Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
Predator activity, proactive anti-predator strategies, and nesting phenology produce a dynamic landscape of risk to tundra goose reproduction
Published: 2024-06-14
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Birds generally rely on proactive anti-predator strategies when selecting nest sites, as they have limited options to adapt to changing levels of risk once incubation begins. Arctic waterfowl often nest colonially as an anti-predator strategy but dispersed-breeding species may use other proactive strategies, such as nesting in areas perceived to be safer. However, empirical links between [...]
Did organs precede organisms in the dawn of life?
Published: 2024-06-14
Subjects: Life Sciences
Evolutionary processes acting on molecule populations and their assemblies preceded the origin of living organisms. These prebiotic world entities were (re)produced; that is, independently produced by the assembly of their components, following an iterative process giving rise to identical entities, recalling the progeny resulting from self-reproduction. Before the dawn of life, natural selection [...]
The promise of community-driven preprints in ecology and evolution
Published: 2024-06-13
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Publishing preprints is quickly becoming commonplace in ecology and evolutionary biology. Preprints can facilitate the rapid sharing of scientific knowledge establishing precedence and enabling feedback from the research community before peer review. Yet, significant barriers to preprint use exist including language barriers, a lack of understanding about the benefits of preprints and a lack of [...]
Sedimentary ancient DNA reveals Neolithic pastoralism and plant community interactions at Southern European high altitudes
Published: 2024-06-13
Subjects: Life Sciences
The Neolithization process introduced significant ecological impacts, especially in Mediterranean mountain areas. We generated a comprehensive sedimentary ancient DNA record from the central Pyrenees, spanning 12.2 to 1.3 ka BP, revealing the earliest continuous presence of sheep (6.5 ka BP) and cattle (5.9 ka BP) in alpine southern Europe. This evidence suggests pastoralism nearly concurred with [...]
Hydrological fluctuations determine predator-prey interactions in a semi-arid non-perennial river
Published: 2024-06-13
Subjects: Life Sciences
We investigated predator-prey interactions in the River Tabocas, a non-perennial river (NPR) in Brazil’s semi-arid region, analysing variations between flowing and dry hydrological phases. We analysed predator-prey interactions using fish food items along 1 km of the NPR during flowing (23 sections) and dry (22 isolated pools) phases, identifying 18 predator species and 11 ecological categories [...]
Trophic generalism in the winter moth: a model system for phenological mismatch
Published: 2024-06-11
Subjects: Life Sciences
Climate change has the potential to disrupt phenological synchrony among interacting species that vary in their phenological sensitivity to temperature. The phenological synchrony observed between winter moth Operophtera brumata caterpillars and oak leafing in spring has become an emblematic test case of this phenomenon, with caterpillars seemingly advancing their phenology more than their [...]
Behavioral flexibility is similar in two closely related species where only one is rapidly expanding its geographic range
Published: 2024-06-06
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Biology, Comparative Psychology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Population Biology
Human-modified environments are rapidly increasing, which puts other species in the precarious position of either adapting to the new challenges or, if they are not able to adapt, shifting their range to a more suitable environment. It is generally thought that behavioral flexibility, the ability to change behavior when circumstances change, plays an important role in the ability of a species to [...]
Global metrics for terrestrial biodiversity
Published: 2024-06-06
Subjects: Biodiversity, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Life Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation
Biodiversity metrics are increasingly in demand for informing government, business, and civil society decisions. However, it is not always clear to end users how these metrics differ or for what purpose they are best suited. We seek to answer these questions using a database of 573 biodiversity-related metrics, indicators, indices, and layers, which address aspects of genetic diversity, species, [...]
Tail-dependence of masting synchrony results in continent-wide seed scarcity
Published: 2024-06-06
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Spatial synchrony may be tail-dependent, meaning it is stronger for peaks rather than troughs, or vice versa. High interannual variation in seed production in perennial plants, called masting, can be synchronized at subcontinental scales, triggering extensive resource pulses or famines. We used data from 99 populations of European beech (\emph{Fagus sylvatica}) to examine whether masting [...]
Testing for efficacy in four measures of demographic buffering
Published: 2024-06-06
Subjects: Life Sciences
Understanding population responses to variable environments is central to much of current research in population ecology and conservation biology. Environmental variability, a key component of global climate change, increases the extinction risk of species across the tree of life. Therefore, quantifying the sensitivity of populations to environmental variability is timely in the face of global [...]
IUCN Red List of Ecosystems, Mangroves of the Western Indian Ocean
Published: 2024-06-04
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Mangroves of the Western Indian Ocean’ is a regional ecosystem subgroup (level 4 unit of the IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology). This province spans 10 countries and includes the following marine ecoregions: Cargados Carajos/Tromelin Island, Delagoa, Mascarene Islands, Seychelles, Southeast Madagascar, East African Coral Coast, Northern Monsoon Current Coast, Bight of Sofala/Swamp Coast, Western and [...]
Climate-mediated hybridization and the future of Andean forests
Published: 2024-06-04
Subjects: Life Sciences
The tropical Andes face unprecedented warming and shifting precipitation patterns due to climate change and land-use alteration, challenging the futures of Andean forests. During the Quaternary, many Andean trees responded to climate change through upslope migrations, but while there is evidence of ongoing upslope migrations in many species, they are at rates far below what is need to remain in [...]
Supporting study registration to reduce research waste
Published: 2024-06-04
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Psychology, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Research suffers from many inefficiencies. These lead to much research being avoidably wasted, with no or limited value to the end user (e.g. an estimated 82-89% of ecological research, and 85% of medical research). Here, we argue that the quality and impact of ecological research could be drastically improved by registration: pre-registration, and registered reports. However, without a [...]
Eco-evolutionary dynamics in grasslands during land use change: consequences for plant-microbe interactions and ecosystem function
Published: 2024-06-01
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
1. Land use change can cause the loss of plant species and functional diversity, but whether it drives eco-evolutionary changes within plant species is unclear. 2. Semi-natural grasslands are particularly threatened by land use change, including management intensification on productive soils and abandonment on marginal land. As such, they serve as an excellent system for exploring if and how [...]
Cladistic species definitions can lead to under-representation of biodiversity from adaptive radiations
Published: 2024-05-30
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 [...]