Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
Evolutionary potential of natal dispersal in multiple blue tit populations while accounting for spatial autocorrelation among relatives
Published: 2026-09-24
Subjects: Life Sciences
Natal dispersal is a key driver of ecological and evolutionary dynamics in populations. However, our understanding of genetic mechanisms underlying inter-individual variation in dispersal behaviour is still incomplete, despite their crucial role in the evolutionary potential and persistence of wild populations. Here, we investigate the genetic basis of natal dispersal distance in four blue tit [...]
Global Evidence for Biotic Differentiation Amid Contrasting Freshwater β-Diversity Responses to Human Impacts
Published: 2026-09-24
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Human pressures are reshaping freshwater biodiversity worldwide, yet the generality of biotic homogenization and the contexts in which differentiation instead emerges remain unresolved. These contrasting responses reflect decreases or increases in spatial β-diversity, respectively, as local assemblages within a region become more similar or more distinct in community composition. We conducted a [...]
The marine annelid trait manifesto: A call to rethink functional traits for ecological and conservation research
Published: 2026-09-24
Subjects: Animal Experimentation and Research, Animal Sciences, Aquaculture and Fisheries Life Sciences, Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Zoology
The Raunkiæran shortfall, defined as the scarcity of knowledge regarding species' attributes, represents one of the major obstacles to developing sound biodiversity conservation strategies and understanding ecological processes. In this context, despite the importance of marine annelids as dominant components of benthic ecosystems and key agents of marine ecosystem functioning, no comprehensive [...]
INSTAR: reporting items for invertebrate welfare in research
Published: 2026-09-24
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Life Sciences
Concern for the welfare of research animals has expanded rapidly across taxa, with increasing focus on invertebrates. Recent evidence for affective experience in cephalopod, decapod and insect taxa, alongside shifts in public attitudes and regulation, has raised the stakes of how invertebrates are used and reported, yet no reporting standard adequately addresses them. Here we present INSTAR [...]
Which modelling choices are supported when marine survey data are limited? An evidence map of 95 studies and a benchmark on structured subsamples of a trawl survey
Published: 2026-09-23
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
1. Marine management decisions increasingly rest on species distribution models fitted to sparse, clustered survey records, while the guidance for fitting them comes from data-rich settings. We asked which modelling choices have been tested under the conditions marine practitioners face, and whether the ordering that guidance assumes, spatial structure before algorithm choice, holds at the [...]
Caenorhabditis elegans and Serratia marcescens host-parasite coevolution model strains derived through mutagenesis and experimental evolution
Published: 2026-09-23
Subjects: Life Sciences
Here we present a detailed description of the derivation of a collection of Caenorhabditis elegans and Serratia marcescens strains and populations that have been mutagenized and passaged in a series of experimental evolution projects over the past two decades. These experimental strains and populations provide a powerful resource for the study of host-parasite coevolution and have so far been [...]
A Geospatial informed Conservation Strategy for Sustainable Management of Dalbergia sissoo (Roxb.) Population in India amidst Climate Change and Pathogen Induced Mortality Stress
Published: 2026-09-23
Subjects: Life Sciences
The natural population of Dalbergia sissoo, is declining due to biotic and abiotic stressors. Existing studies focus on pathogen-induced mortality in D. sissoo, but the impact of climate on habitat loss and population decline is limited. This study fills this gap by integrating climate change impacts and pathogen outbreaks to assess their combined influence on the distribution and survival [...]
Global assemblage stability is driven by asynchrony shaped by environmental heterogeneity
Published: 2026-09-22
Subjects: Life Sciences
Evidence suggests the diversity-stability relationship relies on asynchrony among populations. Yet our limited understanding of how the mechanisms underlying stability and asynchrony manifest across ecological scales prevents reliable forecasts of ecological stability amid ongoing biodiversity change. Here, linking stability, asynchrony and species richness across plant, bird, mammal, amphibian, [...]
Mining online behavioural data to measure zoonotic spillover risk
Published: 2026-09-22
Subjects: Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Efforts to predict zoonotic disease dynamics rarely directly quantify the fine-scale animal-human interactions that drive spillover. Public digital data (i.e., iEcology) could capture these behaviours at large scales, across time and space. Further, recent statistical advances allow us to semi-automate these processes, providing a framework for continuous exposure monitoring and risk prediction. [...]
Subsistence fisheries in Small Island Developing States: the case study of the goby-fry fishery in Guinea Gulf
Published: 2026-09-22
Subjects: Aquaculture and Fisheries Life Sciences, Community-based Research, Life Sciences, Marine Biology
1. Artisanal and subsistence fisheries are crucial for the livelihood and food security of local communities of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), yet they remain largely excluded from formal catch statistics and management frameworks. Using Ostrom’s Social-Ecological Systems (SES) diagnostic framework, this study characterizes the previously unreported goby-fry (“peixinho”) fishery across 14 [...]
When and how to integrate probability and nonprobability samples to monitor biodiversity
Published: 2026-09-22
Subjects: Life Sciences
1. Species occurrence and abundance data are generated by probability or nonprobability sampling. Under probability sampling, sites are selected according to a known design (e.g. stratified random sampling). Under nonprobability sampling—for example, the collection of data by citizen scientists at sites of their own choosing—they are not. Whereas probability samples tend to be relatively small [...]
AphidTraits: an open dataset of temperature-dependent trait responses in aphids (Hemiptera: Aphididae)
Published: 2026-09-22
Subjects: Life Sciences
Aphids are among the most destructive and economically impactful group of agricultural pests. Their successful management hinges on integrative and sustainable control practices. Given the global scope of aphid impacts, mathematical models are invaluable for developing informed control strategies, particularly in the context of changing climate. Such models typically require detailed empirical [...]
Foraging group size affects repeatable individual variation and strategic social plasticity
Published: 2026-09-22
Subjects: Animal Studies, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Although game theory successfully predicts how negative frequency dependence can maintain behavioural variation through stable equilibria, it does not predict whether this variation reflects repeatable differences among individuals or variation within individuals. Because social group size influences how individuals respond to social information, it may shape how individual variation is [...]
Growing disequilibria in species distributions and assemblage diversity until the end of the 21st‑century
Published: 2026-09-22
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Biodiversity forecasts almost universally assume that species are in equilibrium with contemporary environmental conditions. The consequences of this assumption are rarely tested, yet it may systematically bias inference and prediction whenever past natural or anthropogenic disturbances leave legacy effects keeping biodiversity in disequilibrium. Here we test how accounting for such legacy [...]
Quantification of total fish eDNA concentration to optimize the detection of rare species and sampling effort
Published: 2026-09-22
Subjects: Life Sciences
eDNA metabarcoding is now a widely used method for monitoring aquatic biodiversity, but detecting rare species from extra-organism eDNA samples remains a challenge. Yet, rare species, whether threatened or newly colonizing organisms, are the primary targets of biological conservation measures. Replication and sample volume, as well as PCR replication, are among the main parameters studied to [...]