Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Coexistence theory for microbial ecology, and vice versa
Published: 2024-10-21
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Microbiology
Classical models from theoretical ecology are seeing increasing uptake in microbial ecology, but there remains rich potential for closer cross-pollination. Here we explore opportunities for stronger integration of ecological theory into microbial research (and vice versa) through the lens of so-called "modern" coexistence theory. Coexistence theory encompasses a body of theory for disentangling [...]
Twenty years of dynamic occupancy models: a review of applications and look to the future
Published: 2024-10-21
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Monitoring, Natural Resources and Conservation
Understanding patterns of species occupancy across landscapes and throughout time is a long-standing objective of ecological research that has inspired the development of numerous quantitative modelling approaches. However, estimating occupancy can be a challenge, particularly when contending with issues like imperfect detection and shifting distributions. Dynamic occupancy models (DOMs) offer a [...]
Habitat alteration impacts predation risk in an aposematic amphibian
Published: 2024-10-20
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Predator-prey interactions can be viewed as an evolutionary arms race influenced by environmental factors. Forest management, for example, can influence such interactions and alter community structure. A common anti-predator strategy, known as aposematism, lies on the coupling of warning signals with secondary (e.g., chemical) defences to deter predators. The European fire salamander (Salamandra [...]
Internet of Nature (IoN) and Time-Series Analysis for Ecosystem Conservation and Forecasting
Published: 2024-10-18
Subjects: Agriculture, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Climate-linked escalation of societally disastrous wildfires
Published: 2024-10-18
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Sciences
Climate change is forcing societies to contend with increasingly fire-prone ecosystems. Yet, despite evidence of more extreme fire seasons, evidence is lacking globally for trends in wildfires with socially and economically disastrous effects. Using a systematic dataset, we analyse the distribution, trends, and climatic conditions connected with the most lethal and costly wildfire disasters from [...]
Gaps in global alien plant trait data and how to fill them
Published: 2024-10-17
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Aim Functional traits help to understand the ecological processes underlying biological invasions. The extent to which trait data are available for alien plants at the global scale is unknown. In this study, we assess the availability of trait data and identify global gaps and biases Location Global Time Period Present Major taxa studied Vascular plants Methods We used the GloNAF database to get [...]
Should I stay or should I go: Transmission trade-offs in mobile genetic elements
Published: 2024-10-16
Subjects: Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Microbiology
Mobile genetic elements (MGEs), including temperate bacteriophages and conjugative plasmids, are major vectors of virulence and antibiotic resistance in bacterial populations. To maximize reproductive fitness, MGEs have to optimize horizontal and vertical transmission. Yet, the cost of horizontal transmission (e.g. phage lysis) puts these transmission modes at odds. Using virulence-transmission [...]
Urban bumblebees diversify their foraging strategy to maintain nutrient intake
Published: 2024-10-16
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Life Sciences
Anthropogenic ecosystems can alter individual functions and ecological processes such as resource use and species interactions. While variability on morphological traits involved in diet and resource use has been observed between urban and non-urban populations of pollinators, the consequences on the dietary and pollen transportation patterns remain poorly understood. Here, we investigate the [...]
Land use change models that integrate quantitative and qualitative approaches better explain deforestation patterns in Amazonian protected areas
Published: 2024-10-14
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Studies
Agricultural frontiers in the Amazon Basin – many of which overlap with protected areas – experience rapid forest conversion to agriculture and pasture, threatening ecological health and globally significant ecosystem services. Effective responses to protected area deforestation require understanding the socio-environmental factors that increase the likelihood of forest conversion, which may be [...]
Fluctuating environments favour cooperation among non-kin in birds
Published: 2024-10-12
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Cooperative groups are highly variable in relatedness and size, but whether this influences the environments where species live remains unclear. We test the prediction that cooperation among nonkin occurs in extreme environments where the mutual benefits of helping are high. This contrasts to family groups where high relatedness reduces the direct benefits required for helping to be favoured, [...]
Demography-based management of a lake meta-population network boosts food security in Amazonian fisheries
Published: 2024-10-08
Subjects: Agricultural and Resource Economics, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Studies, Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Global demand for natural resources challenges the sustainability of small-scale fisheries. Fisheries Co-Management (FCM), where management is shared between the government and locals, is crucial for maintaining viable fish populations while mitigating market pressures and illegal fishing. Using a data-informed model applied to a fish metapopulation network, we contrasted the effects of various [...]
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 [...]
Anthropogenic lighting affects moth abundance and diversity differently across ecosystems
Published: 2024-09-30
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Light pollution poses a significant threat to nocturnal insects, yet our understanding of how insects are affected by lighting across ecosystems is limited. The purpose of this study was to investigate differences in light-induced attraction in abundance and diversity of moths in forest and grassland ecosystems. This study presents a novel comparison of moth attraction between these ecosystems [...]
Density dependence impacts our understanding of population resilience
Published: 2024-09-30
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Population Biology
Current metrics of demographic resilience (e.g., resistance, recovery) summarize the potential responses of populations to the frequent, varied disturbances that ecological systems experience. Much of the application of these metrics has focused on the potential response of time-invariant, density-independent structured population models to hypothetical disturbances. Here, we examine such [...]
Spatial microbial flows: hidden fluxes of detritus, diversity, and function in meta-ecosystems
Published: 2024-09-30
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences
Ecosystems are linked by spatial flows of energy, nutrients, and organisms across ecosystem boundaries, forming a meta-ecosystem. The study of spatial flows has typically focused on fluxes of materials (e.g., nutrients or organic matter) and conspicuous organisms (e.g., fish or insects). However, recent evidence from field studies has suggested that numerically significant spatial flows of [...]