Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
European wild honeybee populations are endangered
Published: 2024-10-01
Subjects: Life Sciences
The population trends of wild western honeybees (Apis mellifera) have been neglected by conservationists because the species has been considered to consist of managed colonies only, leading to its current European IUCN Red List category “Data Deficient”. New data suggests that wild honeybee colonies (still) make up one sixth to one fifth of the overall European honeybee population. The population [...]
The best of both worlds: why antipredator traits are lost in predator free havens and how to keep them
Published: 2024-10-01
Subjects: Life Sciences
As a response to the current biodiversity crisis, active management of threatened species has become more frequent (Hoffmann et al., 2010), with predator free havens an increasingly common conservation management strategy (Legge et al., 2022). In Australia, where introduced predators such as cats (Moseby et al., 2015) and foxes (Radford et al., 2018) are one of the largest threats to native [...]
A framework for reproductive outcomes of phenological match-mismatch in migratory breeders tested on a declining species, caribou
Published: 2024-10-01
Subjects: Life Sciences
Long distance migrants with endogenously timed reproduction may be especially vulnerable to phenological mismatch on summer ranges where offspring are produced and provisioned. This is because departure timing from winter ranges and breeding timing on summer ranges in such species is cued primarily by photoperiod while the timing of resource availability on summer ranges is cued by local [...]
Recent advances in the biology, genetics and ecology of the ectomycorrhizal ascomycete Cenococcum geophilum
Published: 2024-09-30
Subjects: Life Sciences
The ascomycete Cenococcum geophilum is a cosmopolitan and ecologically significant ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungus that forms symbiotic associations with diverse host plants globally across various ecosystems. As the only known ECM member of Dothideomycetes, C. geophilum exhibits several distinctive characteristics that distinguish it from other ECM fungi. Its high genetic diversity is particularly [...]
A historical confusion that has long permeated the sex paradox
Published: 2024-09-30
Subjects: Life Sciences
A historical misunderstanding permeates nearly every formulation of the sexual reproduction paradox, an age-old conundrum that continues to challenge the foundations of evolutionary theory. Recognizing this error will clarify the problem and facilitate its resolution.
Insect Lipid Metabolism in the Presence of Symbiotic and Pathogenic Viruses and Bacteria
Published: 2024-09-30
Subjects: Life Sciences
Insects, like most animals, have intimate interactions with microorganisms that can influence the insect host’s lipid metabolism. In this chapter, we describe what is known so far about the role prokaryotic microorganisms play in insect lipid metabolism. We start exploring microbe-insect lipid interactions focusing on endosymbionts, and more specifically the gut microbiota that has been [...]
Are Australia’s volcanic-forests “biogeographic continental islands”?
Published: 2024-09-30
Subjects: Life Sciences
This study investigates whether Cenozoic volcanic complexes in eastern Australia act as biogeographic islands, fostering high levels of terrestrial vascular plant endemism and range-restricted species compared to surrounding sedimentary landscapes. Over six million herbarium records were analysed to assess range-restriction using area of occupancy (AOO) and extent of occurrence (EOO). [...]
Temporal stability in songs across the breeding range of the Mourning Warbler may be due to learning fidelity and transmission biases
Published: 2024-09-30
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Ornithology
We found a stable pattern of geographic variation in songs across the breeding range of the Mourning Warbler over a 36 yr period. The Western, Eastern, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland regiolects found in 2005-2009 also existed from 1983-1988 and 2017-2019. Each regiolect contained a pool of syllables that were unique and different from the other regiolects. The primary syllable types that defined [...]
Freshwater fish functional diversity shows diverse responses to human activities, but consistently declines in the tropics
Published: 2024-09-30
Subjects: Life Sciences
Freshwater environments are intertwined with human activities and the consequence has been environmental degradation and biodiversity loss. Fish provide key ecological and economic benefits, and fish abundance and diversity can be affected by human activities resulting in functional diversity (FD) changes that might scale up to ecosystem impacts. Changes in FD can be expressed by quantifying its [...]
Seedlings of Temperate Tree Species Show Plastic Responses to Water Deficit and Heat Stress, But They Do Not Prevent Decline in Growth
Published: 2024-09-30
Subjects: Life Sciences
Species response to climate change is difficult to predict because warming involves the interaction of multiple stressors whose effects are simultaneous and therefore difficult to disentangle. To address this gap, I studied the effect of global warming on plant performance and functional traits by exposing seedlings from five temperate tree species with distinct life histories to water deficit [...]
The importance of diversity for ecosystem functioning increases in heterogeneous environments
Published: 2024-09-27
Subjects: Life Sciences
Aim Significant progress has been made in understanding the links between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in both experimental and real-world ecosystems. Yet, we have limited understanding to which extent biodiversity affects ecosystem functioning in natural heterogeneous environments and whether changes in ecosystem functions are related to changes in species richness and/or turnover. [...]
mpmsim: An R package for simulating matrix population models
Published: 2024-09-27
Subjects: Life Sciences
1. Matrix population models (MPMs) are widely used in ecology and evolution to explore population dynamics, including assessing management impacts and extinction risk. In comparative studies, MPMs can be used to test life history theory or investigate macro-evolutionary patterns in demographic traits. 2. Simulated MPMs can help researchers explore the effects of life cycle structure, vital rate [...]
Mega Rice (Oryza sativa) Varieties of Bangladesh: A Comprehensive Review of the Breeding History and Production of BR11, BRRI dhan28, and BRRI dhan29
Published: 2024-09-23
Subjects: Life Sciences
Prior to the Green Revolution in the 1960s, rice cultivation in Bangladesh primarily relied on local landraces, which were characterized by low yield potential and undesirable agronomic traits. However, the establishment of the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) in 1970 marked a significant turning point, leading to steady advancements in rice production. To date, BRRI has developed 113 [...]
Do environmental fluctuations during development affect trait variation? An experimental test with salinity
Published: 2024-09-21
Subjects: Life Sciences
Climate change is a driver of extinction, with extreme events occurring more frequently. It increases both the amount and variability in environmental stress that organisms experience. In novel environments, greater intra-specific trait variation increases the opportunity for natural selection as individuals with fortuitously advantageous trait expression may thrive. Many studies focus on changes [...]
Developing Machine Learning Applications for Population Genetic Inference: Ensuring Precise Terminology and Robust Implementation
Published: 2024-09-20
Subjects: Life Sciences
Machine learning applications for population genetic inference are emerging due to their potential to leverage large-scale genomic datasets, offering insights that traditional statistical methods may overlook. However, I have identified certain recurring issues. First, there is sometimes confusion between power and recall, and between the false discovery rate and one minus precision. These terms [...]