Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
MiCampo: A Multi-Level Digital Cooperative Infrastructure for Agroecological Planning, Participatory Certification and Territorial Market Coordination
Published: 2026-09-11
Subjects: Life Sciences
Agroecological transitions require coordination across technical, certification, economic and research domains. We present MiCampo, a modular digital cooperative infrastructure organized into four functional levels: (1) agroecological technical planning, (2) digital participatory guarantee systems (PGS), (3) contractual territorial distribution planning and logistics, and (4) territorial research [...]
Endosymbiotic bioenergetic synergy behind climate-mediated species boundaries of rainforest warblers
Published: 2026-09-10
Subjects: Life Sciences
The molecular cooperation among organelles facilitates adaptation during eukaryotic evolution, but the role of endosymbiotic synergy in the organismal climate adaptation remains unclear. Here we unveil the Endosymbiotic Bioenergetic Synergy Model, which characterizes the role of emergent molecular activities among organelles underlying energy metabolism in climate adaptation of eukaryotes. The [...]
Multiple genetic routes to pelvic spine loss in brook stickleback
Published: 2026-09-10
Subjects: Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Pelvic spine loss has evolved repeatedly in stickleback species and represents an intriguing opportunity to study genetically parallel adaptation. While previous work has identified key loci associated with this trait, the extent to which different populations rely on the same genetic mechanisms remains unclear. The genetic basis of pelvic spine loss in Culaea inconstans (Kirtland 1840) has only [...]
Developmental and Phylogenetic Patterns of Antennal Expansion in Leaf-Footed Bugs (Hemiptera: Coreidae)
Published: 2026-09-10
Subjects: Life Sciences
Insect antennae morphology is highly conserved in many insect families, yet in some clades elaborations of antennae form are more common. Leaf-footed bugs (Hemiptera: Coreidae) are one case where there is considerable variation in antennal morphology. Antennae can be rectilinear, with cylindrical antennomeres, or have laterally flattened antennomeres, that differ in which antennomeres they occur. [...]
Optical Remote Sensing and Machine Learning Enable Scalable Carbon Mapping in Himalayan Forests Despite Spectral Saturation Challenges
Published: 2026-09-09
Subjects: Life Sciences
Accurate aboveground biomass (AGB) estimation is critical for climate change mitigation and carbon accounting in mountain regions, yet spatially explicit mapping remains limited by reliance on conventional field methods and underexplored machine learning approaches in the Himalaya. Bhutan, a carbon-negative nation maintaining 70% forest cover, faces urgent demand to develop robust monitoring, [...]
Beyond caveat emptor: reducing nitrous oxide risk in the soil carbon offset market
Published: 2026-09-09
Subjects: Life Sciences
Soil organic carbon (SOC) storage projects are an increasingly prominent natural climate solution, drawing investment from diverse climate-sensitive stakeholders. However, the OC additions that build SOC can alter emissions of the potent greenhouse gas (GHG) nitrous oxide (N2O). These emission changes can erode the intended GHG benefit when OC inputs fuel spatiotemporally episodic hot spots and [...]
Suction or filter feeder? Morphology supports a combined feeding mechanism in the Little Auk (Alle alle)
Published: 2026-09-09
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Life Sciences, Ornithology
Little Auks (Alle alle) are the most abundant seabird in the Arctic, with their largest colonies in north-west Greenland sustained by foraging nearly exclusively on plankton. Given their high metabolic demands, adults must capture an approximate 60,000 copepods per day, raising long-standing questions about how this can be achieved efficiently, and with this, questions about the anatomical basis [...]
Time-lagged responses of soil biota are pervasive and require new approaches
Published: 2026-09-09
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
When land-use changes, soil biodiversity is typically assumed to respond immediately. Nonetheless, soils are inherently slow systems. We argue that soil communities often remain in a transient state for decades to centuries, generating persistent ecological legacies. These lags can arise through two interacting mechanisms: environmental inertia, as the physical and chemical properties of soils [...]
Allee effects in corals during fertilisation
Published: 2026-09-09
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Population Biology
Allee effects – where individual fitness declines at low population densities or sizes – are pivotal in shaping the reproductive ecology of broadcast-spawning corals. In these species, successful external fertilisation requires that gametes remain at sufficiently high concentrations for long enough periods before turbulent water movement disperses them below fertilisable levels. As reefs degrade [...]
Chromosome-number diversity and evolution in Nitrariaceae: a critical synthesis of cytological, genome-size and genomic evidence
Published: 2026-09-09
Subjects: Life Sciences
Chromosome-number data in Nitrariaceae are dispersed across historical cytological reports, regional compilations and recent flow-cytometric and genomic studies, and their biological interpretation is complicated by uneven sampling, taxonomic change and somatic chromosome-number variation. We critically synthesised chromosome-related evidence for the family using ChromoDB as the principal [...]
Scenario-dependent functional connectivity in a crowded seascape: habitat suitability, shipping pressure and marine infrastructure in the North Sea
Published: 2026-09-09
Subjects: Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Marine Biology
Marine spatial planning increasingly needs seascape connectivity evidence to balance biodiversity conservation, offshore energy development and shipping. However, predicted functional connectivity depends strongly on how habitat suitability and human-use pressures are translated into resistance surfaces. This study tested how shipping and marine infrastructure alter HSM-derived connectivity [...]
A curated bioacoustics dataset of European bat vocalizations
Published: 2026-09-08
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Zoology
Acoustic surveys represent the primary method for monitoring bat populations and assessing their habitat use, yet reference recordings and associated metadata remain fragmented across repositories, recording programs, and private collections. We present ChirosetEurope, a curated dataset of European bat vocalizations (echolocation and social calls) assembled from multiple open repositories and [...]
Comparing space use behavior and aviary-based exploration measures in a species rapidly expanding its geographic range
Published: 2026-09-08
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Integrative Biology, Life Sciences
Species range expansions could be facilitated by consistent behavioral differences between individuals on the range edge relative to those in other parts of the range. Movement behaviors in particular are thought to be important for expanding and invasive species. There is evidence for a relationship between consistent individual differences in exploratory behavior and dispersal (the permanent [...]
Regional spatial synchrony in density-dependent survival of a woodland passerine
Published: 2026-09-08
Subjects: Life Sciences
1. Spatial population synchrony, the tendency of geographically separated populations to fluctuate in concert, reduces opportunities for demographic rescue and increases extinction risk, yet the demographic processes underlying it remain poorly understood. Adult survival is a key driver of population dynamics but few studies have quantified its spatial synchrony or identified the mechanisms [...]
The Principle of Natural Selection and its Laws of Reproduction and Speciation: A Formal Framework for Reproductive Architecture and Ancestry
Published: 2026-09-07
Subjects: Life Sciences
This paper presents a formal framework for reproductive architecture and ancestry across reproductive modes and speciation. Natural selection is defined as the generational propagation of heritable characteristics through varying inclusions and exclusions; characteristics that are not heritable do not propagate. A single general expression states one generational cycle: an inherited ancestry [...]