Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
Understanding plant microbiomes requires a G x E framework
Published: 2021-05-20
Subjects: Biodiversity, Botany, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences, Life Sciences, Microbiology, Plant Breeding and Genetics Life Sciences, Plant Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Plant microbiomes have become one of the hottest topics in plant biology. Driven by the increased availability of metagenome sequencing methods, analyses of plant-associated microbiomes have been skyrocketing during the last decade. They have generally taken one of two main perspectives: (1) a focus on the microbiome itself, where researchers describe microbiome diversity and attempt to [...]
Species comparison of among- and within-individual variation and correlations
Published: 2021-05-20
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Individuals frequently differ consistently from one another in their average behaviors (i.e. “animal personality”) and in correlated suites of consistent behavioral responses (i.e. “behavioral syndromes”). However, understanding the evolutionary basis of this (co)variation has lagged behind demonstrations of its presence. This lag partially stems from comparative methods rarely being used in the [...]
Current applications and future promise of genetic/genomic data for conservation in an Aotearoa New Zealand context
Published: 2021-05-20
Subjects: Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences
The field of conservation biology has a long history of incorporating diverse disciplines into its ‘toolbox’ for improved outcomes. One such discipline is conservation genomics, which has experienced fast-paced growth and development over the last decade, and offers exciting opportunities to help achieve the vision outlined in Aotearoa New Zealand’s national strategy for biodiversity, Te Mana o [...]
Report on Ocean Frontier Institute Workshop on Fisheries Management Reference Points in Highly Dynamic Ecosystems
Published: 2021-05-18
Subjects: Life Sciences, Marine Biology
A virtual international workshop on fisheries management reference points in highly dynamic ecosystems was held from January 25-29, 2021. Its purpose was to provide a general overview of the theory and implementation of dynamic reference points to inform fisheries management. This workshop report includes motivation, background, challenges, workshop objectives, keynote presentation summaries, [...]
Slow improvement to the archiving quality of open datasets shared by researchers in ecology and evolution
Published: 2021-05-18
Subjects: Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Many leading journals in evolution and ecology now mandate open data upon publication. Yet, there is very little oversight to ensure the completeness and reusability of archived datasets, and we currently have a poor understanding of the factors associated with high quality (FAIR) data-sharing. We assessed 362 open datasets linked to first- or senior-authored papers published by 100 principal [...]
Global Kelp Forest Restoration: Past lessons, status, and future goals
Published: 2021-05-18
Subjects: Biology, Life Sciences, Marine Biology
Kelp forest ecosystems and their associated ecosystem services are declining around the world. In response, marine managers are working to restore and counteract these declines. Kelp restoration first started in the 1700s in Japan and since then has spread across the globe. Restoration efforts, however, have been largely disconnected, with varying methodologies trialled by different actors in [...]
Using evolutionary functional-structural plant modelling to understand the effect of climate change on plant communities
Published: 2021-05-17
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Plant Sciences
The “holy grail” of trait-based ecology is to predict the fitness of a species in a particular environment based on its functional traits, which has become all the more relevant in the light of global change. However, current ecological models are ill-equipped for this job: they rely on statistical methods and current observations rather than the mechanisms that determine how functional traits [...]
A practical guide to question formation, systematic searching and study screening for literature reviews in ecology and evolution
Published: 2021-05-12
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Research Methods in Life Sciences
1. Well-conducted systematic reviews are invaluable for synthesizing research findings. The conclusions of a review depend on how the research question was formulated, how relevant studies were found, and how studies were selected for synthesis. 2. Here, we present a practical guide for ecologists and evolutionary biologists on formulating a question for a systematic review, and finding a [...]
The ghost of hosts past: impacts of host extinction on parasite specificity
Published: 2021-05-11
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
A growing body of research is focused on the extinction of parasite species in response to host endangerment and declines. Beyond the loss of parasite species richness, host extinction can impact apparent parasite host specificity, as measured by host richness or the phylogenetic distances among hosts. Such impacts on the distribution of parasites across the host phylogeny can have knock-on [...]
Evaluating ecological uniqueness over broad spatial extents using species distribution modelling
Published: 2021-05-10
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Aim: Local contributions to beta diversity (LCBD) can be used to identify sites with high ecological uniqueness and exceptional species composition within a region of interest. Yet, these indices are typically used on local or regional scales with relatively few sites, as they require information on complete community compositions difficult to acquire on larger scales. Here, we investigated how [...]
Accounting for seed rain and other confounders reveals which ecosystems are most susceptible to alien conifer establishment
Published: 2021-05-10
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
1. Plantations of alien conifer species are common worldwide, and set to become even more prevalent in coming decades. To minimize the rate at which their offspring --- so-called "wildlings" --- colonize surroundings, and reduce the burden of conifer plantations on native ecosystems, managers need to know which ecosystems are most and least susceptible. 2. We compared how likely wildlings are to [...]
Utilizing Principles of Biodiversity Science to Guide Soil Microbial Communities for Sustainable Agriculture
Published: 2021-05-10
Subjects: Agriculture, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
While the positive relationship between plant biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (BEF) is relatively well-established, far less in known about the extent to which this relationship is mediated via below-ground microbial responses to plant diversity. Limited evidence suggests that the diversity of soil microbial communities is sensitive to plant community structure, and that diverse soil [...]
Male age alone predicts paternity success under sperm competition when effects of age and past mating effort are experimentally separated
Published: 2021-05-10
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Older males often perform poorly under post-copulatory sexual selection. It is unclear, however, whether reproductive senescence is due to male age itself or the accumulated costs of the higher lifetime mating effort that is usually associated with male age. To date, very few studies have accounted for male mating history when testing for the effect of male age on sperm traits, and none test how [...]
Comment on ‘Carbon intensity of corn ethanol in the United States: state of the science’
Published: 2021-05-06
Subjects: Agricultural and Resource Economics, Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Science, Agriculture, Agronomy and Crop Sciences Life Sciences, Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Energy Policy, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Policy, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Geography, Life Sciences, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Physical and Environmental Geography, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Plant Sciences, Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Soil Science, Sustainability
Scully et al [1] in their recent contribution review and revise past life cycle assessments (LCAs) of corn-grain ethanol’s carbon (C) intensity to suggest that a current ‘central best estimate’ is considerably less than all prior estimates. Their conclusion emerges from selection and recombination of sector-specific greenhouse gas emission predictions from disparate studies in a way that [...]
Species’ traits drive amphibian tolerance to anthropogenic habitat modification
Published: 2021-05-05
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Anthropogenic habitat modification is accelerating, threatening the world’s biodiversity. Understanding species’ responses to anthropogenic modification is vital for halting species’ declines. However, this information is lacking for globally threatened amphibians, informed primarily by small community-level studies. We integrated >126,000 verified citizen science observations of frogs, with a [...]