Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
Morphological and anatomical characterization of extrafloral nectaries of Opuntia streptacantha and Ferocactus recurvus (Cactaceae)
Published: 2023-04-28
Subjects: Life Sciences
Background: The Cactaceae family displays remarkable diversity in the morphology of extrafloral nectaries (EFNs). Despite their taxonomic, ecological, and evolutionary significance, their anatomy and morphology are poorly understood. Questions: How are the morphological and anatomical attributes of extrafloral nectaries in Opuntia streptacantha and Ferocactus recurvus? Studied species: Opuntia [...]
Bioremediation by Chlorella vulgaris: Potentials for Treatment of Municipal, Agricultural, and Industrial Wastewater Sources
Published: 2023-04-26
Subjects: Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Developing countries such as the Philippines suffer from a lack of policy development and implementation on wastewater treatment and discharge. Chlorella vulgaris is a microscopic green algae that has been employed in other countries for WWT due to its ability to simultaneously reduce pollutants and produce valuable biomass. However, challenges in technology adaptation such as differential [...]
Descriptive inference using large, unrepresentative nonprobability samples: An introduction for ecologists
Published: 2023-04-26
Subjects: Life Sciences
Biodiversity monitoring usually involves drawing inferences about some variable of interest across a defined landscape from observations made at a sample of locations within that landscape. If the variable of interest differs between sampled and non-sampled locations, and no mitigating action is taken, then the sample is unrepresentative and inferences drawn from it will be biased. It is possible [...]
Repeated evolution of extreme locomotor performance independent of changes in extended phenotype use in spiders
Published: 2023-04-24
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Behavior and Ethology, Biodiversity, Biology, Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Evolution, Integrative Biology, Life Sciences, Zoology
Many animals utilize self-built structures – so-called extended phenotypes – to enhance body functions, such as thermoregulation, prey capture or defence. Yet, it is unclear whether the evolution of animal constructions supplements or substitutes body functions. Here, using Austral brown spiders, we explored if the evolutionary loss and gain of silken webs as extended prey capture devices [...]
Interspecific behavioural interference and range dynamics: current insights and future directions
Published: 2023-04-24
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Ornithology, Other Animal Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Zoology
Novel biotic interactions in shifting communities play a key role in determining the ability of species’ ranges to track suitable habitat. To date, the impact of biotic interactions on range dynamics have predominantly been studied in the context of interactions between different trophic levels or, to a lesser extent, exploitative competition between species of the same trophic level. Yet, both [...]
Ecology and conservation of an endangered flying squirrel in plantations
Published: 2023-04-24
Subjects: Life Sciences
Flying squirrels have important roles in ecosystems; as a disperser of seeds and spores. However, flying squirrel species which strongly depend on old mature forests are declined in abundance as a result of logging of mature forests. Guidelines for the conservation of flying squirrels have been developed, but it is important to have an accurate and deeply understanding of their ecology in order [...]
Forest management drives evolution of understorey herbs
Published: 2023-04-24
Subjects: Life Sciences
Forest management has a strong impact on the forest structure and subsequently on the biotic and abiotic forest understorey environment. Forest understorey herbs can thus be expected to evolutionary respond to management-induced environmental variation (provided sufficient time for adaptation), but this has been little tested to date. Here we use a common garden, to test for genetically based [...]
The role of basic sciences in addressing global challenges to sustainable development: experiences from CIFOR-ICRAF
Published: 2023-04-24
Subjects: Life Sciences
Human-induced global challenges, including climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation and broken food systems, militate against the attainment of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Centre for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) has, for many decades, worked in support of research in development initiatives aimed at addressing [...]
Killer prey: Pre-interaction ecology reverses bacterial predation
Published: 2023-04-13
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Ecological variation influences the character of many biotic interactions, but examples of predator-prey reversal mediated by abiotic context are few. We show that the temperature at which prey grow before interacting with a bacterial predator can determine the very direction of predation, reversing predator and prey identities. While Pseudomonas fluorescens reared at 32 °C was extensively killed [...]
Vicuña antipredator diel migration drives spatial nutrient subsidies in a high Andean ecosystem
Published: 2023-04-13
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Spatial subsidies of nutrients within and among ecosystems have profound effects on ecosystem structure and functioning. Large animals can be important drivers of nutrient cycling and transport as they ingest resources in some habitats and release them in others, even moving nutrients against elevational gradients. In high Andean deserts, vicuñas (Vicugna vicugna) navigate a landscape of fear by [...]
Implementing a rapid geographic range expansion - the role of behavior changes
Published: 2023-04-12
Subjects: Biology, Life Sciences
It is generally thought that behavioral flexibility, the ability to change behavior when circumstances change, plays an important role in the ability of species to rapidly expand their geographic range. Great-tailed grackles (Quiscalus mexicanus) are a social, polygamous species that is rapidly expanding its geographic range by settling in new areas and habitats. They are behaviorally flexible [...]
Metabolic consequences of sex-reversal in two lizard species: a test of the like genotype and like phenotype hypotheses
Published: 2023-04-06
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Vertebrate sex is typically determined genetically, but in many ectotherms sex can be determined by genes (Genetic Sex Determination: GSD), temperature (Temperature-dependent Sex Determination: TSD), or interactions between genes and temperature during development. Temperature dependent sex determination may involve GSD systems with either male or female heterogamety (XX/XY or ZZ/ZW) where [...]
Yield declines and producer responses to shifting climate and economic conditions in Mexican coffee production
Published: 2023-04-06
Subjects: Agricultural and Resource Economics, Agricultural Economics, Agriculture, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Geography, Life Sciences, Nature and Society Relations, Other Environmental Sciences
Coffee’s climate sensitivity contributes to extreme production and price fluctuations. However, as coffee is a perennial crop, producers have difficulty responding to short-term market shifts. Combining historical climate, production and price data from all coffee-growing municipalities in Mexico, we examined trends of climate and coffee production and then characterized and quantified coffee [...]
Geographic, seasonal and ontogenetic variations of δ15N and δ13C of Japanese sardine explained by baseline variations and diverse fish movements
Published: 2023-04-05
Subjects: Life Sciences, Marine Biology
Understanding and predicting variability in the stable isotope ratios of nitrogen and carbon (δ15N and δ13C, respectively) of small pelagic fish is crucial to enable isotopic studies of a variety of marine predators that feed on them. However, because the isotope ratios reflect plastic feeding habits and fish migration in addition to baseline variation, their predictions require a mechanistic [...]
Replicated radiations in the South American Marsh Pitcher Plants (Heliamphora) lead to convergent carnivorous trap morphologies
Published: 2023-04-04
Subjects: Life Sciences
The evolution of carnivorous pitcher traps across multiple angiosperm lineages represents a classic example of morphological convergence. Nevertheless, no comparative study to-date has examined pitcher evolution from a quantitative morphometric perspective. In the present study, we used comparative morphometric approaches to quantify the shape space occupied by Heliamphora pitchers and to trace [...]