Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
Experimental protocol for validation of Computational Fluid Dynamics palaeoecological simulations
Published: 2024-01-29
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations are increasingly used to test palaeoecological hypotheses. These analyses output simulated velocity and pressure flow profiles, and drag and lift force values acting on a model. These outputs are presumed to be internally consistent, assuming consistently applied parameters, but it is unclear whether these reflect real-world force measurements. [...]
The fossil record of the Neogene Carnivore Mammals from Spain
Published: 2024-01-25
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Carnivore mammals (Carnivora, Mammalia) constitute a significant component of the Spanish Neogene faunas, not so much due to their fossil abundance, which is generally low, but rather because of their high degree of taxonomic diversity. We assessed their evolutionary dynamics from the fossil record of Iberian carnivores using per-taxon rates of origination, extinctions and turnover combined with [...]
Conceptual Models regarding Internal and External Dynamics and Their Interaction in Biological Phenomena
Published: 2024-01-25
Subjects: Life Sciences
Much research has been done on the evolutionary processes and general properties of life from the fields of systems biology, mathematical biology, and evolutionary biology. Life is a system in which micro and macro are coordinated and subsystems are organized to maintain metabolism and function. Life also has systems that maintain homeostasis within the body. Life adapts to time and space, [...]
Hybridization potential of brown trout, with particular reference to invaded environments
Published: 2024-01-25
Subjects: Aquaculture and Fisheries Life Sciences, Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Population Biology
Hybridization is a complex process beginning with the mating of two species. However, hybrid offspring frequency does not predict hetero-specific mating frequency, as post-mating, both pre-zygotic and post-zygotic barriers influence their occurrence. Post-zygotic outbreeding depression usually results in poor embryo-juvenile survival or the production of sterile hybrid offspring. Females have [...]
Parasitism and the tradeoffs of social grouping: The role of parasite transmission mode
Published: 2024-01-25
Subjects: Life Sciences
Animals form social groups to gain benefits to numerous fitness-enhancing processes, such as foraging, defense, and energy expenditure. While social grouping can increase parasite exposure, it can also serve as a defensive mechanism against parasites (defined broadly here as organisms with obligate, persistent, and harmful consumer associations with a host). Here, we present a conceptual [...]
A Critique of Thompson and Ramírez-Barahona (2023) or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Fossil Record
Published: 2024-01-25
Subjects: Life Sciences
Last year, a study published in Biology Letters by Thompson and Ramírez-Barahona (2023) argued that, according to analyses of diversification on two massive molecular phylogenies comprising thousands of species, there is no evidence that angiosperms (i.e., flowering plants) were affected by the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction. Here I show that these conclusions are flawed from both [...]
Predicting organismal response to marine heatwaves using mechanistic thermal landscape models
Published: 2024-01-23
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Marine heatwaves (MHWs) can cause thermal stress in marine ectotherms, experienced as a pulse against the press of anthropogenic warming. When thermal stress exceeds organismal capacity to maintain homeostasis, organism survival becomes time-limited and can result in mass mortality events. Current methods of detecting and categorizing MHWs rely on statistical analysis of historic climatology, and [...]
Temporal changes in streamflow can predict parasitism levels in freshwater prawns better than host traits
Published: 2024-01-23
Subjects: Life Sciences
1. Understanding how changes in the hydrological regime drive parasite loads and dynamics remains a challenging issue in ecological parasitology. Temporal changes in streamflow and rainfall are key hydrological factors that could alter interactions between the parasite and host and affect parasitism levels. However, to investigate the effect of streamflow, rainfall, and its mechanisms, it is [...]
Bayesian Estimation of Cooccurrence Affinity with Dyadic Regression
Published: 2024-01-23
Subjects: Life Sciences
Estimating underlying cooccurrence relationships between pairs of species has long been a challenging task in ecology as the extent to which species actually cooccur is partially dependent on their prevalences. While recent work has taken large steps towards solving this problem, the next question is how to assess the factors that influence cooccurrence. Here I show that a recently proposed [...]
Distribution, Abundance and Status of At-Risk Birds at a Six-Acre Site Within the Upper Boileau Biodiversity Reserve, Québec: A Year-Long Research Study
Published: 2024-01-22
Subjects: Biodiversity, Life Sciences, Ornithology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Understanding the distribution, abundance and status of at-risk birds in any area where human impact is low is an imperative in understanding the larger ecological situation. Birds have been widely seen as reliable indicators of ecological health and there have been significant population declines in North America, especially among migratory aerial insectivores, and are escalading rapidly. As a [...]
Conjugation Related Costs Have Reduced Impact on *in silico* Plasmid Persistence
Published: 2024-01-22
Subjects: Life Sciences
Due to the important role they play in the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) crisis and in microbial evolution in general, a great deal of empirical and theoretical work is currently underway, trying to understand plasmid ecology. One of the key questions is how these often costly genetic elements persist in host populations. Here I show that when modelling plasmid population dynamics, it is not [...]
Evidence to inform spatial management of a western Pacific Ocean tuna purse seine fishery
Published: 2024-01-22
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Marine Biology
Fisheries can have profound impacts on co-occurring species exposed to incidental capture, particularly those with life history traits that make them vulnerable to elevated mortality levels. Fisheries spatial management holds substantial potential to balance socioeconomic benefits and costs to threatened bycatch species. This study analyzed observer program data for a western Pacific Ocean tuna [...]
Evolutionary outcomes arising from bistability in ecosystem dynamics
Published: 2024-01-22
Subjects: Life Sciences
While it is known that shallow lakes ecosystems may experience abrupt shifts (ie tipping points) from one state to a contrasting degraded alternative state as a result of gradual environmental changes, the role of evolutionary processes and the impact of trait variation in this context remain largely unexplored. It is crucial to elucidate how eco-evolutionary feedbacks affect abrupt ecological [...]
Food web trophic control modulates tropical Atlantic reef ecosystems response to marine heat wave intensity and duration
Published: 2024-01-22
Subjects: Life Sciences
1. Marine Heat Waves (MHWs) are episodes of anomalous warming in the ocean that can last from a few days to months. MHWs have different characteristics in terms of intensity, duration, and frequency and generate thermal stress on marine ecosystems. In reef ecosystems, they are one of the main causes of decreased presence and abundance of corals, invertebrates, and fish. The deleterious capacity [...]
Non-linearity and temporal variability are overlooked components of global population dynamics
Published: 2024-01-22
Subjects: Life Sciences
Aim. Population dynamics are usually assessed through linear trend analysis, quantifying their general direction. However, linear trends may hide substantial variations in population dynamics that could reconcile apparent discrepancies when quantifying the extent of the biodiversity crisis. We seek to determine whether the use of non-linear methods and [...]