Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Decoupling the dimensions of plant invasion success reveals divergent trait syndromes across invasion outcomes and growth forms
Published: 2026-07-25
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
The number of invasive plant species and their impacts continue to increase globally, yet efforts to identify traits that reliably predict invasion success have produced inconsistent results. To address this challenge, we asked whether trait–invasion relationships vary across dimensions of invasion success and growth forms. Using 16 functional and niche traits for 622 invasive plant species [...]
Centuries of provenance trials: towards predictive infrastructures for forest adaptation under climate change
Published: 2026-07-24
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Forest Sciences
Provenance trials are among forestry's most valuable experimental legacies. Established over centuries to compare species and provenances, they laid the foundation for understanding local adaptation and supported tree breeding, but remained focused on growth, timber quality, and ranking provenances by performance. Climate change calls for a next generation of comparative trials that can help [...]
varKodes extend DNA barcoding to ultrafine-grained identity, place, and state
Published: 2026-07-23
Subjects: Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences
DNA barcoding has transformed biodiversity science, but locus-based markers often fail across taxa, at shallow phylogenetic depths, and in mixed or spatially structured samples. Here, we test whether varKoder, an alignment-free framework that converts low-coverage genomic reads into image-based genomic signatures (varKodes), can extend barcoding from taxonomic identification to broader inference [...]
Species Traits Predict Local Population Change Above and Beyond Regional Trend
Published: 2026-07-23
Subjects: Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Population Biology
Why do some populations persist in the face of environmental change while others decline? We tested the extent to which variation in local population change across species is attributable to three species traits: (i) habitat selectivity, (ii) temperature niche position, and (iii) degree of insectivory, with the null hypothesis that local trends are simply a reflection of broader regional trends. [...]
An assessment of biodiversity data shortfalls for ectomycorrhizal fungi in Canada
Published: 2026-07-22
Subjects: Biodiversity, Botany, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Microbiology
Ectomycorrhizal (EcM) fungi play critical roles in global carbon and nutrient cycling. In Canada, vast forest ecosystems dominated by EcM trees are experiencing rapid environmental and anthropogenic change that threaten the symbiosis. Here we quantify and discuss seven biodiversity data shortfalls that constrain our knowledge of EcM fungi in Canada, and impede the development of effective [...]
The geometry of visual signalling in a bird-of-paradise
Published: 2026-07-20
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Effective visual signalling in animals requires an appropriate viewing geometry, which depends on both the visual system of signal receivers and the spatial context in which the signal is viewed. For example, visual acuity determines the distance at which fine-scale patterns can be resolved, while the visual field defines the space around the audience open to influence from visual signals, [...]
Seasonal biases in data collection cause conceptual gaps in animal ecology
Published: 2026-07-20
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Research Methods in Life Sciences
1. Animal life cycles are structured into seasons with major differences in behaviour. Yet much of the data that inform policy and predictive modelling is drawn from studies conducted when animals breed. This temporal research bias overlooks key seasonal and life stages in the ecology of animal populations, such as high over-winter mortality periods. Yet, it is unclear whether this bias also [...]
Continental breeding hotspots of migratory monarch butterflies revealed by coordinated community science partnership
Published: 2026-07-18
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology
The eastern migratory monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus plexippus) has declined by more than 80% over the past two decades, highlighting the need for improved understanding of its breeding ecology. To address longstanding gaps in continental-scale data on monarch reproduction, the International Monarch Monitoring Blitz has mobilized community scientists across North America to monitor monarch [...]
Quiet stewardship and deer return times: sound continuity, not fuel, predicts white-tailed deer avoidance of stewardship machines in a multi-year steward-conducted camera census
Published: 2026-07-18
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Recreation and routine land management can alter wildlife behavior even where they do not reduce abundance, and the acoustic component of human activity is difficult to isolate from human presence itself. Within a single restored prairie–savanna, the same trail network is worked on foot, on a silent electric utility vehicle (UTV), and behind gas engines (a gas ATV and a mower), with all vehicle [...]
Host nutrition and density jointly drive susceptibility and tolerance to parasite infection
Published: 2026-07-15
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Variation in host condition and population context is a major source of heterogeneity in infection risk and a key determinant of host-parasite dynamics. Host nutrition and density are drivers of this variation, yet their combined effects on host susceptibility and tolerance to parasite infection remain poorly understood. Here, we experimentally tested these interactive effects on susceptibility [...]
Phantom decoys cause irrational choice in lizards
Published: 2026-07-14
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Choice theory generally predicts that individuals act to maximize their benefits and behave according to simple rationality assumptions. However, the predictions of choice theory are often violated when an additional option is added to a choice set leading to a shift in choice between the original options. While this “decoy effect” has been documented across several animal taxa, it has not been [...]
Within- and across-genus scaling of vessel diameter reveals consistent hydraulic responses to rainfall
Published: 2026-07-14
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Plant Biology, Plant Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
· Xylem vessel diameter and lumen fraction are expected to track water availability via the hydraulic safety–efficiency trade-off yet observed trait–rainfall relationships are weak and inconsistent. This discrepancy may partly reflect the conflation of within- and across-lineage effects in comparative datasets. · We tested this possibility by analysing hydraulically weighted vessel [...]
Why trait gradients across environments differ within species and across communities: Insights from a theoretical model
Published: 2026-07-14
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Trait-environment relationships within plant species are both flatter on average and more variable than community-mean trends, yet the mechanisms driving this variation remain poorly understood. Classic theory attributes this flattening to maladaptive gene flow, but the theory has been underused and its scope, in particular how multiple factors interact to shape trait slopes, remains largely [...]
Food resources shape bird assemblages, rendering trophic structure globally convergent
Published: 2026-07-13
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Species persist only when energy resources are available and organisms have traits to exploit them. Because resources such as fruit or carrion differ in abundance and diversity, general principles of energy flow and niche theory should shape differences in species richness among trophic guilds within assemblages. Yet, this hypothesis remains empirically untested. Here, we analyze 31,251 local [...]
Climate isolation and percolation as drivers of terrestrial vertebrate richness
Published: 2026-07-13
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences