Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
Uncovering the hidden niche: incorporating microclimate temperature into species distribution models
Published: 2023-05-11
Subjects: Life Sciences
Species’ environmental niches are conventionally modelled using coarse-grained macroclimate data. These data are known to deviate substantially from local, near-ground and proximal conditions (i.e., the microclimate), especially so below forests canopies. Here we aimed to assess the impact of using gridded microclimate data instead of gridded macroclimate data on the performance of species [...]
Towards understanding the impact of mycorrhizal fungal environments on the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems.
Published: 2023-05-11
Subjects: Life Sciences
Mutualistic interactions between plants and soil fungi, mycorrhizae, control carbon and nutrient fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems. Soil of ecosystems featuring a particular type of mycorrhiza exhibit specific properties across multiple dimensions of soil functioning. The knowledge about the impacts of mycorrhizal fungi on soil functioning accumulated so far, indicates that these impacts are of [...]
The “faulty male” hypothesis: implications for evolution and disease
Published: 2023-05-11
Subjects: Life Sciences
Biological differences between males and females lead to many differences in physiology, disease, and overall health. One of the most prominent disparities is in the number of germline mutations passed to offspring: human males transmit three times as many mutations as do females. While the classic explanation for this pattern invokes differences in post-puberty germline replication between the [...]
Using Machine Learning to Link Climate, Phylogeny and Leaf Traits in Eucalypts Through a 50-fold Expansion of Current Leaf Trait Datasets
Published: 2023-05-05
Subjects: Life Sciences
Leaf size varies within and between species, and previous work has linked this variation to the environment and evolutionary history separately. However, many previous studies fail to interlink both factors and are often data limited. To address this, our study developed a new workflow using machine learning to automate the extraction of leaf traits (leaf area, largest in-circle area and leaf [...]
Resolving large-scale genome evolution in the high-throughput sequencing era: structural variants, genome rearrangement, and karyotype dynamics in animals
Published: 2023-05-05
Subjects: Life Sciences
Genomic structural variation, genomic rearrangements and karyotype variants are important components on which evolution acts in addition to single nucleotide variants, which are the most common type of variant being studied since the rise of next generation sequencing. These variants have unique mutational mechanisms and evolutionary consequences compared to single nucleotide variants. Here we [...]
Beyond Darwin: General Theory of Evolution of Everything - From the origin of life to the market economy
Published: 2023-05-05
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
The basic concern of the general theory of evolution is to understand the entire evolution from the origin of life to the biological, technological, social, and economic structures of the present from a unified point of view and structure. The general theory of evolution can be seen as a comprehensive generalization and extension of Darwin's theory of evolution. It goes far beyond [...]
Population decline reduces cooperative breeding in a spatially heterogenous population of superb fairy-wrens
Published: 2023-05-03
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
1. Reproductive performance in birds can be affected by both social environment and small-scale environmental heterogeneity via food abundance, availability of nesting sites, and predation risk. However, to date, the best studies of effects of microhabitat variation on avian populations have been on northern hemisphere passerines using nestboxes, where birds have limited control over nest sites [...]
Acoustic evidence for seasonal migration by a top predator of the deep sea
Published: 2023-04-28
Subjects: Life Sciences
In ecosystems influenced by strong seasonal variation in insolation, the fitness of diverse taxa depends on seasonal movements to track resources along latitudinal or elevational gradients. Deep pelagic ecosystems, where sunlight is extremely limited, represent Earth’s largest habitable space and yet ecosystem phenology and effective animal movement strategies in these systems are little [...]
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 [...]