Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
Harry Potter shows mirror to dire wolf de-extinction: perils of chasing ghosts of species’ past
Published: 2026-04-08
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Biology, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences, Other Life Sciences
Abstract 1. Conservation faces a paradox. As urban expansion and industrial-scale agriculture erode relational values between people and nature, a privileged minority dictates global biodiversity narratives. This shift is reinforced by media and technological interventions that frequently override lived, local experiences. For instance, gene editing tools like CRISPR are incorporated for [...]
Diversity and co-occurrence patterns of wood inhabiting insects along a tropical forest regeneration gradient
Published: 2026-04-07
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Life Sciences
More than 90% of global carbon released during dead wood decomposition comes from the tropics, where insects contribute significantly to this process, especially in lowland rainforests. Understanding community assembly of dead wood-inhabiting insects is therefore important. We investigated diversity patterns between habitats and host trees, and co-occurrence of wood-inhabiting ants, termites, and [...]
Microplastic ingestion induces changes in coelomocyte composition of Eisenia fetida
Published: 2026-04-07
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Life Sciences, Toxicology
The earthworm Eisenia fetida is a widely used model organism for environmental toxicity assessment, including microplastic particles (MPP). Impacts of MPP at the organismic level have been extensively documented. Effects on the cellular level and in particular the immune system of E. fetida are less well understood. Here we exposed earthworms outside soil for six days to food pellets containing [...]
Archaeal genes code for GGDEF domain proteins with diguanylate cyclase activity
Published: 2026-04-07
Subjects: Life Sciences
A biofilm-like tightly surface-associated mode of growth of pre-cellular life protected by an extracellular matrix has been hypothesized to be a prerequisite for the emergence of cellular life and its persistence under challenging environmental conditions. Ubiquitous in Bacteria including members of the deepest branching phyla, cyclic di-GMP, a positive regulator of biofilm formation, has not yet [...]
Population genomic processes in Brassicaceae in the light of mating system variation
Published: 2026-04-07
Subjects: Life Sciences
Mating system in plants is a highly variable trait ranging from obligatory outcrossing to full self-fertilization, i.e. selfing. In nature, there are various mechanisms to prevent self-fertilization, indicating evolutionary advantages of outcrossing. Still, self-fertilization is very common in plants. In addition, selfing is a useful property in plant breeding and research since it allows [...]
Celebrating 50 years of virus genomics by revisiting the first decade (1976-1985)
Published: 2026-04-07
Subjects: Life Sciences
Whole genome sequencing was pioneered in viruses, beginning with the publication of the third and final portion of the levivirus MS2 genome on April 8th, 1976. Fifty years and incalculable viral genomes later, we chose to examine the first decade of viral genomics for posterity. We found that 97 whole genome sequences were published between 1976 and 1985, with some species having as many as [...]
Network architecture and vulnerability of macroalgal epiphyte-host interactions in Caribbean coastal ecosystems: implications for marine conservation
Published: 2026-04-06
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Background and Aims Tropical coastal marine ecosystems depend critically on macroalgal epiphyte–host interaction networks to sustain biodiversity, primary production, and ecosystem services, yet the architecture and vulnerability of these networks remain poorly characterised in the Caribbean. This study aimed to characterise the topological structure of the epiphyte–host interaction network in [...]
Monsoon meteorology and agricultural phenology structure atmospheric transport of aerial biomass across the Indian subcontinent
Published: 2026-04-06
Subjects: Life Sciences
The movement of organisms through the atmosphere is a fundamental but under-observed ecological process that redistributes biomass, genes, and ecological interactions across continents. Aeroecology has revealed that such movements are strongly determined by synoptic and mesoscale atmospheric dynamics, which jointly determine when, where, and at what altitudes animals initiate, sustain, and [...]
Secondary Forests Matter: Botanical Diversity and Structure Supporting Plecturocebus Oenanthe Persistence in Fragmented San Martín Forests, Peru
Published: 2026-04-06
Subjects: Biodiversity, Life Sciences
Plecturocebus oenanthe (Callicebinae) is Critically Endangered and restricted to fragmented premontane forests of San Martín, Peru. Severe habitat loss and altered forest structure threaten population persistence, and baseline ecological knowledge of habitat requirements is lacking. We characterized floristic composition and forest structural attributes across occupied habitats to identify [...]
Social networks and information silos influence conservation knowledge in tourist populations
Published: 2026-04-04
Subjects: Life Sciences
Marine tourism is a rapidly expanding industry with significant impacts on marine ecosystems and species. The behavior of individuals engaging with these ecosystems for economic or recreational purposes plays a strong role in the success of conservation efforts. To mitigate some of the negative effects human actions can have on ecosystems, effective dissemination of conservation knowledge and [...]
A selection-based framework for evaluating transgenerational phenotypic plasticity under environmental change
Published: 2026-04-04
Subjects: Life Sciences
Rapid environmental change has intensified interest in inter- and transgenerational phenotypic plasticity (TGP) as a potential mechanism by which populations may buffer the fitness consequences of climate change. Parental environments frequently induce shifts in offspring phenotypes, and such responses are often implicitly assumed to enhance offspring fitness and thus population persistence. [...]
Quantifying information content using population genetics concepts and equations to develop new insights into information distribution in human communities
Published: 2026-04-03
Subjects: Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Information evolves within human societies in ways that parallel the evolution of genes in biological populations. Applying classical population genetics equations, we developed a framework in which the rates of learning and forgetting define the net balance of informational change, and directional exchange among groups can be represented as information flow. We apply this framework to a 43-year [...]
Male scent-marks predict fitness via socio-spatial dominance, but not female choice, in a lacertid lizard
Published: 2026-04-03
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Biodiversity, Life Sciences, Zoology
Chemical communication via scent-marks is widely recognised as a key mediator of sexual selection in lizards, yet their role remains contentious because we mostly ignore how scent-mark composition ultimately impacts male fitness in nature. Male scent-marks are often proposed to function as condition-dependent honest sexual signals mediating female choice, but an arising alternative hypothesis is [...]
Horsehair worm infection reshapes host trait architecture via allometric and sex-specific allocation shifts
Published: 2026-04-03
Subjects: Life Sciences
1. Parasites can profoundly modify host phenotype, yet most studies emphasize behavioral manipulation rather than changes in morphology. From a functional perspective, organismal performance depends on proportional investment among traits, suggesting that parasitism may alter trait architecture through changes in allometry rather than simply reducing body size. 2. Here we test whether infection [...]
Fish in sand and gravel habitats in the North Sea and adjacent shelf seas: A systematic literature review
Published: 2026-04-03
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Marine Biology
Sedimentary habitats such as sand and gravel are among the most widespread seafloor environments in shelf ecosystems, yet fish–habitat relationships in these substrates remain poorly understood. Although these habitats support diverse and productive benthic communities, ecological information on how fish use them is fragmented, limiting the effectiveness of conservation frameworks such as EUNIS, [...]