Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Blood parasite infection causes marginal temporary costs in juvenile birds of prey
Published: 2022-02-24
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Immunology and Infectious Disease, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Parasitology
Physiological costs from parasites arise from host colonization and defence activation and can vary according to the interactions of host and parasite traits and states. Parasite-induced costs crucially differ between stages of infection, but this is difficult to assess in wild vertebrates. To evaluate the effects of blood parasite infection in juvenile birds, we compared physiological measures [...]
Systemic racism alters wildlife genetic diversity
Published: 2022-02-18
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Humans are the defining feature of urban ecosystems. In the United States, systemic racism has had lasting effects on the structure of cities, specifically due to government-mandated “redlining” policies that produced racially segregated neighborhoods that persist today. However, it is not known whether varying habitat structure and natural resource availability associated with racial segregation [...]
Improving species conservation plans under IUCN’s One Plan Approach using quantitative genetic methods
Published: 2022-02-18
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Genetics, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences
Human activities are resulting in altered environmental conditions that are impacting the demography and evolution of species globally. If we wish to prevent anthropogenic extinction and extirpation, we need to improve our ability to restore wild populations. Ex situ populations can be an important tool for species conservation. However, it is difficult to prevent deviations from an optimal [...]
Past and future uses of text mining in ecology & evolution
Published: 2022-02-16
Subjects: Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Ecology and evolutionary biology, like other scientific fields, are experiencing an exponential growth of academic manuscripts. As domain knowledge accumulates, scientists will need new computational approaches for identifying relevant literature to read and include in formal literature reviews and meta-analyses. Importantly, these approaches can also facilitate automated, large-scale data [...]
Density dependence and disease dynamics: moving towards a predictive framework
Published: 2022-02-16
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
High population density is thought to exacerbate parasite exposure rates, leading to increased transmission and greater disease burdens. Different types of interactions exhibit different relationships with density, and therefore so do parasites that are spread by these interactions. Epidemiological models often assume a given density-transmission relationship, and the validity of this assumption [...]
Intergenerational effects of overfeeding on aversive learning in zebrafish (Danio rerio)
Published: 2022-02-06
Subjects: Animal Experimentation and Research, Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Research Methods in Life Sciences
The obesity epidemic is among the most serious and rapidly growing public health challenges of the 21st century. This rapid increase is concerning as obesity appears to negatively impact cognition and behaviour. Furthermore, some studies suggest that this negative effect could be carried across generations from both mothers and fathers although evidence is not consistent. Here, we attempt to [...]
The effects of an obesogenic diet on behaviour and cognition in zebrafish (Danio rerio): traits average, variability, repeatability, and behavioural syndromes
Published: 2022-02-06
Subjects: Animal Experimentation and Research, Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Research Methods in Life Sciences
The obesity epidemic, largely driven by the accessibility of ultra-processed high-energy foods, is one of the most pressing public health challenges of the 21st century. Consequently, there is increasing concern about the impacts of diet-induced obesity on behaviour and cognition. While research on this matter continues, to date, no study has explicitly investigated the effect of obesogenic diet [...]
Mismatch between IUCN range maps and species interactions data illustrated using the Serengeti food web
Published: 2022-02-06
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Background. Range maps are a useful tool to describe the spatial distribution of species. However, they need to be used with caution, as they essentially represent a rough approximation of a species’ suitable habitats. When stacked together, the resulting communities in each grid cell may not always be realistic, especially when species interactions are taken into account. Here we show the extent [...]
Origins and evolution of biological novelty
Published: 2022-02-05
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Understanding the origins and impacts of novel traits has been a perennial interest in many realms of ecology and evolutionary biology. Here, we build on previous evolutionary and philosophical treatments of the subject to encompass novelties across biological scales and eco-evolutionary perspectives. By defining novelties as new features at one biological scale that have emergent effects at [...]
A set of principles and practical suggestions for equitable fieldwork in biology
Published: 2022-02-04
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Forest Sciences, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Plant Sciences
Field biology is an area of research that involves working directly with living organisms in situ through a practice known as “fieldwork.” Conducting fieldwork often requires complex logistical planning within multiregional or multinational teams, interacting with local communities at field sites, and collaborative research led by one or a few of the core team members. However, existing power [...]
The costs of abating threats to Australias biodiversity
Published: 2022-02-03
Subjects: Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
1. Budgeting for biodiversity conservation requires realistic estimates of the costs of threat abatement. However, data on the costs of managing threats to biodiversity is often unavailable or unable to be extrapolated across relevant locations and scales due to a lack of transparency and consistency in how it was collated. Conservation expenditure largely occurs without a priori estimates costs [...]
New insight into colonies of Microcystis (Cyanobacteria) as multi-specific floating biofilms
Published: 2022-01-28
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences, Life Sciences, Microbiology
The ability to form biofilms is a functional trait shared by many bacterial species. Biofilms provide bacteria a sheltered environment where the nutrients and oxygen gradients create a heterogeneous matrix and promote cells to differentiate their metabolism and functions according to the position they occupy inside the matrix. Species of the Microcystis genus are among the most common [...]
How to behave when marooned: the behavioural component of the island syndrome remains underexplored
Published: 2022-01-28
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Animals on islands typically depart from their mainland relatives in assorted aspects of their biology. Because they seem to occur in concert, and to some extent evolve convergently in disparate taxa, these changes are referred to as the “island syndrome”. While morphological, physiological, and life history components of the island syndrome have received considerable attention, much less is [...]
Intraspecific diversity of threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) populations in eastern Canada
Published: 2022-01-25
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
The threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) is a small, mesopredatory fish that is widespread in coastal regions of the northern hemisphere. Although this species does not directly support a commercial or recreational fishery, threespine stickleback often serve as important prey for larger fish that do support important fisheries, as well as many bird species. Although studied extensively [...]
Genomic evidence of a functional RH2 opsin in New Zealand parrots and implications for pest control
Published: 2022-01-25
Subjects: Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences
Recent genomic evidence suggest that kea (Nestor notabilis) have a non-functional RH2 opsin gene potentially leading to impaired vision in the green region of the electromagnetic spectrum. In New Zealand, it is standard procedure to add green dye to aerial poison baits used in mammalian predator control operations to deter native birds from eating toxic bait. A visual deficiency could impact how [...]