Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
Evolutionary rate incongruences in squamates reveal contrasting patterns of evolutionary novelties and innovation
Published: 2025-05-05
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Understanding the rate of phenotypic evolution can reveal fundamental aspects of organismal evolutionary trajectories. Hence, several studies have attempted to detect the tempo of evolution for multiple organisms, although based on radically different datatypes (e.g., discrete and morphometric) and methods (phylodynamic vs comparative methods). Here, we ask whether these competing approaches [...]
Responses of wintering corvids to New Year’s Eve fireworks in Berlin
Published: 2025-05-05
Subjects: Life Sciences
Animals around the globe are strongly affected by anthropogenic disturbances, creating concerns for welfare and conservation. Fireworks during New Year’s eve are a major, regularly recurring anthropogenic disturbance, causing light, noise as well as air pollution. In the present study, we investigated behavioural responses of mixed-species flocks of corvids (hooded crows, Corvus cornix, rooks, [...]
A practical framework for identifying genetic subpopulations and ESUs: insights for IUCN assessments and broader management
Published: 2025-05-05
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences
Species conservation assessments, such as the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List and Green Status of Species, guide global conservation priorities by evaluating species’ extinction risk and recovery status. Although such frameworks provide scope to include genetic information, this aspect of biodiversity, which is critical for species’ fitness and adaptive [...]
Genetic load in Evolutionarily Significant Units (ESUs): conservation and management implications
Published: 2025-05-05
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences
The Conservation Genetics Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) proposes introducing Evolutionarily Significant Units (ESUs) as an additional new assessment unit in the IUCN Red List and Green Status. This proposal is made because ESUs possess unique evolutionary trajectories present within species and harbour genetic diversity that requires safeguarding. [...]
Acclimation to fluctuating hypoxia alters activity and escape performance, but not metabolism, in guppies
Published: 2025-05-02
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Zoology
Organisms living in fluctuating environments must cope with constantly changing conditions. Here we investigated how acclimation to either fluctuating or constant oxygen affects behavioural and physiological responses to hypoxia in guppies (Poecilia reticulata). Guppies were acclimated to either fluctuating hypoxia (100% of air saturation during day to 40% at night) or constant normoxia (100% of [...]
Creating woodland through natural processes: Current understanding and knowledge gaps in Great Britain
Published: 2025-04-30
Subjects: Agriculture, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Forest Management, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
1. Creating new woodlands through natural processes, as opposed to traditional tree planting, is expected to result in more structurally diverse, locally-adapted woodlands that enhance the resilience of existing treescapes. However, the outcomes of natural colonisation can be variable, and there is still considerable uncertainty around the ecological processes involved. 2. To address knowledge [...]
Sex-Specific Control and Incomplete Matings: Sperm Removal Behaviour in a Bush Cricket Species
Published: 2025-04-29
Subjects: Life Sciences
In sexually promiscuous species, sperm removal behaviour (SRB) is a male strategy to increase reproductive success by displacing rival sperm prior to insemination. This behaviour may, however, impose costs on both sexes, generating sexual conflict. We investigated the sex-specific control over SRB in Metaplastes ornatus, a bush cricket species exhibiting this behaviour. We used a double mating [...]
The wind of change: mapping wind energy growth and multi-species vulnerability in the Mediterranean
Published: 2025-04-29
Subjects: Life Sciences
The rapid expansion of wind energy across the Mediterranean region calls for more advanced tools to assess and mitigate its impacts on biodiversity. In this study, we propose an innovative approach that integrates historical satellite imagery and ecological modelling to assess the spatiotemporal overlap between wind energy development and habitat suitability for multiple vulnerable raptor [...]
Plant pathogen profiling with the EpiPv package
Published: 2025-04-28
Subjects: Life Sciences
This study introduces a flexible framework for epidemiological profiling of insect-borne plant pathogens (IBPPs), utilizing readily available experimental data. The framework is applicable to most IBPPs transmitted by insects feeding on plant veins, with particular relevance to whitefly-borne viruses that impact cassava production in sub-Saharan Africa. The goal of the study is to provide an [...]
Facing the heat: behavioral and molecular underpinnings of heat stress in bumblebees
Published: 2025-04-25
Subjects: Animal Studies, Behavioral Neurobiology, Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Environmental Studies, Life Sciences, Neuroscience and Neurobiology, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Climate change heralds an era of increased heat waves. Insects, due to their short generation times and their sensitive ecological requirements, offer a powerful model for studying rapid physiological and behavioral responses to high temperatures. Solitary insects primarily respond to temperature extremes by moving in space or time to remain in a constant environment, or by exploiting phenotypic [...]
Code review in practice: A checklist for computational reproducibility and collaborative research in ecology and evolution
Published: 2025-04-24
Subjects: Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Ensuring that research, along with its data and code, is credible and remains accessible is crucial for advancing scientific knowledge—especially in ecology and evolutionary biology, where the climate crisis and biodiversity loss accelerate and demand urgent, transparent science. Yet, code is rarely shared alongside scientific publications, and when it is, unclear implementation and insufficient [...]
Foliar spectral signatures reveal adaptive divergence in live oaks (Quercus section Virentes) across species and environmental niches
Published: 2025-04-24
Subjects: Life Sciences
Genomic tools have transformed our understanding of species and population genetic structure in landscapes. However, discerning the impacts of neutral and adaptive evolutionary forces remains challenging, largely due to the scarcity of tools capable of measuring a broad spectrum of phenotypic traits. We used spectroscopic data from preserved leaves to test for adaptive divergence among [...]
Individual behavioural differences, not body size or sex, structure spatial connectivity in coastal northern pike (Esox lucius) in the southern Baltic Sea
Published: 2025-04-24
Subjects: Life Sciences
Individual variation in movement is fundamental to understanding population structure and dynamics in coastal fish. Here, we examine size- and sex-specific patterns of movement, spatial connectivity, and spawning site fidelity in coastal northern pike (Esox lucius) across and within years in a spatially extensive lagoon network in the southern Baltic Sea. We analysed capture-mark-recapture data [...]
The case for octopus sentience: a follow-up to Simone’s “Are octopuses sentient beings?”
Published: 2025-04-24
Subjects: Life Sciences, Marine Biology
Recently, a paper published in a Brazilian malacology online journal argued against the existence of sentience in octopuses based on disputable arguments – the presence of cannibalistic behavior, absence of sociality and parental care, short lives, size and complexity of the nervous system and intelligence. This response discusses a different perspective on the issue of octopus sentience, [...]
Understanding niche conformance in fire salamander larvae: Insights from reciprocal transplant experiments
Published: 2025-04-24
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Life Sciences, Zoology
Amphibians are in particular vulnerable to (climatic) changes in their habitat as they are highly dependent on precipitation and temperature. The larval stage can be considered the most critical life stage in the ontogeny of most amphibians as predation is very high, and larvae are restricted to their natal aquatic habitat. The same applies for larvae of the fire salamander (Salamandra [...]