Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
Mobilising molluscan models and genomes in biology
Published: 2020-11-24
Subjects: Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Genetics and Genomics, Laboratory and Basic Science Research Life Sciences, Life Sciences
Molluscs are amongst the most ancient, diverse, and important of all animal taxa. Even so, no individual mollusc species has emerged as a broadly applied model system in biology. We here make the case that both perceptual and methodological barriers have played a role in the relative neglect of molluscs as research organisms. We then summarize the current application and potential of molluscs and [...]
Land use-induced spillover: priority actions for protected and conserved area managers
Published: 2020-11-23
Subjects: Agricultural and Resource Economics, Biodiversity, Communication, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Policy, Environmental Studies, Geography, Health Policy, Immunity, Immunology and Infectious Disease, Immunology of Infectious Disease, International and Area Studies, Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Other Immunology and Infectious Disease, Other Medicine and Health Sciences, Other Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration, Policy Design, Analysis, and Evaluation, Population Biology, Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration, Public Health, Public Policy, Recreation, Parks and Tourism Administration, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Veterinary Medicine
Earth systems are under ever greater pressure from human population expansion and intensifying natural resource use. Consequently, novel micro-organisms that cause disease are emerging, dynamics of pathogens in wildlife are altered by land use change bringing wildlife and people in closer contact. We provide a brief overview of the processes governing ‘land use-induced spillover’, emphasising [...]
Phylogenetic multilevel meta-analysis: A simulation study on the importance of modeling the phylogeny
Published: 2020-11-23
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Statistical Models, Statistics and Probability
1. Meta-analyses in ecology and evolution require special attention due to certain study characteristics in these fields. First, the primary articles in these fields usually report results that are observed from studies conducted with different species, and the phylogeny among the species violates the independence assumption. Second, articles frequently allow the computation of multiple effect [...]
The photosynthetic pathways of plant species surveyed in Australia’s national terrestrial monitoring network
Published: 2020-11-22
Subjects: Life Sciences, Plant Biology, Plant Sciences
The photosynthetic pathway of plants is a fundamental trait that influences terrestrial environments from the local to global level. The abundance of different photosynthetic pathways in Australia is expected to undergo a substantial shift due to climate change and rising atmospheric CO2; however, tracking change is hindered by a lack of data on the pathways of species, as well as their [...]
Diversity and structure of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal commmunities and their chemical drivers across dryland habitats in Qatar
Published: 2020-11-22
Subjects: Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Biotechnology, Desert Ecology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Qatar is largely characterized by a hyper-arid climate and low soil fertility, which combine to create a stressful soil environment for arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. Here we present a study on AM fungi communities and their relationship to soil chemical characteristics. We used high-throughput seqeuncing technique for identifying AM fungal diversity and community composition from different [...]
When bigger isn’t better – implications of large high-severity wildfire patches for avian diversity and community composition
Published: 2020-11-20
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Aim: Modern wildfires increasingly create large high-severity patches with interior areas far from less disturbed habitats. We evaluated how these trends impact montane bird communities by investigating the effect of internal distance to lower severity areas, high-severity patch size, and years since fire on avian alpha and beta diversity. Location: Sierra Nevada Mountains, California, [...]
Validating morphological condition indices and their relationship with reproductive success in great-tailed grackles
Published: 2020-11-19
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Animal Studies, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Ornithology, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Morphological and physiological variation among individuals has the potential to influence multiple life history characteristics such as dispersal, migration, reproductive success, and survival. Individuals that are in better "condition" can disperse or migrate further or more successfully, have greater reproductive success, and survive longer, particularly in years where environmental conditions [...]
An efficient new assay for measuring zebrafish anxiety: tall tanks that better characterize between-individual differences
Published: 2020-11-17
Subjects: Animal Experimentation and Research, Life Sciences, Research Methods in Life Sciences
Zebrafish (Danio rerio) are increasingly being used to model anxiety. A common behavioral assay employed for assessing anxiety-like behaviors in zebrafish is the “novel tank test”. We hypothesized that using deeper tanks in this test would result in greater between-individual variation in behavioral responses and a more ‘repeatable’ assay. After mapping the literature and identifying common [...]
Pandemics and biodiversity: applying lessons learned to conservation in the post-COVID-19 era
Published: 2020-11-12
Subjects: Biodiversity, Life Sciences
The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly restricted human activities, and wild species are seemingly thriving in human-dominated areas. However, we have little understanding of the consequences for biodiversity from governmental policies and socioeconomic changes in response to COVID-19, and their conservation significance. Understanding these impacts is a priority for setting effective conservation [...]
Combining surveys and on-line searching volumes to analyze public awareness about invasive alien species: a case study with the invasive Asian yellow-legged hornet (Vespa velutina) in Italy
Published: 2020-11-12
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Other Life Sciences
The Asian yellow-legged hornet (Vespa velutina) has been invading Italy since 2013, and it was subjected to management projects aimed at counteracting its spread and raising awareness about its impacts. In autumn 2019, we administered an on-line questionnaire to a convenience sample of 358 beekeepers in Italy. The questionnaire asked them about their sources of information about V. velutina, [...]
Maturation in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar, Salmonidae): a synthesis of ecological, genetic, and molecular processes
Published: 2020-11-10
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Genetics, Genetics and Genomics, Genomics, Life Sciences, Physiology, Population Biology
Over the past decades, Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar, Salmonidae) has emerged as a model system for sexual maturation research, owing to the high diversity of life history strategies, knowledge of trait genetic architecture, and their high economic value. The aim of this synthesis is to summarize the current state of knowledge concerning maturation in Atlantic salmon, outline knowledge gaps, and [...]
Using citizen science to measure recolonisation of birds after the Australian 2019-20 mega-fires
Published: 2020-11-09
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Large and severe fires (“mega-fires”) are increasing in frequency across the globe, often pushing into ecosystems that have previously had very long fire return intervals. The 2019-20 Australian bushfire season was one of the most catastrophic fire events on record. Almost 19 million hectares were burnt across the continent displacing and killing unprecedented numbers of native fauna, including [...]
Transgenerational effects of temperature fluctuations in Arabidopsis thaliana
Published: 2020-11-09
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Population Biology
Plant stress responses can extend into the following generations, a phenomenon called transgenerational effects. Heat stress, in particular, is known to affect plant offspring, but we do not know to what extent these effects depend on the temporal patterns of the stress, and whether transgenerational responses are adaptive and genetically variable within species. To address these questions, we [...]
Heuristics for the sustainable harvest of wildlife in stochastic social-ecological systems
Published: 2020-11-06
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Sustainable wildlife harvest is challenging due to the complexity of uncertain social-ecological systems, and diverse stakeholder perspectives of sustainability. In these systems, semi-complex stochastic simulation models can provide heuristics that bridge the gap between highly simplified theoretical models and highly context-specific case-studies. Such heuristics allow for more nuanced [...]
Periodic monitoring of vampire bats and rabies: a new framework for animal restoration projects in the Neotropics
Published: 2020-11-06
Subjects: Biodiversity, Immunology and Infectious Disease, Immunology of Infectious Disease, Life Sciences
Nowadays, restoration project might lead to increased public engagement and enthusiasm for biodiversity and is receiving increased media attention in major newspapers, TED talks and the scientific literature. However, empirical research on restoration project is rare, fragmented, and geographically biased and long-term studies that monitor indirect and unexpected effects are needed to support [...]