Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Biodiversity
L’espèce incertaine et les taxons flous
Published: 2024-06-20
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
La question de la « bonne » définition de l’espèce, qui unit les biologistes, les naturalistes et les personnes impliquées dans l’usage ou la conservation de la biodiversité, est constamment réactualisée par les progrès des connaissances sur l’évolution et la spéciation. Cette question est loin [...]
Leveraging Earth Observation to monitor genetic diversity from Space
Published: 2024-06-18
Subjects: Biodiversity, Life Sciences
Genetic diversity within and among populations is essential for species persistence, yet its assessment across many species, at national and regional scales, remains challenging. Conservationists, ecosystem managers, and Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) still require accessible tools for reliable and efficient monitoring at the multiple scales relevant for policy and [...]
Asian Hornbill Bibliography: a dynamic, online, open-access reference database for use in manuscript citations and hornbill research
Published: 2024-06-18
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Studies, Forest Sciences, Library and Information Science, Nature and Society Relations, Ornithology, Plant Sciences, Publishing, Scholarly Publishing
Bibliographic databases and citation tools are integral aids to research. The Asian Hornbill Bibliography presents a compendium of research on Asian hornbills by combining an open access bibliographic database with the free and open source reference manager, Zotero. The bibliography, also hosted and made accessible from the IUCN Hornbill Specialist Group website, includes 725 publications, [...]
Biodiversity indicators miss local and short-term change: A blank space waiting to be filled
Published: 2024-06-14
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
The year 2030 is rapidly approaching. Building, monitoring, and reporting indicators to evaluate the 2030 targets in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) is a major challenge that requires, at minimum, nations to assess their progress at least once within the next five years. To effectively capture this progress, we need indicators that capture fast-paced, on-the-ground [...]
Global metrics for terrestrial biodiversity
Published: 2024-06-06
Subjects: Biodiversity, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Life Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation
Biodiversity metrics are increasingly in demand for informing government, business, and civil society decisions. However, it is not always clear to end users how these metrics differ or for what purpose they are best suited. We seek to answer these questions using a database of 573 biodiversity-related metrics, indicators, indices, and layers, which address aspects of genetic diversity, species, [...]
Multiple Disturbances, Multiple Legacies: Fire, Canopy Gaps, and Deer Jointly Change the Forest Seed Bank
Published: 2024-05-27
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences, Plant Sciences
The manipulation of pre-colonial disturbances in U.S. forests can play a critical role in determining ecological composition, structure, and function. However, our understanding of how concurrent disturbances influence non-tree species is extremely limited in forests. To this end, we used a long-term, multi-disturbance experiment in an oak dominated forest in West Virginia, U.S.A. that [...]
“Keep your Nassauvieae close…and your Mutisieae CLOSER”…Phylogenetic relations of Macrachaenium Hook.f. (Asteraceae; Mutisieae)
Published: 2024-05-24
Subjects: Biodiversity
Reanalysis of Mutisioideae nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrDNA) internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) rpl32-trnL spacer sequences demonstrates that the monotypic genus Macrachaenium Hook.f. pertains to Mutisioideae (Asteraceae) tribe Mutisieae, in which it was classified formerly, and not Nassauvieae, in which it is classified currently. The analysis also highlights persistent [...]
Ten golden rules for restoration to secure resilient and just seagrass social-ecological systems
Published: 2024-05-20
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Marine Biology, Plant Sciences
It is unequivocal that the world has lost a significant proportion of its seagrass, and although glimmers of hope exist, losses continue with many ongoing negative trajectories. First and foremost, we need to put the world on a global pathway to seagrass net gain. Conservation of what remains must be a priority, but we need to increase coverage at rates unlikely to be achieved naturally; [...]
A minimum data standard for wildlife disease studies
Published: 2024-05-19
Subjects: Animal Diseases, Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Diseases, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences, Life Sciences, Microbiology, Parasitic Diseases, Veterinary Infectious Diseases, Veterinary Medicine, Virology, Virus Diseases
Thousands of scientists and practitioners conduct research on infectious diseases of wildlife. Rapid and comprehensive data sharing is vital to the transparency and actionability of their work, but unfortunately, most efforts designed to publically share these data are focused on pathogen determination and genetic sequence data. Other facets of existing surveillance data – particularly [...]
How is the effectiveness of terrestrial protected areas to conserve biodiversity measured? A systematic map
Published: 2024-05-16
Subjects: Biodiversity, Life Sciences
Protected areas (PAs) are fundamental in preserving ecological diversity, supporting ecosystem services, and mitigating human impacts in today’s world. However, the mere designation of PAs is insufficient for achieving conservation goals. It needs to be ensured through employment of robust management practices and the deployment of scientifically sound monitoring methodologies. This systematic [...]
Factors Influencing Support for Bat Management and Conservation in the Wildland-Urban Interface
Published: 2024-05-13
Subjects: Biodiversity, Environmental Studies, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about bats often underlie social support for bat management and intentions to conserve bats. Effective bat conservation and management hinges on understanding these drivers across contexts. Lands classified as wildland-urban interface (WUI) are rapidly expanding in the USA, increasing the likelihood of human-bat interactions from management practices and [...]
Revised molecular phylogenetic analysis of Leucheria Lag. sensu lato (Asteraceae; Nassauvieae) and implications for morphological and ecological evolution
Published: 2024-05-10
Subjects: Biodiversity
In a preceding work, I reanalyzed published ribosomal and plastome DNA sequence data for selected species of Leucheria Lag. and related Nassauvieae (Asteraceae). I reported that the genus Polyachyrus Lag. is phylogenetically nested within Leucheria, hence I transferred species of the former into the latter. I also demonstrated that the monotypic Oxyphyllum Phil. pertains to the Leucheria crown [...]
A dire need for better standards of data quality, transparency, and reproducibility in IUCN RedList assessments
Published: 2024-05-05
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
The IUCN RedList is the most extensive source of information on the global extinction risk including over 157000 species. The sheer scale of this initiative presents challenges in data standards and reporting, especially given that legacy issues may reduce accuracy. Here, we assess the bibliographic underpinnings of RedList assessments for five taxa with fairly complete assessments (four [...]
University herbaria are uniquely important
Published: 2024-05-02
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
University herbaria play critical roles in biodiversity research and training and provide an interdisciplinary academic environment that fosters innovative uses of natural history collections. Universities have a responsibility to steward these important collections in perpetuity, in alignment with their academic missions and for the good of science and society.
Wildlife health perceptions and monitoring practices in globally distributed protected areas
Published: 2024-04-30
Subjects: Biodiversity, Environmental Monitoring, Epidemiology, Health Information Technology, Health Policy, Life Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Recreation, Parks and Tourism Administration, Sustainability, Veterinary Preventive Medicine, Epidemiology, and Public Health
Deficits in wildlife health (WH) monitoring at protected areas (PAs) can weaken the detection of infectious diseases; physical, and chemical threats; rapid response; and assessment of health management practices, threatening biodiversity conservation and global health. However, there is a lack of baseline information regarding the local perception of wildlife, human, and livestock health [...]