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Preprints

Filtering by Subject: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

MECHANISTIC MODEL OF VEGETATION STRUCTURE AND ANIMAL COMMUNITY INTERACTIONS-INTEGRATING GEDI & TLS DATA IN THE MADINGLEY MODEL

Camille Gaillard, Christopher Doughty, Andrew J Abraham, et al.

Published: 2024-05-07
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Population Biology

Background Vegetation structure is increasingly recognized as a key variable to explain ecosystems states and dynamics. New Remote Sensing tools are available to complement labor intensive field investigations and consider the global biogeography of this parameter. Objectives We propose to model the processes explaining the interaction between vegetation structure and animal community assembly [...]

IUCN Red List of Ecosystems, Mangroves of the Arabian (Persian) Gulf

Amna Almansoori, Donald Macintosh, Hanan Almahasheer, et al.

Published: 2024-05-06
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences

Mangroves of the Arabian (Persian) Gulf is a regional ecosystem subgroup (level 4 unit of the IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology). It includes the marine ecoregions of the Arabian (Persian) Gulf, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman, Western Arabian Sea and Western India (Asia). Mangroves of the Arabian (Persian) Gulf occupy sheltered intertidal lagoons along coastlines and offshore islands, occupying various [...]

Predator-Prey movement interactions: jaguars and peccaries in the spotlight

Vanesa Bejarano Alegre, Júlia Emi de Faria Oshima, Claudia Zukeran Kanda, et al.

Published: 2024-05-05
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences

Understanding how the landscape influences the distribution and behavior of predators and prey gives us insights into the spatial dynamics of their interactions and the factors that shape their populations across space and time. This study analyzed interactions between jaguars (Panthera onca) and white-lipped peccaries (Tayassu pecari) at different forest and grassland distances and under varying [...]

Revisiting Wolbachia detections: old and new issues in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes and other insects

Perran A Ross, Ary A Hoffmann

Published: 2024-05-05
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Life Sciences, Microbiology

Wolbachia continue to be reported in species previously thought to lack them, particularly Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. The presence of Wolbachia in this arbovirus vector is considered important because releases of mosquitoes with transinfected Wolbachia are being used around the world to suppress pathogen transmission and these efforts depend on a lack of Wolbachia in natural populations of this [...]

A dire need for better standards of data quality, transparency, and reproducibility in IUCN RedList assessments

Alice Hughes, Michael C. Orr, Ruben D. Palacio, et al.

Published: 2024-05-05
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

The IUCN RedList is the most extensive source of information on the global extinction risk including over 157000 species. The sheer scale of this initiative presents challenges in data standards and reporting, especially given that legacy issues may reduce accuracy. Here, we assess the bibliographic underpinnings of RedList assessments for five taxa with fairly complete assessments (four [...]

University herbaria are uniquely important

Erika J Edwards, Brent Mishler, Charles Davis

Published: 2024-05-02
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences

University herbaria play critical roles in biodiversity research and training and provide an interdisciplinary academic environment that fosters innovative uses of natural history collections. Universities have a responsibility to steward these important collections in perpetuity, in alignment with their academic missions and for the good of science and society.

MacArthur’s consumer-resource model: a Rosetta Stone for competitive interactions

Jawad Sakarchi, Rachel Germain

Published: 2024-04-26
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Population Biology

Recent developments in competition theory, namely, Modern Coexistence Theory (MCT), have aided empiricists in formulating tests of species persistence, coexistence, and evolution from simple to complex community settings. However, the parameters used to predict competitive outcomes, such as interaction coefficients, invasion growth rates, or stabilizing differences, remain biologically opaque, [...]

Addictive manipulation: a perspective on the role of reproductive parasitism in the evolution of bacteria-eukaryote symbioses

Michele Castelli, Tiago Nardi, Michele Giovannini, et al.

Published: 2024-04-23
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Other Microbiology

Wolbachia bacteria encompass noteworthy reproductive manipulators of their arthropod hosts. which influence host reproduction to favour their own transmission, also exploiting toxin-antitoxin systems. Recently, multiple other bacterial symbionts of arthropods have been shown to display comparable manipulative capabilities. Here we wonder whether such phenomena are truly restricted to arthropod [...]

Historic residential segregation impacts biodiversity data availability disparately across the tree of life

Dexter H Locke, Melissa Chapman, Diego Ellis-Soto

Published: 2024-04-23
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Race and Ethnicity, Research Methods in Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Urban Studies and Planning

Urbanization alters species ranges and nature’s contributions to people, motivating urban conservation. Residential segregation policies have left an indelible impact on urban environments, greenspaces, and wildlife communities, creating socioeconomic heterogeneity and altering biota. However, the extent to which data sufficiently capture urban biodiversity patterns remains unclear, especially [...]

Leveraging AI to improve evidence synthesis in conservation

Oded Berger-Tal, Bob B M Wong, Carrie Ann Adams, et al.

Published: 2024-04-20
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Systematic evidence syntheses (systematic reviews and maps) summarize knowledge and are used to support decisions and policies in a variety of applied fields, from medicine and public health to biodiversity conservation. However, conducting these exercises in conservation is often expensive and slow, which can impede their use and hamper progress in addressing the biodiversity crisis. With the [...]

Environmental connectivity influences the origination of adaptive processes

John Shea, Sydney Leither, Max Foreback, et al.

Published: 2024-04-18
Subjects: Computer Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Spatial structure is hypothesized to be an important factor in the origin of life, wherein encapsulated chemical reaction networks came together to form systems capable adaptive complexification via Darwinian evolution. In this work, we use a computational model to investigate how different patterns of environmental connectivity influence the emergence of adaptive processes in simulated systems [...]

How can biodiversity strategy and action plans incorporate genetic diversity concerns, plans, policies, capacity, and commitments?

Sean M. Hoban, Christina Hvilsom, Aissi Abdeldjalil, et al.

Published: 2024-04-12
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences

Globally, national, subnational, and supranational entities are creating Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans, to develop concrete commitments and actions to curb biodiversity loss, meet international obligations and achieve a society in harmony with nature. In light of policy makers' increasing recognition of genetic diversity in helping species and ecosystems adapt and be resilient during [...]

Effectiveness of toxic baiting for the control of canines and felines

Yong Zhi Foo, Daniel W.A. Noble, Patrick Leo Taggart

Published: 2024-04-11
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology

Toxic baiting has been widely adopted for the control of exotic canines and felines. However, high variability in findings make it difficult to gauge the overall efficacy of this control method. We conducted a meta-analysis of the efficacy of baiting for the feral cat, red fox and dingo; our outcome of interest was apparent predator survival. Our dataset contained 121 effects from 34 studies, [...]

Why there are so many definitions of fitness in models

Daniel Jefferson Smith, Guilhem Doulcier, Pierrick Bourrat, et al.

Published: 2024-04-11
Subjects: Biology, Computational Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Genetics, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences, Population Biology

“Fitness” quantifies the ability to survive and reproduce, but is operationalized in many different ways. Generally, short-term fitness (e.g., expected number of surviving offspring) is assigned to genotypes or phenotypes, and used to non-trivially derive longer-term operationalizations of fitness (e.g. fixation probability or sojourn time), providing insight as to which organismal strategies [...]

Searching for and Monitoring the Nests of Imperiled Grassland Birds: Recommendations from the Grand River Grasslands of Iowa

Jaime Jo Coon, Hannah K Grushon, Jennifer L Shamel, et al.

Published: 2024-04-05
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Population Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology

Grassland birds are the most imperiled avian group in North America, with greater than 50% abundance declines since 1970. Studies examining factors that impact habitat preferences, habitat selection, and reproductive success are critical to developing effective conservation and management plans for these species. These studies often involve searching for and monitoring nests in grasslands, which [...]

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