Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
Cooperation, status, and altruism in a mixed society of Amazonian parrots
Published: 2024-10-16
Subjects: Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Parrots are a highly intelligent taxon whose complex behaviors in wild societies require description. Here we observed 12 species of parrots, macaws, and parakeets in mixed flocks foraging on exposed cliffs in southeast Perú. For each species, we developed a single bootstrapped index of sociality from 9 derived metrics of abundance, chronology, functional roles, and agonistic interactions. This [...]
Towards repeated clear-cutting of boreal forests - a tipping point for biodiversity?
Published: 2024-10-15
Subjects: Life Sciences
Boreal forests are important carbon sinks and host a diverse array of species that provide important 14 ecosystem functions. Boreal forests have a long history of intensive forestry, in which even-aged 15 management with clear-cutting has been the dominating harvesting practice for the past 50–80 16 years. As a second cycle of clear-cutting is emerging, there is an urgent need to review the [...]
Cooperation in non-family groups as a strategy for reproducing in variable climates
Published: 2024-10-12
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
The global climate is changing to be more extreme and less predictable, threatening many species. Cooperative breeding is more common under such conditions, indicating it may improve resilience to challenging climates. However, whether specific features of cooperative breeding systems, such as how groups form and how large they become, evolved to cope with particular climates is unclear. We test [...]
Revisiting Adaptive Introgression at the HLA Genes in Lithuanian Genomes with Machine Learning
Published: 2024-10-12
Subjects: Life Sciences
Narrow roads to Fern Land: revisiting the paradox of sexual reproduction
Published: 2024-10-12
Subjects: Life Sciences
Following some major thought on the evolutionary maintenance of sex leads to a new hypothesis about the role of life cycles. Organisms with a heterogonic life cycle, like strawberries, propagate contrary to what would be adaptive under red-queen selection from micro-parasites. Their recombinant offspring disperses, but their clonal offspring stays close to the parent. In diplohaplontic organisms, [...]
Inbreeding and adaptation to captivity depress the response to stress
Published: 2024-10-12
Subjects: Life Sciences
The success of reintroductions using captive-bred populations of wild species is potentially impacted by adaptations to non-natural captive environments. Little research has been done into how physiological traits change from wild to captive populations. We do not yet understand how glucocorticoid secretion patterns, a critical aspect of the stress response and other underlying life-history [...]
Handle with care! Morphology of spines and milking practices in venomous fishes
Published: 2024-10-12
Subjects: Life Sciences
Venomous fish have independently evolved venom-delivery systems multiple times throughout their evolution. Despite the remarkable convergence of such structures, a large variety in venom-delivery structures morphology does occur across species. This review is aimed at delving into species’ peculiarities, exploring the diversity of venom glands and the potential ecological roles in relation to [...]
Offset or not: guidance on accounting for sampling effort in generalized linear models
Published: 2024-10-08
Subjects: Life Sciences
1. Observed data are often dependent on a measure of sampling effort, such as counts measured per unit area. A common tool to account for differences in effort is the ‘offset term’ in a generalized linear model, which allows for a fixed proportional relationship between effort and the response variable. However, there is limited detailed guidance on the application of offsets and transformations [...]
Local knowledge enhances the sustainability of interconnected fisheries
Published: 2024-10-08
Subjects: Agricultural and Resource Economics, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Studies, Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Local knowledge (LK) refers to the ancestral understanding that Indigenous Peoples and local communities have developed over centuries through trial-and-error and hands-on management of natural resources. LK may provide valuable insights for biodiversity conservation and human well-being. However, its effectiveness remains under-explored at large scales, especially where multiple communities [...]
Wildfire exposure and health outcomes: An umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses
Published: 2024-10-08
Subjects: Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Introduction: Wildfires are a growing concern due to their significant impact on wildlife, air quality, and health, and are increasing under climate change. Although several systematic reviews have explored the relationship between wildfire smoke and human health outcomes, a comprehensive overview of the overall epidemiological evidence remains needed. Thus, this umbrella review aimed to [...]
The Definition of Individual Biological Fitness
Published: 2024-10-08
Subjects: Life Sciences
Fitness is one of the central concepts in biology. Despite this, a precise definition of an individual's fitness remains elusive. Typically, 'biological fitness' is understood as the relative selective advantage of different genetic alleles. In this manuscript, we present a rigorous mathematical definition of individual fitness. This framework addresses an unjustifiable gap in evolutionary [...]
Coupled effects of forest growth and climate change on small mammal abundance and body weight: results of a 39-year field study
Published: 2024-10-08
Subjects: Life Sciences
1. In rapidly changing environments, the combined effects of climate change and forest stand changes—such as growth or regeneration—are altering the availability of resources, particularly in systems with pulsed resources like seed-masting. These environmental shifts can have cascading impacts on animal populations, ultimately reshaping ecosystem structure and function. However, relevant [...]
Rotten to the core? How internal stem damage varies vertically in savanna trees and is influenced by tree species, traits, and external damage pressures
Published: 2024-10-04
Subjects: Life Sciences
1. Trees are important aboveground carbon sinks in savanna ecosystems, yet consumption of internal wood by decomposers (e.g., termites and microbes) creates uncertainties in tree biomass accounting. It remains unclear whether internal stem damage is constant or variable throughout the tree, making it uncertain if a lower stem sample reflects damage in the entire tree. Furthermore, total damage [...]
How does climate change impact the population of polar bears? Environmental threats, ecological dynamics and conservation efforts
Published: 2024-10-04
Subjects: Life Sciences
Climate change is one of the major drivers of recent biodiversity loss on a global scale. Some species try to adapt to such changes through shifting their range and behaviour due to their habitat being altered or damaged. Within the Arctic regions, temperature rise is three times higher than the global average, affecting various species at different rates in this ecosystem. Such a warming effect [...]
Phenology-informed decline risk of estuarine fishes and their prey suggests potential for future trophic mismatches
Published: 2024-10-03
Subjects: Life Sciences
Conservation scientists have long used population viability analysis (PVA) on species count data to quantify trends and critical decline risk, thereby informing conservation actions. These assessments typically focus on single species rather than assemblages and assume that risk is consistent within a given life stage (e.g., across the different seasons or months of a year). However, if risk is [...]