Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
The dark web trades wildlife, but mostly for use as drugs
Published: 2022-06-16
Subjects: Biodiversity, Life Sciences
Contemporary wildlife trade is massively facilitated by the Internet. By design, the dark web is one layer of the Internet that is difficult to monitor and lacks thorough investigation. Here, we accessed a comprehensive database of dark web marketplaces to search across c. 2 million dark web advertisements over 5 years using c. 7k wildlife trade-related search terms. We found 153 species traded [...]
A minimum data standard for vector competence experiments
Published: 2022-06-14
Subjects: Bioinformatics, Entomology, Life Sciences, Microbiology, Virology
The growing threat of vector-borne diseases, highlighted by recent epidemics, has prompted increased focus on the fundamental biology of vector-virus interactions. To this end, experiments are often the most reliable way to measure vector competence (the potential for arthropod vectors to transmit certain pathogens). Data from these experiments are critical to understand outbreak risk, but – [...]
Assessing the impact of deer on young trees in a Sugi (Cryptomeria japonica) plantation based on field signs
Published: 2022-06-14
Subjects: Forest Management, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences
Predicting the level of damage caused by deer browsing in young plantations is important for selecting appropriate damage control measures. In this study, we examined a method for assessing the level of deer damage in young Sugi (Cryptomeria japonica) plantations by observing field signs of deer. First, a questionnaire survey was conducted to obtain information about the damage caused by deer [...]
The vocal apparatus of bats: an understudied tool to reconstruct the evolutionary history of echolocation?
Published: 2022-06-12
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Zoology
Until recently, bat phylogeny separated megabats (laryngeally non-echolocators) and microbats (all laryngeal echolocators) into two distinct clades. This segregation was consistent with the assumption that laryngeal echolocation was acquired by a common ancestor and inherited by all microchiropterans. Thus, laryngeal echolocation was regarded to have evolved once. Recent advances in bat genome [...]
Uneven biodiversity sampling across redlined urban areas in the United States
Published: 2022-06-09
Subjects: Biodiversity, Demography, Population, and Ecology, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Inequality and Stratification, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Sociology, Urban Studies and Planning
Citizen science data has rapidly gained influence in urban ecology and conservation planning, but with limited understanding of how such data reflects social, economic, and political conditions and legacies. Understanding patterns of sampling bias across socioeconomic gradients is critical to accurately map and understand biodiversity patterns, and to generating representative and just [...]
Micro-evolutionary response of spring migration timing in a wild seabird
Published: 2022-06-07
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Understanding the mechanisms by which populations can adapt to changing environmental conditions is crucial for predicting their viability. In the context of rapid climate change, phenological advance is a key adaptation for which evidence is accumulating across taxa. Among vertebrates, phenotypic plasticity is known to underlie most of this phenological change, while evidence for micro-evolution [...]
EvoPhylo: an R package for pre- and postprocessing of morphological data from relaxed clock Bayesian phylogenetics
Published: 2022-06-06
Subjects: Bioinformatics, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
1. Relaxed clock Bayesian evolutionary inference (BEI) enables the co-estimation of phylogenetic trees and evolutionary parameters associated with models of character and lineage evolution. Fast advances in new model developments over the past decade have boosted BEI as a major macroevolutionary analytical framework using morphological and/or molecular data across vastly different study systems. [...]
Decline effects are rare in ecology: Comment
Published: 2022-06-06
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Statistical Methodology, Statistical Models, Statistics and Probability
Recently, Costello and Fox (2022) tested, with a large dataset, the hypothesis of whether there is a widespread decline effect in the discipline of ecology. In other words, the magnitude of the reported ecological effect sizes declines over time (Leimu and Koricheva 2004). Contrary to early results from much smaller datasets (Jennions and Møller 2002, Barto and Rillig 2012), Costello and Fox [...]
Human disturbance decreases dominance in riparian plant communities
Published: 2022-06-03
Subjects: Biology, Life Sciences
Conservation science usually devotes little attention to common species, which are crucial in determining ecosystem structure and function. Dominant species are a particular type of common species that affect ecosystem functions proportional to their abundance or cover. In this study, we examined how human disturbance affects the cover of the dominant riparian species in 404 sites located in [...]
The Evolution of Peace
Published: 2022-06-02
Subjects: Anthropology, Behavior and Ethology, Biological and Physical Anthropology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Social and Cultural Anthropology
While some species have affiliative and even cooperative interactions between individuals of different social groups, humans are alone in having durable, positive-sum, interdependent relationships across unrelated social groups. Our capacity to have harmonious relationships that cross group boundaries is an important aspect of our species’ success, allowing for the exchange of ideas, materials, [...]
Perturbations highlight importance of social history in parakeet rank dynamics
Published: 2022-06-01
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Dominance hierarchies can provide many benefits to individuals, such as access to resources or mates, depending on their ranks. In some species, rank can emerge as a product of the history of social interactions within a group. However, it can be difficult to determine whether social history is critical to rank in observation-based studies. Here, we investigated rank dynamics in three captive [...]
Temporal variability declines with increasing trophic levels and spatial scales in freshwater ecosystems
Published: 2022-05-30
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
The temporal variability of ecological properties tends to decrease with spatial scale and levels of biological organization, but how does it propagate across trophic levels? We compiled metacommunity time-series datasets spanning basal resources to top predators from 355 freshwater sites across three continents. Temporal variability in abundance decreased from producers to tertiary consumers [...]
Increasing inclusion & competency in STEM: Understanding LGBTQ+ history, barriers, and heteronormativity
Published: 2022-05-30
Subjects: Life Sciences
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, and other marginalized gender and sexual identities (LGBTQ+) face unique barriers to participation in the sciences rooted in cis-heteronormativity and heterosexism. We need to expand conversations on LGBTQ+ advocacy in science beyond personal beliefs and actions, and toward the recognition of structural and societal barriers to participation. In this paper, [...]
The light spectrum for plant cultivation: a source of colourful arguments
Published: 2022-05-30
Subjects: Agriculture, Food Science, Life Sciences
The concept of ``wasted illumination'' and its application to the design of light sources for plant cultivation is a good example of misuse of reductionism. Equating instantaneous rate of photosynthesis to crop yield is a prevailing but nonsensical idea, and in the case of the design of red plus blue light sources an extreme case of ignoring the multiple regulatory mechanisms and interactions [...]
Best practices for LGBTQ+ inclusion during ecological fieldwork: Considering safety, cis/heteronormativity, and structural barriers
Published: 2022-05-30
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, and other marginalized gender and sexual identities (LGBTQ+) face unique barriers to participation in applied ecology. Such barriers are particularly relevant during fieldwork, including physical and discriminatory risks, increased isolation, and non-inclusive infrastructure.To be more inclusive, fieldwork should address LGBTQ+ safety and survival needs. [...]