Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Mussels repair shell damage despite limitations imposed by ocean acidification
Published: 2022-01-07
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Bivalves frequently withstand shell boring attempts by predatory gastropods that result in shell damage that must be quickly repaired to ensure survival. While the processes that underlie larval shell development have been extensively studied within the context of ocean acidification (OA), it remains unclear whether shell repair is impaired by elevated pCO2. To better understand the stereotypical [...]
Processes and predictions in ecological models: logic and causality
Published: 2022-01-06
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
To make credible ecological predictions for terrestrial ecosystems in a changing environment and increase our understanding of ecological processes, we need plant ecological models that can be fitted to spatial and temporal ecological data. Such models need to be based on sufficient understanding of ecological processes to make credible predictions and account for the different sources of [...]
Idea paper: Monitoring and databasing non-native species to manage establishment debt in aquatic ecosystems
Published: 2022-01-05
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
In the era of globalization, biological invasions are one of the most serious social issues. Thus, managing its impact is an urgent task. It is essential to control non-native species before they become established. However, it is insufficient to address establishment debt, which occurs when a non-native species has been introduced into an area but has not yet been established in the wild. In [...]
Behavioral flexibility is manipulable and it improves flexibility and innovativeness in a new context
Published: 2022-01-05
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Behavioral flexibility, the ability to adapt behavior to new circumstances, is thought to play an important role in a species' ability to successfully adapt to new environments and expand its geographic range. However, flexibility is rarely directly tested in a way that would allow us to determine how flexibility works to predict a species' ability to adapt their behavior to new environments. We [...]
Ecogeography of group size suggests differences in drivers of sociality among cooperatively breeding fairywrens
Published: 2022-01-05
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Integrative Biology, Life Sciences
Cooperatively breeding species exhibit a range of social behaviors associated with different costs and benefits to group-living, often in association with different environmental conditions. For example, species in which collective-care of offspring reduces the cost of reproduction are more common in harsh environments (true cooperative breeding), while species that collectively defend resources [...]
Detecting Signatures Of Selection In Regulatory Variation
Published: 2021-12-29
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Genetics and Genomics, Genomics, Life Sciences
A substantial amount of phenotypic diversity results from changes in gene regulation. Understanding how regulatory diversity evolves is therefore a key priority in identifying mechanisms of adaptive change. However, in contrast to powerful models of sequence evolution, we lack a consensus model of regulatory evolution. Furthermore, recent work has shown that many of the comparative approaches [...]
Estuarine zooplankton responses to flood pulses and a hypoxic blackwater event
Published: 2021-12-27
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Flood pulses in estuaries following storms and rainfall events, are short-lived but important moments for a range of ecosystem processes including the delivery of resources and promoting productivity. Conversely some flood pulses can lead to adverse outcomes such as poor water quality conditions. The aim of this study was to determine how zooplankton abundance and community composition responded [...]
Statistical inference for seed mortality and germination with seed bank experiments
Published: 2021-12-21
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Population Biology
Plant population ecologists regularly study soil seed banks with seed bag burial and seed addition experiments. These experiments contribute crucial data to demographic models, but we lack standard methods to analyze them. Here, we propose statistical models to estimate seed mortality and germination with observations from these experiments. We develop these models following principles of event [...]
Preserving avian blood and DNA sampled in the wild: a survey of personal experiences
Published: 2021-12-21
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Research Methods in Life Sciences
Collecting and storing biological material from wild animals in a way that does not deteriorate data quality for analyses using DNA is instrumental for research in ecology and evolution. Our aims were to collect methods commonly used by researchers for the field collection and long-term storage of blood samples and DNA extracts from wild birds and gather reports on their effectiveness. Personal [...]
Identify, quantify, act: tackling the unused potential of ecological research
Published: 2021-12-21
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
‘Ignorance is expensive’. The statement also applies to ignorance of research inefficiencies that can generate huge waste: 85% of health research, amounting to $170 billion annually, is avoidably wasted. This alarming finding elicited a number of responses that have since reduced the waste in health research. Commonality of research and dissemination practices implies that other scientific fields [...]
Source and seasonality of epizootic mycoplasmosis in free-ranging pronghorn (Antilocapra americana)
Published: 2021-12-20
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Microbiology, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Pathogenic Microbiology, Veterinary Infectious Diseases, Veterinary Medicine
Mycoplasma bovis is an economically important bacterial pathogen of cattle and bison that most commonly causes pneumonia, polyarthritis and mastitis. M. bovis is prevalent in cattle and commercial bison; however, infections in other species are rare. In early 2019, we identified M. bovis in free-ranging pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) in northeastern Wyoming, USA. Here we report on additional [...]
LONG-TERM MONITORING OF THE EUROPEAN ROLLER (CORACIAS GARRULUS) IN UKRAINE: IS CLIMATE BEHIND THE CHANGES?
Published: 2021-12-20
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Since the 1980s there has been a long-term decline in numbers and contraction of range in Europe, including Ukraine. Our specific goals were to reconstruct the climatically suitable range of the species in Ukraine before the 1980s, gain better knowledge on its requirements, compare the past and current suitable areas, infer the regional and environmental variables that best explain its [...]
The evolutionary impacts of synonymous mutations
Published: 2021-12-20
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences, Molecular Genetics
During the 50 years since the genetic code was cracked, our understanding of the evolutionary consequences of synonymous mutations has undergone a dramatic shift. Synonymous codon changes were initially considered selectively neutral, and as such, exemplars of evolution via genetic drift. However, the pervasive and non-negligible fitness impacts of synonymous mutations are now clear across [...]
Ecology and the Evolution of Sex Chromosomes
Published: 2021-12-18
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences
This article reviews and discusses ecological factors that affect sex chromosome evolution. Sex chromosomes are common features of animal genomes, and are often the location where master sex determination genes are found. Many important aspects of sex chromosome evolution are thought to be driven by sex-specific selection pressures, such as sexual antagonism and sexual selection. Sex-specific [...]
Not so ancient: Misclassification of alpine plants biases the dating of the evolution of alpine biota in the Himalaya-Tibet Orogen
Published: 2021-12-17
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Ding et al. (Science 2020) proposed that the extant lineages of the alpine flora of the Tibet Himalaya Hengduan region emerged by the early Oligocene. We argue that these results are based on misclassifying high montane taxa as alpine and that their data support alpine habitats only at about 7.5 mio years before present.