Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Fitness costs of environmentally relevant concentrations of pharmaceuticals and personal care products in freshwater fauna: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Published: 2026-02-24
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Health Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are now ubiquitous in freshwater ecosystems, entering water bodies through widespread use and incomplete removal during wastewater treatment. These compounds include psychoactive substances, antibiotics, anti-inflammatory drugs, hormones, chemotherapeutic drugs, fragrances, preservatives, UV filters, plasticizers and others. Although many studies [...]
Anecdote: When courtship blurs: a case of male-directed sexual signaling in house crickets (Acheta domesticus)
Published: 2026-02-24
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Same-sex sexual behaviour has been reported across diverse animal taxa and is increasingly understood as a flexible outcome of sexual signaling rather than an evolutionary anomaly. In insects, such behaviours are often temporary, context dependent, and expressed alongside opposite-sex courtship. This pattern has led to increasing emphasis on condition-dependent mating filters, defined as how [...]
A Niche in the Machine: The Promise of AI Foundation Models for Species Distribution Modeling
Published: 2026-02-24
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Species distribution models (SDM) are fundamental tools for conservation, yet methodological progress has stalled. Despite two decades of refinement, traditional approaches – MaxEnt, boosted regression trees, random forests – have approached a performance ceiling, and deep learning has failed to break through on species distribution data. TabPFN, a foundation model that learns to perform Bayesian [...]
A new effect size for meta-analysis of magnitude: lnM
Published: 2026-02-23
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Statistics and Probability
Meta-analyses in ecology and evolution often consider the magnitude of differences between groups rather than their direction. Yet, a common practice is to coerce signed effects (e.g., d and response ratio) into magnitudes by taking absolute values. This transformation induces strong upward bias and non-normal (Gaussian) sampling distributions, violating the assumptions of standard meta-analytic [...]
Drivers of taxonomic bias in ecology and evolution: insights from ethologists and behavioural ecologists
Published: 2026-02-23
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Taxonomic bias (i.e. the disproportionate attention given to some taxa relative to their diversity) remains a major barrier to achieving generality in ecology and evolution, yet its underlying causes are poorly understood. Here, we proposed a general framework to explain taxonomic bias along three major axes, supported by evidence from a survey of 868 researchers’ taxonomic experiences. First, [...]
Among-trait covariance and cross-year repeatability for direct and indirect individual effects in producer-scrounger behaviour in wild house sparrows
Published: 2026-02-20
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution
Variation in social traits can be attributed to direct individual effects (DIEs) of the focal individual and indirect individual effects (IIEs) due to its social partners eliciting behavioural change, analogous to indirect genetic effects. Indirect effects affect the expressed phenotypic variation upon which selection can act, especially when they covary with direct effects, providing a potential [...]
Contribution and applications of demographic concepts to conservation
Published: 2026-02-20
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Studying the demographic processes that shape how populations respond to environmental changes has long provided insights for conservation biology. Recent theoretical advances have deepened our understanding of these processes, yet their application in conservation remains unclear. We conducted a literature search to examine how six key demographic concepts — life-history trade-offs, the [...]
Composite virulence: useful metric or conceptual trap?
Published: 2026-02-20
Subjects: Animal Diseases, Animal Experimentation and Research, Animal Sciences, Biodiversity, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Immunity, Immunology and Infectious Disease, Immunology of Infectious Disease, Immunopathology, Life Sciences, Medical Microbiology, Microbiology, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Other Immunology and Infectious Disease, Parasitic Diseases, Parasitology, Pathogenic Microbiology, Plant Pathology, Research Methods in Life Sciences, Zoology
Virulence, the harm an infection causes to its host, is a cornerstone concept in ecology and evolution, yet it remains difficult to quantify because infection impact is multidimensional, dynamic, and context-dependent. Infections can reduce host performance through multiple, partially redundant routes (including mortality, fecundity loss, behavioural impairment, and physiological disruption), [...]
A Framework for Questionable Research Practices in Ecological Modelling
Published: 2026-02-20
Subjects: Applied Statistics, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Water Resource Management
1. Questionable research practices (QRPs) bias the published literature towards apparently strong and conclusive results, resulting in low rates of replicability. Recent metaresearch reveals that ecology is not immune to the ‘reproducibility crisis’ seen in other disciplines, due to similar rates of QRPs and a lack of transparency in published research. However, metaresearch to date focuses on [...]
Roe Deer show an affinity for woodland and reluctance to cross roads
Published: 2026-02-19
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Zoology
Animals use landscapes unequally and have differential responses to anthropogenic changes such as land cover modification. Predicting such responses can be challenging, requiring knowledge of animal movements. This knowledge is particularly valuable where human-animal interactions have implications for either's well-being. Large herbivores, with relatively high mobility, often come in contact [...]
Dwarka Forest: A respite through the cracks of the city's concrete
Published: 2026-02-19
Subjects: Arts and Humanities, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Urban expansion has increasingly produced landscapes that fall outside conventional ecological and legal classifications, yet perform critical ecological and social functions. Dwarka Forest, located in southwest Delhi, represents one such landscape. Emerging through decades of spontaneous vegetation growth on land originally acquired for infrastructure development, the site has developed into a [...]
Chemical Ecology of Arachnids - Morphology, Behaviour, and Semiochemicals
Published: 2026-02-17
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Zoology
Arachnids represent a diverse and ecologically influential paraphyletic assemblage of chelicerate arthropods that has colonized virtually every terrestrial habitat. Arachnids contribute to ecosystems as predators, parasites and decomposers. Yet, the chemical mechanisms that allow arachnids to interact with the environment remain strikingly understudied relative to their taxonomic breadth. Much of [...]
Climate warming dampens masting-driven pulsed resources
Published: 2026-02-17
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Pulsed resources arise when environmental forcing synchronizes biological responses. This synchrony generates episodic booms and busts that structure food webs. Mast seeding is a major example, yet climate warming is increasingly disrupting the synchrony that underpins these pulses. Importantly, the ecological consequences of masting depend on which tail is synchronized: spatially coherent seed [...]
Social organisation predicts lifespan in mammals
Published: 2026-02-17
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Population Biology
1. Recent comparative analyses have identified positive associations between social organisation and longevity in mammals, but independent replication with larger datasets is needed to establish the robustness of this pattern. 2. Here, we analysed maximum recorded lifespan, body mass, and social organisation data for 1,436 mammal species using Bayesian phylogenetic comparative methods, confirming [...]
Making movement ecology into a predictive science
Published: 2026-02-16
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
1. Movement allows animals to change their environmental surroundings and remain in suitable conditions. As environments shift, e.g. through predictable seasonal progression, individuals can adapt their movement strategies accordingly. However, novel climate change introduces unpredictable, atypical conditions (e.g. droughts, floods), which may drive distinct movement responses. Predicting how [...]