Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
Functional team selection: a framework for local adaptation in plants and their belowground microbiomes
Published: 2024-04-09
Subjects: Life Sciences
Plants and their microbiomes are complex adaptive systems consisting of host plants and a dynamic network of associated microorganisms inside and around plant tissues. This article introduces Functional Team Selection (FTS) as a framework to help envision and study the movement of matter, energy, and information within plant-microbiome systems. FTS embraces the fact that belowground, plants are [...]
The destructive sampling conundrum and guidelines for effective and ethical sampling of herbaria
Published: 2024-04-09
Subjects: Biodiversity, Life Sciences
The use of herbaria for science and conservation is revolutionizing the discovery, exploration, and protection of biodiversity at unprecedented scopes and scales. The Global Metaherbarium—a digitally interlinked, open-access resource—is stimulating these efforts and helping to facilitate massive investigations that utilize aggregated digital derivatives of physical herbarium [...]
Interplay of abiotic conditions, density, and body size in shaping demography in a high-elevation toad population
Published: 2024-04-04
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Population Biology
In natural populations, vital rates such as survival and reproduction are influenced by a complex interplay of abiotic conditions (e.g., environment), density dependence, and individual factors (e.g., phenotypic traits). Studies at the extremes of species distributions, particularly high elevations, offer unique insights due to the intensified effects of abiotic stressors, which can amplify both [...]
Datathons: fostering equitability in data reuse in ecology
Published: 2024-04-04
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences, Genetics, Genetics and Genomics, Genomics, Life Sciences, Microbiology
Approaches to rapidly collect global biodiversity data are increasingly important, but biodiversity blindspots persist. We organized a three-day Datathon event to improve the openness of local biodiversity data, and facilitate data reuse by local researchers. The first Datathon, organized among microbial ecologists in Uruguay and Argentina assembled the largest microbiome dataset in the region to [...]
Acceleration and demographic rates of bird decline in North America
Published: 2024-04-04
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Acceleration of human activities over the past century might have caused a corresponding acceleration in the decline of species’ abundances, but this has not been empirically assessed. Further, the temporal dynamics of abundance arises from a complex interaction between recruitment and loss of individuals, which remains unexplored across large spatial scales. We address these gaps by examining [...]
Ecology and Conservation of Diospyros crumenata (Ebenaceae), a Critically Endangered Tree of the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot
Published: 2024-04-04
Subjects: Life Sciences
Diospyros crumenata is an IUCN- critically endangered tree species that belongs to the Ebenaceae family and is found in the Western Ghats region. There is limited information about this tree in floristic literature and herbaria, so we conducted extensive forest trips to the Western Ghats to locate its population and study its ecology. Unfortunately, this threatened tree is facing severe threats [...]
No place for phylogeny in structuring a sandy coastal plain community
Published: 2024-04-04
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Although inference of assembly processes from phylogenetic patterns has become ubiquitous in community ecology, surprisingly few studies simultaneously test assumptions of such an approach and integrate over spatial scales and plant life stages. Here we investigate the roles of phylogeny, functional traits, and abiotic conditions in the spatial structuring of a sandy coastal plain community using [...]
Cladistic species definitions can lead to under-representation of biodiversity from adaptive radiations.
Published: 2024-03-29
Subjects: Life Sciences
Many species are paraphyletic, but current taxonomic practices often do not recognise this, and attempts are made to apply a monophyletic species concept. While allowing the recognition of ecomorphologically equivalent, or even phenotypically indistinguishable allopatric taxa as species, this often leads to combining distinctive local forms (such as cave-adapted populations) or even whole [...]
Pollination across the diel cycle: a global meta-analysis
Published: 2024-03-29
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
The daily transition between day and night, known as the diel cycle, is characterised by significant shifts in environmental conditions and biological activity, both of which can affect crucial ecosystem functions like pollination. Yet, despite over six decades of research into whether plant reproductive success varies between day and night, consensus remains elusive. We compiled and analysed the [...]
Patterns in tern trophic diversity in a region experiencing rapid climate change
Published: 2024-03-29
Subjects: Life Sciences
Foraging plasticity provides a mechanism for long-lived species to adapt to rapidly changing environments and, when individuals vary in their plasticity, can drive changes in trophic diversity. We use chick provisioning data and stable isotope values of blood cells and plasma to test for drivers of trophic diversity in the diet of common terns (Sterna hirundo) and Arctic terns (Sterna paradisaea) [...]
Restrictions on UK aquaculture of Pacific oyster (Magallana gigas) will not prevent naturalised spread but suppress ecological and economic benefits to coastal communities
Published: 2024-03-29
Subjects: Life Sciences
The Pacific oyster (Magallana (Crassostrea) gigas) was introduced to UK waters in the mid 20th century and currently accounts for over 95% of UK oyster fishery landings. Recently however, its non native origin has led policy makers to consider a limit on UK oyster aquaculture operations. M. gigas is effectively naturalised in the UK, with multiple records of populations originating from non local [...]
Blood lead increases and haemoglobin decreases in urban birds along a soil contamination gradient in a mining city
Published: 2024-03-29
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Lead contaminated soil is a persistent global threat to the health of animal populations. Nevertheless, links between soil lead and its adverse effects on exposed wildlife remain poorly understood. Here, we explore local geographic patterns of exposure in urban birds along a gradient of lead contamination in Broken Hill, an Australian mining city. Soil lead concentrations are linked to [...]
Knowing why Tasmanian Eucalyptus obliqua tall forests are so sensitive to heatwaves informs management and policy for climate change adaptation
Published: 2024-03-29
Subjects: Life Sciences
Tasmania’s distinctive climate environment supports highly productive and carbon-dense tall eucalypt forests, but also a vulnerability to climate change. Measurements in Eucalyptus obliqua tall forest at the Warra SuperSite in southern Tasmania showed them to be very sensitive to warmer temperatures. Gross primary productivity (GPP) declines sharply when temperatures rise above the forest’s [...]
Zebra finch song parameters are affected by the breeding status of the male, but not temperature variability
Published: 2024-03-17
Subjects: Life Sciences
Bird song is a crucial feature for mate choice and reproduction. Song can potentially communicate information related to the quality of the mate, through song complexity, structure or finer changes in syllable characteristics. It has been shown in zebra finches that those characteristics can be affected by various factors including motivation, hormone levels or extreme temperature. However, [...]
Potter Cove’s Heavyweights: Estimation of species’ interaction strength of an Antarctic food web
Published: 2024-03-17
Subjects: Life Sciences
Understanding the complex interplay between structure and stability of marine food webs is crucial for assessing ecosystem resilience, particularly in the context of ongoing environmental changes. In the West Antarctic Peninsula, global warming has led to severe alterations in community composition, species distribution, and abundance over the last decades. In this study, we estimate the [...]