Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
Quantifying clearance rates of restored shellfish reefs using modular baskets
Published: 2023-12-08
Subjects: Animal Experimentation and Research, Aquaculture and Fisheries Life Sciences, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Research Methods in Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Water Resource Management, Zoology
Shellfish reefs are among the most degraded ecosystems globally, prompting substantial efforts to restore them. While biodiversity gains of restored reefs are well documented, other ecosystem services such as water filtration remain poorly quantified. We present a novel way of measuring water filtration by restored reefs using modular restoration structures called Robust Oyster Baskets (ROB 400). [...]
Linking biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people (NCP): a macroecological energy flux perspective
Published: 2023-12-08
Subjects: Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Linking biodiversity and the provision of nature’s contribution to people (NCP) remains a challenge. This hinders our ability to properly cope with the decline in biodiversity and the provision of NCP under global climate and land use changes. Here, we propose a framework that combines biodiversity models with food web energy flux approaches to evaluate and map NCP at large spatio-temporal [...]
Impact of Green Space and Built Environment on Metabolic Syndrome: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis
Published: 2023-12-08
Subjects: Life Sciences
Metabolic Syndrome presents a significant public health challenge associated with an increased risk of noncommunicable diseases such as cardiovascular conditions. Evidence shows that green spaces and the built environment may influence metabolic syndrome. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies published through August 30, 2023, examining the association of [...]
The Palearctic view on a bat fungal disease
Published: 2023-12-08
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Biology, Immunology and Infectious Disease, Life Sciences, Zoology
The fungal infection causing white-nose disease in hibernating bats in North America has resulted in dramatic population declines of affected species since it was first discovered in 2007. Shortly after, it was demonstrated that the causative agent, Pseudogymnoascus destructans, is native to the Palearctic, where it also infects several bat species. However, infection in the Palearctic rarely [...]
Historical redlining impacts wildlife biodiversity across California
Published: 2023-12-07
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Legacy effects describe the persistent, long-term impacts on an ecosystem following the removal of an abiotic or biotic feature. Redlining, a policy that codified racial segregation and disinvestment in minoritized neighborhoods, has produced legacy effects with profound impacts on urban ecosystem structure and health. These legacies have detrimentally impacted public health outcomes, [...]
The OptoReg system: A simple and inexpensive solution for regulating water oxygen.
Published: 2023-12-06
Subjects: Engineering, Life Sciences
This paper describes an optocoupler-based regulation apparatus for saturation manipulation of oxygen in water (OptoReg). This system enables control of solenoid valves for oxygen and nitrogen gases using a FireSting-O2 meter, an optocoupler box, and an electronic switch box. The hardware components connect to a computer through USB cables. The control software is free and has a graphical user [...]
Natural selection is less efficient at species range edges
Published: 2023-12-06
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Changing species distributions due to global change underscore a pressing need to better understand range limits. However, our knowledge of general determinants of range limits remains poor despite over a century of work. Theoretical models demonstrate that genetic drift should strengthen across environmental gradients. This can limit natural selection to the point where populations can no longer [...]
Parental Brain Through Time: function, anatomy, and molecular mechanisms in contexts
Published: 2023-12-05
Subjects: Life Sciences
Mammalian parental care is highly mother-biased, prompting researchers to presume its connection to female reproductive behavior and physiology, not male. However, recent findings in neurobiological studies suggest the opposite. Considering the evolutionary path of mammalian parental care, the ancestral form of vertebrate parental care appears to be male-biased as in living teleosts (bony fish), [...]
The interplay between satiation and temptation drives cleaner fish Labroides dimidiatus foraging behaviour and service quality towards client reef fish
Published: 2023-12-04
Subjects: Life Sciences
Supply and demand affect the values of goods exchanged in cooperative trades where high demand typically leads to a higher price. An exception has been described in the marine cleaning mutualism involving the cleaner fish Labroides dimidiatus and its variety of ‘client’ coral reef fishes. Cleaner fish feed on clients’ ectoparasites but prefer eating clients’ mucus instead, which constitutes [...]
Assessing diverse values of nature requires multilingual evidence
Published: 2023-12-04
Subjects: Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
When the day ends: Shedding light on the role of nocturnal moths as pollinators in tropical ecosystems
Published: 2023-12-04
Subjects: Life Sciences
This review synthesises available knowledge on the moth pollination of tropical plants. We reviewed moth adaptations for nectar feeding, floral traits tailored to moth preferences, plant adaptations to moth pollination, the relative proportion of pollination syndromes and the proportion of moth-pollinated plants in tropical communities. Moths are adapted to foraging by advanced vision and [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]