Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
Optimising Species Distribution Models: Sample size, positional error, and sampling bias matter
Published: 2023-12-04
Subjects: Life Sciences
Species distribution models (SDMs) have proven valuable in filling gaps in our knowledge of species occurrences. However, despite their broad applicability, SDMs exhibit critical shortcomings due to limitations in species occurrence data. These limitations include, in particular, issues related to sample size, positional error, and sampling bias. In addition, it is widely recognized that the [...]
Functional coherence among miRNA targets: a potential metric for assessing biological signal among target prediction methods in non-model species
Published: 2023-11-30
Subjects: Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Although miRNA regulation of protein production is a likely target of adaptive evolution, high false-positive rates in the identification of mRNAs targeted by miRNAs in non-model species’ complicates interpretation of recent advances. Here we document the challenges and then outline steps for the community to address these challenges.
Nitrogen fixation rates increase with diazotroph richness in the global ocean
Published: 2023-11-30
Subjects: Life Sciences
Marine diazotrophs, a highly specialized group of marine prokaryotes, convert atmospheric nitrogen gas into bioavailable forms of nitrogen and are thus critical to maintain the fertility of the ocean. However, little is known about the link between global-scale diazotroph diversity and marine N2 fixation rates. Here, we address this question by integrating more than 22’000 DNA sequencing and [...]
HPA flexibility and FKBP5: promising physiological targets for conservation
Published: 2023-11-30
Subjects: Life Sciences
Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) flexibility is an emerging concept recognizing that individuals that will cope best with stressors will probably be those using their hormones in the most adaptive way. The HPA flexibility concept considers glucocorticoids as molecules that convey information about the environment from the brain to the body so that the organismal phenotype comes to [...]
The Site/Group Extended Data format and tools
Published: 2023-11-30
Subjects: Life Sciences
Comparative sequence analysis permits unravelling the molecular processes underlying gene evolution. Many statistical methods generate candidate positions within genes, such as fast or slowly-evolving sites, coevolving groups or residues, sites undergoing positive selection or changes in evolutionary rates. Understanding the functional causes of these evolutionary patterns requires combining the [...]
Coevolution-induced stabilizing and destabilizing selection shapes species richness in clade co-diversification
Published: 2023-11-30
Subjects: Life Sciences
Coevolution can occur as a result of species interactions. However, it remains poorly understood how coevolution shapes the accumulation of species richness over macroevolutionary timescales. Assuming speciation occurs in a metacommunity as a result of genetic differentiation across communities due to dispersal limitation, we examine the effects of coevolution-induced stabilizing and [...]
A comparison of predictive performance of joint species distribution models for presence-absence data
Published: 2023-11-28
Subjects: Life Sciences
1. While there has been substantial literature on the evaluation of predictions from single species distribution models, the topic of prediction has only recently begun to be addressed for joint species distribution models (JSDMs). These studies have covered only limited aspects of prediction: limited selection of models being compared, limited number of evaluation metrics, and/or not comparing [...]
Consideration for Connection between Concrete and Abstract of Living System
Published: 2023-11-28
Subjects: Life Sciences
Living systems are established by the coordination of diverse systems in the environment, are responsive to change, and are stable over time. Many studies and ideas have been proposed on the mechanisms and general laws of living systems from the viewpoints of evolutionary biology, systems biology, and chaos theory. The mechanisms of evolution and coordination of living systems are also related to [...]
Vocal Dimorphism in Anna’s Hummingbirds
Published: 2023-11-28
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Behavior and Ethology, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Integrative Biology, Life Sciences, Ornithology, Zoology
Whereas vocal sexual dimorphism is widespread amongst birds, it has been historically overlooked in non-passerines such as hummingbirds. By evaluating correlations among sex, behaviors, and vocalizations, the meaning and utility of intentional sound production may be inferred. Anna's Hummingbirds (Calypte anna) exhibit pronounced sexual dimorphism, with males being larger and having more vibrant [...]
The costs of extra-pair mating
Published: 2023-11-28
Subjects: Life Sciences
Extra-pair behaviours, where individuals copulate outside of an established pair bond, resulting in extra-pair paternity (EPP) of offspring, have long intrigued behavioural ecologists. Of particular interest is why females of otherwise socially monogamous species engage in extra-pair behaviours. Although researchers recognise that the drivers of variation in EPP, both within-species and [...]
Signal space overlap in sympatric drongos (Aves: Dicruridae) and spatial segregation in a South Asian tropical rainforest
Published: 2023-11-28
Subjects: Life Sciences
A diverse array of animals use a multidimensional acoustic space as a primary source of communication, especially in habitats where other signals are limited. However, in complex habitats, species must contend with other co-occurring species to send their message in a backdrop of ambient noise. This is exacerbated in closely related species that occur in sympatry, and we do not know how species [...]
Opinion: Missing half the picture, focus on stony corals during bleaching events has left critical knowledge gaps in our understanding of reef-scale bleaching and recovery
Published: 2023-11-28
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Honest Signalling Made Simple
Published: 2023-11-24
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Honest communication is a common phenomenon in animal behaviour, and is frequently explained by appeal to the so-called handicap hypothesis by which signal costs deter dishonesty. However, the handicap models commonly used to explain honest signalling have has been subject to several lines of criticism in recent literature. This trend may have led researchers outside of the field of animal [...]
DNA metabarcoding as a tool for detecting and characterising the spatio-temporal distribution of planktonic larvae in the phylum Echinodermata
Published: 2023-11-22
Subjects: Life Sciences
Metabarcoding is revolutionising the analysis of biodiversity in marine ecosystems, especially as it provides a means of detecting and identifying cryptic life-stages in field samples. The planktonic larval stage of many species underpins the abundance and distribution of adult populations but is challenging to characterise given the small size of larvae and diffuse distributions in pelagic [...]
Local and regional processes drive distance decay in structure in a spatial multilayer plant-pollinator network
Published: 2023-11-21
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Understanding spatial variation in species distribution and community structure is at the core of biogeography and community ecology. Nevertheless, the effect of distance on metacommunity structure remains little studied. We use plant-pollinator network data from the Canary Islands to examine how plant-pollinator community structure changes across geographical distances at a regional scale and [...]