...]
Testing character-evolution models in phylogenetic paleobiology: a case study with Cambrian echinoderms
Published: 2020-08-05
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Life Sciences, Other Life Sciences
Macroevolutionary inference has historically been treated as a two-step process, involving the inference of a phylogenetic tree, and then inference of a macroevolutionary model using that tree. Newer models, such as the fossilized birth-death model, blend the two steps. These methods make more complete use of fossils than the previous generation of Bayesian phylogenetic models. They also involve [...]
First estimates of survival and densities of invasive alien Eastern cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus) in Italy: a Bayesian robust design approach
Published: 2020-08-05
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Population Biology
The Eastern cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus) has become invasive in Central and Northern Italy, where it affects prey-predator dynamics between native species. Although many different studies explored survival rates and the density of cottontails in North America, no information is available for its invasive range. Between December 2003 and October 2005, a capture-recapture scheme for Eastern [...]