Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
How bottlenecks shape adaptive potential: from theory and microbiology to conservation biology
Published: 2024-02-01
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Wild populations frequently undergo demographic changes that can destabilize their persistence and, thus, the equilibrium of ecosystems. For instance, habitat loss due to human activities leads to a drastic population size reduction, a process called a bottleneck. By reducing genetic diversity, a bottleneck may prevent a population from adapting to subsequent environmental changes. In the context [...]
The relative contribution of acoustic signals versus movement cues in group coordination and collective decision-making
Published: 2024-01-30
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
To benefit from group living, individuals need to maintain cohesion and coordinate their activities. Effective communication thus becomes critical, facilitating rapid coordination of behaviours and reducing consensus costs when group members have differing needs and information. In many bird and mammal species, collective decisions rely on acoustic signals in some contexts but on movement cues in [...]
The distraction function of extrafloral nectaries: keeping ants away from flowers and preventing interaction with pollinators
Published: 2024-01-30
Subjects: Desert Ecology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Ants protect plants from herbivores in exchange for extrafloral nectar, but they can also disrupt pollination by visiting flowers and deterring pollinators, thereby reducing plant fitness. The Distraction Hypothesis suggests that extrafloral nectaries (EFNs) attract ants away from flowers to mitigate pollination disruption. In the present study, we tested this hypothesis by conducting an ant [...]
Comparing conservation land acquisition strategies using agent-based models
Published: 2024-01-29
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Most unprotected biodiversity is found outside state-owned protected areas, so developing effective conservation initiatives on privately and communally-owned land is critical. Conservationists have a long history of working with these landowners and their actions can be divided into two broad categories. The first is where they agree to take over responsibility for management, either by buying [...]
Experimental protocol for validation of Computational Fluid Dynamics palaeoecological simulations
Published: 2024-01-29
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations are being used with increasing frequency to test palaeoecological hypotheses. These analyses output simulated velocity and pressure flow profiles, and drag and lift force values acting on a shape, for a given model of laminar or turbulent flow. These outputs are internally consistent, assuming consistently applied parameters. However, many [...]
The fossil record of the Neogene Carnivore Mammals from Spain
Published: 2024-01-25
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Carnivore mammals (Carnivora, Mammalia) constitute a significant component of the Spanish Neogene faunas, not so much due to their fossil abundance, which is generally low, but rather because of their high degree of taxonomic diversity. We assessed their evolutionary dynamics from the fossil record of Iberian carnivores using per-taxon rates of origination, extinctions and turnover combined with [...]
Hybridization potential of brown trout, with particular reference to invaded environments
Published: 2024-01-25
Subjects: Aquaculture and Fisheries Life Sciences, Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Population Biology
Hybridization is a complex process beginning with the mating of two species. However, hybrid offspring frequency does not predict hetero-specific mating frequency, as post-mating, both pre-zygotic and post-zygotic barriers influence their occurrence. Post-zygotic outbreeding depression usually results in poor embryo-juvenile survival or the production of sterile hybrid offspring. Females have [...]
Quantifying soil microbial effects on plant species coexistence: a conceptual synthesis
Published: 2024-01-25
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Soil microorganisms play a critical role in shaping the biodiversity dynamics of plant communities. These microbial effects can arise through direct mediation of plant fitness by pathogens and mutualists, and over the past two decades, numerous studies have shined a spotlight on the role of dynamic feedbacks between plants and soil microorganisms as key determinants of plant species coexistence. [...]
Puma space use and dispersal in tropical biodiversity hotspots: bridging a gap to connect individuals to populations
Published: 2024-01-25
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Zoology
Assessing residency and dispersal behavior of apex predators and its consequences for landscape connectivity is of paramount importance for understanding population- and ecosystem- effects of anthropogenic land use change. However, basic information on animal space use is still lacking, particularly in the Tropics. Here we synthesize ranging and dispersal ecological information on pumas (Puma [...]
Predicting organismal response to marine heatwaves using mechanistic thermal landscape models
Published: 2024-01-23
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Marine heatwaves (MHWs) can cause thermal stress in marine ectotherms, experienced as a pulse against the press of anthropogenic warming. When thermal stress exceeds organismal capacity to maintain homeostasis, organism survival becomes time-limited and can result in mass mortality events. Current methods of detecting and categorizing MHWs rely on statistical analysis of historic climatology, and [...]
A systematic review and meta-analysis of anti-predator mechanisms of eyespots: conspicuous pattern vs eye mimicry
Published: 2024-01-22
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Eyespot patterns have evolved in many prey species. These patterns were traditionally explained by the eye mimicry hypothesis, which proposes that eyespots resembling vertebrate eyes function as predator avoidance. However, it is possible that eyespots do not mimic eyes: according to the conspicuousness hypothesis, eyespots are just one form of vivid signals where only conspicuousness matters. [...]
Evidence to inform spatial management of a western Pacific Ocean tuna purse seine fishery
Published: 2024-01-22
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Marine Biology
Fisheries can have profound impacts on co-occurring species exposed to incidental capture, particularly those with life history traits that make them vulnerable to elevated mortality levels. Fisheries spatial management holds substantial potential to balance socioeconomic benefits and costs to threatened bycatch species. This study analyzed observer program data for a western Pacific Ocean tuna [...]
No time to die: Temporal patterns of nest predation in a multi-brooded Southern Hemisphere passerine bird
Published: 2024-01-18
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Ornithology
1. Nest predation is frequently the primary cause of early-life mortality in wild avian populations, generating selection for optimising the timing of reproduction to reduce predation risk. Investigating temporal patterns of nest predation is therefore necessary for understanding the intricate relationships between birds and their predators. 2. In this study, we considered the role of temporal [...]
Opportunity Begets Opportunity to Drive Macroevolutionary Dynamics of a Diverse Lizard Radiation
Published: 2024-01-18
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Evolution proceeds unevenly across the tree of life, with some lineages accumulating diversity more rapidly than others. Explaining this disparity is challenging as similar evolutionary triggers often do not result in analogous shifts across the tree, and similar shifts may reflect different evolutionary triggers. We used a combination of approaches to directly consider such context-dependency [...]
neonPlantEcology: an R package for preparing NEON plant data for use in ecological research
Published: 2024-01-17
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is a continental-scale endeavor of ecological data collection for 30 years. We created a software package, neonPlantEcology that automatically arranges the raw data from the plant presence and percent cover (DP1.10058.001) data product from NEON into tables familiar to plant ecologists. Because of the broad scale of the observatory, it is [...]