Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
aae.pop: Flexible population dynamics simulations in R
Published: 2026-04-30
Subjects: Applied Mathematics, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
1. Matrix population models (MPMs) are commonly used to address fundamental ecological questions and guide real-world management decisions. Several open-source software packages support the fundamental analysis of MPMs, but few options exist to simulate from models that include realistic ecological complexity, such as density dependence, covariate effects, and interspecific interactions. 2. The [...]
Reindeer habitat selection and movement changes with cumulative impacts from mining and wind power development
Published: 2026-04-30
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Forest Management, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Zoology
Industrial expansion often occurs in landscapes already affected by multiple disturbances, leading to cumulative impacts on biodiversity and local communities. With the societal pressure for an rapid ‘green transition’, land-use changes intensifies, yet most impact assessments remain local and project-based, disregarding cumulative impacts. We conceptualized and disentangled key dimensions of [...]
Representational limits in detecting ecological change
Published: 2026-04-28
Subjects: Agriculture, Animal Sciences, Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology, Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Biology, Biotechnology, Cell and Developmental Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Food Science, Forest Sciences, Genetics and Genomics, Immunology and Infectious Disease, Laboratory and Basic Science Research Life Sciences, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Microbiology, Neuroscience and Neurobiology, Other Life Sciences, Pharmacology, Toxicology and Environmental Health, Physiology, Plant Sciences, Research Methods in Life Sciences, Systems Biology
Detecting ecological change remains a persistent challenge, even in systems with extensive monitoring data and increasingly sophisticated analytical tools. Uncertainty is usually attributed to stochasticity, limited observations, or imperfect models. Here, I argue that an additional and largely overlooked constraint arises from representational limits: systematic ways in which graphs, indicators, [...]
What do ecology and evolutionary biology journal websites communicate about their policies and preferences regarding replication studies?
Published: 2026-04-24
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
The replication of prior research is a cornerstone of the scientific process and valued as such in ecology and evolutionary biology. However, it appears replication studies are nowhere near as prevalent in the published literature as might be expected if they were a routine part of building confidence in research findings. This may be due in part to the widespread perception of replication [...]
Reliable inference: benefits of open raw data may be universal in meta-analysis
Published: 2026-04-22
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
While the benefits of open data are often discussed, they are rarely quantified. Here, we provide the first evidence of the potential gains from using raw data for evidence synthesis and introduce a tool that helps researchers determine when this approach is most beneficial. Classical meta-analysis (CMA) relies on published results, making it vulnerable to publication bias and p-hacking. We [...]
Plastic shifts in thermal preference and thermoregulation strategy across ontogeny in an invasive fly
Published: 2026-04-21
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Behavior and Ethology, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Zoology
Behavioural thermoregulation allows ectotherms to escape extreme or seek optimal temperatures. Its precision can impact survival and fitness under changing conditions and its plasticity can be an adaptive strategy when the plasticity of thermal limits is insufficient to buffer against warming. We explore the developmental and intergenerational plasticity of behavioural thermoregulation strategies [...]
First record of Poa cf. annua on Fildes Peninsula (King George Island), a major human-access node in Antarctica
Published: 2026-04-17
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Antarctic terrestrial ecosystems are highly species-poor and particularly vulnerable to biological invasions. Poa annua L. is the only non-native flowering plant known to have established a persistent, self-sustaining population in Antarctica, with confirmed occurrences on King George Island near the H. Arctowski Polish Antarctic Station and the Ecology Glacier forefield. Here we report a new [...]
Silver spoon effect: Natal noise exposition is associated with telomere dynamics in adult birds
Published: 2026-04-14
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Ornithology
Anthropogenic noise disturbance on wildlife is of growing concern. Environmental noise exposure during incubation can negatively impact fitness in wild birds. Here, we hypothesised that chronic noise introduces stress through oxidative damage to embryos, reflected in short-term fitness reduction and long-term physiological changes. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the effects of chronic [...]
The Evolution of Interdependent Cell Cycles During the Transition to Multicellularity
Published: 2026-04-13
Subjects: Biology, Cell and Developmental Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
In the evolution of complex multicellular organisms, cells that were once autonomous became obligately dependent on one another for survival and reproduction. Despite its importance, the process by which autonomous cellular machinery was restructured into obligately interdependent networks is poorly understood. Addressing this gap requires a framework that clearly categorizes the different levels [...]
An energetic unification of ecological theory
Published: 2026-04-10
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Ecological communities can persist for long periods despite strong competition and environmental variability, yet they can also reorganize or collapse abruptly after seemingly modest change. Explaining persistence, diversity, and collapse has produced several major traditions in ecology, including species-interaction models, consumer--resource theory, coexistence theory, feasibility analysis, and [...]
A unified framework for phylogenetic and spatial meta-analysis: concepts, implementation, and practical guidance
Published: 2026-04-09
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Meta-analyses in ecology and evolution, and related fields, can include effect sizes structured by shared evolutionary history or spatial distance. In this tutorial paper, we show that phylogenetic and spatial meta-analyses can be formulated within the same theoretical framework based on correlated random effects. From this perspective, the two approaches differ only in how distance is defined: [...]
When does sampling uncertainty matter in matrix population models? Evidence from published projection matrices
Published: 2026-04-09
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Population Biology
1. The collation of thousands of population projection matrices in the COM(P)ADRE Matrix Databases has enabled large-scale comparative analyses in ecology, evolution, and demography. A persistent challenge is that transition rates are estimated from finite samples, yet the resulting sampling uncertainty is rarely reported and typically ignored in downstream analyses. Although sampling uncertainty [...]
Why are embodied social signals concentrated towards the rostral region? — The rostrum concentration hypothesis
Published: 2026-04-09
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Biological Psychology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Psychology, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Although frequently embodied, the relationship of animal social communication with body layout has rarely been investigated from a unified cognitive perspective. Across animal taxa, socially relevant signals, ranging from facial expressions and gaze to colouration and morphology, are strikingly concentrated towards the anterior region of the body. Here, we propose the Rostrum Concentration [...]
Multi-scale collapse of coral cover under climate change
Published: 2026-04-09
Subjects: Applied Mathematics, Applied Statistics, Biodiversity, Biology, Dynamic Systems, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Longitudinal Data Analysis and Time Series, Marine Biology, Mathematics, Numerical Analysis and Computation, Research Methods in Life Sciences, Statistical Methodology, Statistical Models, Survival Analysis, Systems Biology
Projecting ecosystem trajectories under future climates is critical for conservation planning, yet remains constrained by uncertainty arising from limited data, ecological complexity, and biological and environmental variability. Variability, when disentangled from uncertainty, offers critical insights into population and community dynamics. For example, enhanced vital rates (growth, survival, [...]
What is the human germline mutation rate? methodological innovations, challenges, and evolutionary implications
Published: 2026-04-08
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Genetics, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences
Germline mutations are the ultimate source of heritable genetic variation, driving evolution, enabling adaptation, and underlying disease. Despite their fundamental importance, key questions remain unanswered: How frequently do germline mutations arise? Do mutation rates vary systematically across individuals, populations, and local genomic context? And what determines whether a mutation arising [...]