Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
Improving Aboveground Biomass Estimates with 3D Tree Crown Parameters from UAV-LS in Beech Forests
Published: 2024-12-18
Subjects: Forest Management, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences
Accurate estimates of aboveground biomass (AGB) are essential for forest policies to reduce carbon emissions. Unmanned aerial laser scanning (UAV-LS) offers unprecedented millimetric detail but is underutilized in monitoring broadleaf Mediterranean forests compared to coniferous ones. This study aims to design and evaluate a procedure for AGB estimates based on the predictive power of crown [...]
Antechodynamics and Antechokinetics: Dynamics and Kinetics of Antibiotic Resistance Molecules
Published: 2024-12-16
Subjects: Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences
Pharmacology of antimicrobial drugs comprises pharmacodynamics (PD) and pharmacokinetics (PK). PD refers to studying drugs' mode of action at different concentrations on their molecular targets and the resulting effect(s). PK refers to studying the way(s) by which drugs enter and are distributed to reach their targets in different compartments (such as tissues in the body) and how the local drug [...]
Antlions (Myrmeleontidae) in the Doñana National Park
Published: 2024-12-14
Subjects: Life Sciences
This study represents the first comprehensive survey of antlions (Myrmeleontidae) in Doñana National Park, conducted across 58 sampling locations during two field seasons (April–June 2023 and March–July 2024). A total of 12 species from 9 genera were identified, with 406 larval-stage specimens collected, of which 295 successfully emerged as adults (201 females and 94 males, including 28 imagos [...]
Gut microbiome communities demonstrate fine-scale spatial variation in a closed, island bird population
Published: 2024-12-14
Subjects: Life Sciences
Environmental variation is a key factor shaping microbiome communities in wild animals. However, most studies have focussed on separate populations distributed over large spatial scales. How ecological factors shape inter-individual microbiome variation within a single landscape and host population remains poorly understood. Here, we use dense sampling of individuals in a natural, closed [...]
Community herbivory in tropical montane rainforests is affected by phylogenetic plant diversity, specific leaf area, and leaf nutrient concentrations
Published: 2024-12-13
Subjects: Life Sciences
Arthropod herbivores modulate ecosystem structure, productivity, and nutrient cycling. While previous work has shown that plant-herbivore interactions for individual species are shaped by abiotic factors, traits, and the surrounding plant community, the relative contribution of abiotic and biotic factors for herbivory at the community level remains elusive. Here, we use a structural equation [...]
Global patterns of insect herbivory across forest canopies and understories: Insights from a tropical case study and a global comparison
Published: 2024-12-12
Subjects: Life Sciences
Several studies have examined global patterns of insect herbivory, revealing variations with latitude, elevation, and temperature. However, less attention has been given to herbivory patterns at smaller spatial scales, particularly the comparison between forest canopies and understories. Understanding these finer-scale patterns is crucial for predicting ecological responses to both natural and [...]
The Development and Evolution of Arthropod Tagmata
Published: 2024-12-10
Subjects: Biology, Cell and Developmental Biology, Developmental Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Evolution, Integrative Biology, Life Sciences
The segmented body plan is a hallmark of the arthropod body plan. Morphological segments are formed during embryogenesis, through a complex procedure involving the activation of a series of gene regulatory networks. The segments of the arthropod body are organized into functional units known as tagmata, and these tagmata are different among the arthropod classes (e.g. head, thorax and abdomen in [...]
iNaturalist as a platform for documenting Chilean funga
Published: 2024-12-09
Subjects: Biodiversity, Environmental Policy, Life Sciences, Other Life Sciences
This study analyzes the impact of iNaturalist on the recording and documentation of fungi in Chile from 2008 to 2024, highlighting its role in integrating citizen science into biodiversity monitoring. This community effort—which currently totals more than 63,000 observations representing 1,245 species—is concentrated in the central and southern regions of the country, mainly in urban areas, where [...]
Microbes as conservation targets
Published: 2024-12-09
Subjects: Life Sciences
A world without microorganisms would lack essential processes that support life. The degradation or loss of microbiomes will lead to severe disruptions in ecosystems, nutrient cycling, and the climate; failures in food production; and crises in animal and human health. Yet, microbes remain largely excluded from nature conservation efforts. Current microbial management predominantly relies on the [...]
Shorebirds are shrinking and shape-shifting: declining body size and lengthening bills in the past half-century
Published: 2024-12-09
Subjects: Life Sciences
Animals are predicted to shrink and shape-shift as the climate warms; declining in size, while their appendages lengthen. Determining which types of species are undergoing these morphological changes, and why, is critical to understanding species responses to global change, including potential adaptation to climate warming. We examine body size and bill length changes in 25 shorebird species [...]
Don’t ask “when is it coevolution?” — ask “how?”
Published: 2024-12-09
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Coevolution is widely defined as specific, simultaneous, reciprocal adaptation by pairs of interacting species. This strict-sense definition arose from a desire for conceptual clarity, but it has never reflected the much wider diversity of ways in which interacting species may shape each other's evolution. As a result, much of the literature on the evolutionary consequences of species [...]
The feasibility principle in community ecology
Published: 2024-12-09
Subjects: Life Sciences
The structure and function of ecological communities are conceptualized as an emergent outcome derived from their corresponding set of interacting populations embedded in a given environmental context. However, it has remained unclear whether common principles can explain the biodiversity patterns that we observe across different contexts. Notably, finding general principles can successfully [...]
Code-sharing policies are associated with increased reproducibility potential of ecological findings
Published: 2024-12-09
Subjects: Life Sciences
Software code (e.g., analytical code) is increasingly recognised as an important research output, as it improves transparency, collaboration, and research credibility. Many scientific journals have introduced code-sharing policies; however, surveys show alarmingly low compliance with these policies. In this study, we expand on a recent survey of ecological journals with code-sharing policies by [...]
Assessing Transparency and Reproducibility in Invasion Science
Published: 2024-12-06
Subjects: Botany, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Plant Sciences
Policymakers and practitioners overseeing invasive species management depend on reliable research for guidance. Transparency and reproducibility are core features of reliable research, and prerequisites for successful study replication, but are evidently lacking in many science disciplines. Whether this shortfall characterizes invasion science remains unknown. We evaluated a sample of invasion [...]
Unbaited underwater video evidences the presence of previ-ously unrecorded fish species, sea krait (Laticauda sp.) and a high frequency of sharks at a remote reef complex (Coral Sea Marine Park, Southwest Pacific)
Published: 2024-12-06
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Marine Biology
The Chesterfield-Bellona atolls and reefs are a vast reef complex located in the Coral Sea Marine Park, estab-lished in 2014 in the New Caledonian Economic Exclusive Zone. In 2013, the New Caledonia government supported the first assessment of fish and benthic habitats conducted in all habitats and over the entire area. The assessment provided a primary knowledge base for establishing the [...]