Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
Non-linearity and temporal variability are overlooked components of global population dynamics
Published: 2024-01-22
Subjects: Life Sciences
Aim. Population dynamics are usually assessed through linear trend analysis, quantifying their general direction. However, linear trends may hide substantial variations in population dynamics that could reconcile apparent discrepancies when quantifying the extent of the biodiversity crisis. We seek to determine whether the use of non-linear methods and [...]
A photographic guide for determining egg incubation stage in the Superb Fairy-wren (Malurus cyaneus)
Published: 2024-01-19
Subjects: Life Sciences
When monitoring the nesting biology of wild birds, nests are often found after the eggs have been laid and incubation has commenced. Candling—the use of a bright light to illuminate egg contents—is a useful method for estimating embryo development and incubation stage. This information is used to estimate when incubation started and predict when eggs will hatch. As the focus of several long-term [...]
Use of a communal display area by Rufous Whistlers (Pachycephala rufiventris)
Published: 2024-01-19
Subjects: Life Sciences
Opportunity Begets Opportunity to Drive Macroevolutionary Dynamics of a Diverse Lizard Radiation
Published: 2024-01-19
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Evolution proceeds unevenly across the tree of life, with some lineages accumulating diversity more rapidly than others. Explaining this disparity is challenging as similar evolutionary triggers often do not result in analogous shifts across the tree, and similar shifts may reflect different evolutionary triggers. We used a combination of approaches to directly consider such context-dependency [...]
neonPlantEcology: an R package for preparing NEON plant data for use in ecological research
Published: 2024-01-18
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is a continental-scale endeavor of ecological data collection for 30 years. We created a software package, neonPlantEcology that automatically arranges the raw data from the plant presence and percent cover (DP1.10058.001) data product from NEON into tables familiar to plant ecologists. Because of the broad scale of the observatory, it is [...]
Opportunities and challenges in applying AI to evolutionary morphology
Published: 2024-01-17
Subjects: Life Sciences
Artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to revolutionise many aspects of science, including the study of evolutionary morphology. While classical AI methods such as principal component analysis and cluster analysis have been commonplace in the study of evolutionary morphology for decades, recent years have seen increasing application of deep learning to ecology and evolutionary biology. As [...]
Asteraceae in isolation: diversity and island biogeography of the largest plant family
Published: 2024-01-17
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
The hyperdiverse plant family Asteraceae, with over 32,000 species globally, forms an iconic component of island floras, including many spectacular radiations, but a global picture of their insular diversity is lacking. Here, we uncover the global biogeographical and evolutionary patterns of Asteraceae on islands to reveal the magnitude and potential causes of their evolutionary success. We [...]
A big data and machine learning approach for monitoring the condition of ecosystems
Published: 2024-01-16
Subjects: Applied Statistics, Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Sciences, Forest Biology, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Statistical Methodology, Statistical Models, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Ecosystems are highly valuable as a source of goods and services and as a heritage for future generations. Knowing their condition is extremely important for all management and conservation activities and public policies. Until now, the evaluation of ecosystem condition has been unsatisfactory and thus lacks practical implementation for most countries. We propose that ecosystem integrity is a [...]
The cytoarchitecture of the telencephalon of Labroides dimidiatus (Labridae)
Published: 2024-01-16
Subjects: Life Sciences
As evidence for advanced cognitive abilities in fishes steadily increases, cytoarchitectonic studies of the Actinopterygian telencephalon receive increasing interest by neuro-ethologists. However, the amount of information concerning brain organization in this group is still rather small. Here, we present a cytoarchitectonic analysis of the telencephalon of Labroides dimidiatus, a species showing [...]
The moulting arthropod: a complete genetic toolkit review
Published: 2024-01-14
Subjects: Life Sciences
Exoskeletons are a defining character of all arthropods that provide physical support for their segmented bodies and appendages as well as protection from the environment and predation. This ubiquitous yet evolutionarily variable feature has been instrumental in facilitating the adoption of a variety of lifestyles and the exploitation of ecological niches across all environments. Throughout the [...]
The power of touch: from survival to enduring, prosocial cooperation
Published: 2024-01-14
Subjects: Life Sciences
Cooperation is a pivotal biological phenomenon that occurs in many forms. In species that engage in helping, individuals vary in association time and the extent of physical proximity, influencing the extent of touching between individuals. Here, we emphasize the importance of touch in the development and maintenance of parenting and mate bonds, and its link to cooperation. Touch activates a [...]
Animal social networks are robust to changing association definitions
Published: 2024-01-12
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Ornithology
The interconnecting links (edges) between individuals (nodes) in an animal social network are often defined by discrete, directed behaviours (interactions). However, where interactions are difficult to observe, a network edge is instead defined as individuals sharing space or overlapping in time (an association). Despite an increasingly accessible toolkit to assemble and analyse animal social [...]
Vulnerability of amphibians to global warming
Published: 2024-01-12
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Amphibians are the most threatened vertebrates, yet their resilience to rising temperatures remains poorly understood. This is primarily because knowledge of thermal tolerance is taxonomically and geographically biased, compromising global climate vulnerability assessments. Here, we employed a phylogenetically-informed data imputation approach to predict the heat tolerance of 60% of amphibian [...]
Morphological evolution in a time of Phenomics
Published: 2024-01-11
Subjects: Life Sciences
Organismal morphology has been at the core of study of biodiversity for millennia before the formalization of the concept of evolution. In the early to mid-twentieth century, a strong theoretical framework was developed for understanding both pattern and process of morphological evolution on a macroevolutionary scale. The past half century has been a transformational period for the study of [...]
The role of deadwood in the carbon cycle: Implications for models, forest management, and future climates
Published: 2024-01-11
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Sciences, Forest Biology, Forest Management, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Plant Biology, Plant Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Deadwood represents a significant carbon pool in forests and savannas. Although previous research has focused mainly on forests, we synthesise deadwood studies across all ecosystems with woody vegetation. Storage and release of carbon from deadwood is controlled by interacting decomposition drivers including biotic consumers (animals, microbes) and abiotic factors (water, fire, sunlight, [...]