Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Biodiversity
Towards causal relationships for modelling species distribution
Published: 2023-10-14
Subjects: Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Life Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Statistical Models
1. Understanding the processes underlying the distribution of species through space and time is fundamental in several research fields spanning from ecology to spatial epidemiology. Correlative species distribution models (SDMs) involve popular statistical tools to infer species geographical distribution thanks to spatiotemporally explicit observations of species occurrences coupled with a set of [...]
Inferring the evolutionary history of the Sino-Himalayan biodiversity hotspot using Bayesian phylodynamics
Published: 2023-10-14
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution
The current status of the Sino-Himalayan region as a biodiversity hotspot, particularly for flora, has often been linked to the uplift of the Sino-Tibetan Plateau and Himalayan and Hengduan Mountains. However, the relationship between the topological development of the region and the onset of diversification is yet to be confirmed. Here, we apply Bayesian phylodynamic methods to a large phylogeny [...]
Paying it forward: Crowdsourcing of taxonomic harmonization and linking of biodiversity identifiers
Published: 2023-10-10
Subjects: Biodiversity
Linking records for the same taxa between different databases is an essential step when working with biodiversity data. However, name-matching alone is error-prone, because of issues such as homonyms (unrelated taxa with the same name) and synonyms (same taxon under different names). Therefore, most projects will require some degree of curation to ensure that taxon identifiers are correctly [...]
Withdrawn: Datathons: fostering equitability in data reuse in ecology
Published: 2023-10-06
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences, Genetics, Genetics and Genomics, Genomics, Life Sciences, Microbiology
Duplicate of https://doi.org/10.32942/X2389Q
Citizen science as a valuable tool for environmental review
Published: 2023-09-30
Subjects: Biodiversity
Human development and population growth are placing immense pressure on natural ecosystems, necessitating a balance between development and biodiversity preservation. Citizen science may serve as a valuable resource for monitoring biodiversity and informing decision-making processes, but its use has not been investigated within the realm of environmental review. We sought to quantify the extent [...]
The ecomorphological diversity of Amazonian stream fishes is constrained by phylogenetic relationships
Published: 2023-09-30
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Phylogenetic history and environmental conditions determine trait diversity of species pools. Stream fishes have diversified into a wide range of body and oral shapes that allow a similarly wide range of functional traits that are related to resource use and phylogenetic closeness. Herein, we analyzed 16 ecomorphological traits of nearly 400 fishes inhabiting streams distributed across the [...]
Additional notes on the taxonomy of Parakeelya Hershk. (Montiaceae)
Published: 2023-09-30
Subjects: Biodiversity
Parakeelya Hershk. (Montiaceae) has become the name conserved over the older name Rumicastrum Ulb. for a lineage of Australian plants historically classified in Calandrinia Kunth. In Candollean taxonomy persistent to the late 20th Century, Australian plants were classified in a large, heterogeneous, and polyphyletic circumscription of Calandrinia, later referred to by the designation [...]
Spatially explicit predictions of food web structure from regional level data
Published: 2023-09-15
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Knowledge about how ecological networks vary across global scales is currently limited given the complexity of acquiring repeated spatial data for species interactions. Yet, recent developments of metawebs highlight efficient ways to first document possible interactions within regional species pools. Downscaling metawebs towards local network predictions is a promising approach to use current [...]
Monitor indicators of genetic diversity from space using Earth Observation data
Published: 2023-09-15
Subjects: Biodiversity, Life Sciences
By providing images of the globe, measured frequently across several optical domains, in the form of public data, EO has high potential to facilitate and advance biodiversity monitoring. However, there is currently a consensus that EO cannot contribute to monitoring genetic diversity. Here, we challenge this consensus by explaining how EO can help to develop the headline and complementary [...]
Assessing the multidimensional complexity of biodiversity using a globally standardized approach
Published: 2023-08-25
Subjects: Biodiversity, Life Sciences
Quantifying biodiversity across the globe is critical for transparent reporting and assessment under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Understanding the complexity of biodiversity requires consideration of the variation of life across genes, species, and ecosystems. Achieving this in a standardized way remains a key challenge for creating an equitable nature positive future. [...]
Gardens as drivers of native plant dispersal and conservation
Published: 2023-08-25
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
1. Gardens hold untapped potential for participatory biodiversity conservation. Conservation gardening has recently emerged as a way to foster declining native plant species in urban and rural green spaces. But the impact of cultivating these species on population trends in the broader landscape remains underexplored. 2. Here, I study the effects of cultivating herbaceous native plants on [...]
Relative abundance distributions reveal constraints on tetrapod community diversity
Published: 2023-08-22
Subjects: Biodiversity, Evolution
Previous efforts to understand the pace of species diversification through time have disagreed over whether species diversity is unbounded or limited by a carrying capacity. Tetrapods (limbed vertebrates) have frequently been employed as a case-study in examinations of this issue, with studies of diversity being used to support both sides. Here, we examine the shape of relative abundance [...]
Assessing risk of ecosystem collapse in a changing climate
Published: 2023-08-07
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences
Climate change has pervasive impacts on Earth’s ecosystems, but the diversity and complexity of ecosystems makes estimating the severity of impacts and the resulting risk of collapse difficult. In this perspective, we conceptualise the challenge of understanding how climate change alters ecosystems, and how to reliably measure those changes in ecosystem risk assessments, focussing on the IUCN Red [...]
STRyper: a macOS application for microsatellite genotyping and chromatogram management
Published: 2023-07-29
Subjects: Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Molecular Genetics, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Microsatellite markers analyzed by capillary sequencing remain useful tools for rapid genotyping and low-cost studies. This contrasts with the lack of a free application to analyze chromatograms for microsatellite genotyping that is not restricted to human genotyping. To fill this gap, I have developed STRyper, a macOS application whose source code is published under the General Public License. [...]
The need of decoding life for taking care of biodiversity and the sustainable use of nature in the Anthropocene - a Faroese perspective
Published: 2023-07-29
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences
Biodiversity is under pressure, mainly due to human activities and climate change. At the international policy level, it is now recognised that genetic diversity is an important part of biodiversity. The availability of high-quality reference genomes gives the best basis for using genetics and genetic diversity towards the global aims of (i) protection of species, biodiversity, and nature, and [...]