Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Biodiversity
Environmental RNA mitigates fish ghosts related to fish feeds for aquaculture in molecular ecological survey in a bay.
Published: 2024-12-20
Subjects: Aquaculture and Fisheries Life Sciences, Biodiversity, Genomics, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
The use of environmental DNA for molecular ecological surveys has become widely utilized in ecological assessments of various water environments, from rivers to coastal and marine areas. However, it is important to consider the scenarios of potential contamination of environmental nucleic acids in interpreting the results. In this study, we analyzed the fish species present in the feed that may [...]
A phylogenetic sectional taxonomy of Leucheria Lag. (Asteraceae; Nassauvieae)
Published: 2024-12-20
Subjects: Biodiversity, Life Sciences
Multiple molecular phylogenetic analyses have demonstrated that the genus Polyachyrus Lag. (8 spp.) is phylogenetically nested among four well-supported but unnamed monophyletic lineages of the genus Leucheria Lag. (28-46 spp.; Asteraceae; Nassauvieae). In order to facilitate reference to these lineages per current phylogenetic taxonomic and botanical nomenclatural conventions, a phylogenetic [...]
A dataset for benchmarking molecular identification tools based on genome skimming
Published: 2024-12-19
Subjects: Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences
Genome skimming is an emerging tool allowing for scalable DNA barcoding efforts for numerous biodiversity science applications. Despite its growing importance, there are few standardized datasets for benchmarking genome skimming tools, making it challenging to evaluate new methods (e.g., using machine learning), and comparing to existing ones (e.g., conventional barcoding loci derived from [...]
Selecting indicators to track progress towards the Global Biodiversity Framework: A case study of Quebec's 2030 Nature Plan
Published: 2024-12-19
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Selecting biodiversity indicators to report national and subnational progress towards the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) is a major challenge, one made even more urgent by the fast approaching 2030 targets. To efficiently identify appropriate indicators, the selection process must be streamlined, while remaining transparent, effective, and with the active engagement of [...]
Wood density variation across an Andes-to-Amazon elevational gradient
Published: 2024-12-18
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences
1. Understanding how functional traits are related to species diversity and ecosystem properties is a central goal of ecology. Wood density is a trait that integrates many aspects of plant form and function and is highly variable among species. Previous studies of wood density across elevational gradients have been based on limited sampling and have reported declines with increasing elevation, [...]
iNaturalist as a platform for documenting Chilean funga
Published: 2024-12-09
Subjects: Biodiversity, Environmental Policy, Life Sciences, Other Life Sciences
This study analyzes the impact of iNaturalist on the recording and documentation of fungi in Chile from 2008 to 2024, highlighting its role in integrating citizen science into biodiversity monitoring. This community effort—which currently totals more than 63,000 observations representing 1,245 species—is concentrated in the central and southern regions of the country, mainly in urban areas, where [...]
Phenological and life history/form idiosyncraticity of facultatively annual Cistanthe philhershkovitziana Hershk. (C. sect. Cistanthe; Montiaceae) in Chile’s southern Central Littoral Zone, with comments on the incidence of the facultative annual condition among “Portullugo” (Caryophyllales) and o
Published: 2024-12-09
Subjects: Biodiversity
Cistanthe philhershkovitziana Hershk. was described from the north-central Chilean coast in 2018. Based on the apparent absence of plants during drought years, it was described as the only species of C. sect. Cistanthe with a putatively annual life history (~therophytic life form). The species occurs primarily in coastal habitats, but also in some seasonally moist sites up to perhaps 50 km [...]
Different sources of wind turbine data produce sharp differences in collision risk estimates for foraging vultures
Published: 2024-12-06
Subjects: Biodiversity, Environmental Monitoring, Systems Biology, Zoology
Multiple studies assessed the collision risk of different vulture species with wind turbines. However, they relied on different sources of wind turbine data, and the effect of this data heterogeneity, on the estimated collision risk and the comparability of these assessments, has not been investigated. We used GPS and accelerometer data, collected from 6 adult Griffon Vultures living in Sardinia [...]
Unbaited underwater video evidences the presence of previ-ously unrecorded fish species, sea krait (Laticauda sp.) and a high frequency of sharks at a remote reef complex (Coral Sea Marine Park, Southwest Pacific)
Published: 2024-12-06
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Marine Biology
The Chesterfield-Bellona atolls and reefs are a vast reef complex located in the Coral Sea Marine Park, estab-lished in 2014 in the New Caledonian Economic Exclusive Zone. In 2013, the New Caledonia government supported the first assessment of fish and benthic habitats conducted in all habitats and over the entire area. The assessment provided a primary knowledge base for establishing the [...]
Enhancing Canopy Research in Africa: Insights from Tree Climbing Workshop in Ghana
Published: 2024-11-28
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology
The report shares the background and experience executing a tree climbing workshop in Ghana. In most cases, canopy research in Africa is conducted under the umbrella of parachute science, leaving local scientists deprived of canopy access skills and equipment. Consequently, tropical Africa experiences a closed canopy so far as canopy ecology is concerned. In May 2024, ten (10) early career [...]
Overcoming the disconnect between interaction networks and biodiversity conservation and management
Published: 2024-11-27
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Decision-makers need to act now to halt biodiversity loss, and ecologists must provide them with relevant species interaction indicators to inform on community- and ecosystem-level changes. Yet, the integration of ecological networks into conservation is still virtually nonexistent. Here, we discuss challenges and opportunities related to uncertainty, interpretability and relevance of network [...]
Individual foraging specialization and success change with experience in a virtual predator-prey system
Published: 2024-11-27
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
The capacity of predators to match their tactic to their prey and to optimize their skills at implementing a given tactic are expected to drive the outcome of predator-prey interactions. Hence, successive interactions of predators with their prey may result in increased flexibility in tactic use or in individual foraging specialization. Yet, there are limited empirical assessments showing links [...]
Traditional water structures in villages support amphibian populations within a protected landscape
Published: 2024-11-25
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Population Biology
Amphibians are among the most globally threatened vertebrates, with habitat loss and degradation being the primary drivers of their decline. While natural wetlands are essential for amphibian survival, artificial habitats can also play a significant role as refuges, especially in human-altered landscapes. This study examines the role of artificial waterbodies in supporting amphibian populations [...]
Effect of bulb type on moth trap catch and composition in UK gardens
Published: 2024-11-15
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Research Methods in Life Sciences
Abstract 1. A wide variety of light sources are employed to trap moths, differing in brightness and spectrum. Relatively little is known about how these factors affect the resulting sample. 2. We analyse 7 moth trap bulb types using 10 years of records from the Garden Moth Scheme to provide the largest and most comprehensive comparison of moth trap bulb types to date. 3. 125W Mercury Vapour (MV) [...]
An integrated approach to above- and below-ground ecological monitoring for nature-based solutions
Published: 2024-11-12
Subjects: Agricultural Science, Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
1. As the development of nature-based solutions (NbS) increases globally, it is important to ensure that projects meet the objective of benefiting biodiversity, alongside tackling societal challenges. However, most NbS projects do not directly monitor ecological outcomes, and those that do often focus on a limited set of metrics. It is therefore challenging to assess whether projects fulfil the [...]