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Preprints

Filtering by Subject: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

BON in a Box: An Open and Collaborative Platform for Biodiversity Monitoring, Indicator Calculation, and Reporting

Jory Griffith, Jean-Michel Lord, Michael D. Catchen, et al.

Published: 2024-10-28
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Biodiversity, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Plant Sciences

The Convention on Biological Diversity’s Kunming-Montreal Global BiodiversityFramework (GBF) sets ambitious goals to protect and restore biodiversity. It includes a Monitoring Framework that mandates countries to track progress toward these goals using indicators that summarize biodiversity trends. Calculating indicators is challenging for countries due to technical barriers, lack of available [...]

Beyond single invaders: Disentangling the effects of co-invading alien forbs on sandy old-fields

Attila Lengyel

Published: 2024-10-27
Subjects: Biodiversity, Botany, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Aims Invasive alien plants can severely impact ecosystem diversity and function. While individual species’ effects are often studied, the interaction between multiple invasive species is less understood. This study examines how Asclepias syriaca and Solidago spp. (including Solidago gigantea and S. canadensis) influence taxonomic and functional diversity in sandy old-fields. The aims are to: (1) [...]

Patterns of fruit production in tropical forests are shifting with negative outnumbering positive trends

Andrew Hacket-Pain, Asenath Adienge, Michał Bogdziewicz, et al.

Published: 2024-10-25
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences, Plant Sciences

The impacts of climate change and anthropogenic disturbance are increasingly evident in the structure and demographics of tropical forests, yet the response of tree reproduction remains poorly understood. As fruit and seed production is the first step in forest recruitment, this gap is critical to understanding tropical forest resilience. Tropical fruits are important in diets of numerous [...]

A habitat suitability model for testing and refining the range of Zuni fleabane, a threatened plant species

Catherine S Jarnevich, Sarah Carter, Andrea Chavez, et al.

Published: 2024-10-23
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Land managers and conservation practitioners need practical tools to protect rare species in light of rapidly changing climate and land use patterns. Habitat suitability models are tools that can inform multiple-use land management decisions and target conservation actions. The narrow endemic Zuni fleabane, Erigeron rhizomatus, occurs on lands managed for multiple uses and was listed as [...]

Coexistence theory for microbial ecology, and vice versa

James A. Orr, David W Armitage, Andrew D Letten

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

Saoirse Kelleher, Gurutzeta Guillera-Arroita, Jane Elith, et al.

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

Doriane Hagnier, Carolin Dittrich, Myrna Van den Bos, et al.

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

Chisato Numa, Hideyuki Doi

Published: 2024-10-18
Subjects: Agriculture, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Climate-linked escalation of societally disastrous wildfires

Calum Cunningham, John Abatzoglou, Crystal Kolden, et al.

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

Matthias Grenié, Helge Bruelheide, Wayne Dawson, et al.

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

Jana Sanne Huisman, Andrina Bernhard, Claudia Igler

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

Simonetta Selva, Marco Moretti, Fabian Ruedenauer, et al.

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

Katherine Johannet Siegel, Megan Mills-Novoa, Eva Kinnebrew, et al.

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 [...]

Cooperation in non-family groups as a strategy for reproducing in variable climates

Christina Hansen Wheat, Emily O'Connor, Philip Ashleigh Downing, et al.

Published: 2024-10-12
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences

The global climate is changing to be more extreme and less predictable, threatening many species. Cooperative breeding is more common under such conditions, indicating it may improve resilience to challenging climates. However, whether specific features of cooperative breeding systems, such as how groups form and how large they become, evolved to cope with particular climates is unclear. We test [...]

Local knowledge enhances the sustainability of interconnected fisheries

Carine Emer, Miguel Lurgi, Sérgio Timóteo, et al.

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 [...]

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