Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Social and Behavioral Sciences
The origins of human cumulative culture: from the foraging niche to collective intelligence
Published: 2021-02-22
Subjects: Anthropology, Biological and Physical Anthropology, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Various studies have investigated cognitive mechanisms underlying culture in humans and other great apes. However, the adaptive reasons for the evolution of uniquely sophisticated cumulative culture in our species remain unclear. We propose that the cultural capabilities of humans are the evolutionary result of a stepwise transition from the ape-like lifestyle of earlier hominins to the foraging [...]
When cheap talk is not that cheap – interviewing the super-rich about illegal wildlife consumption
Published: 2021-02-08
Subjects: Other Social and Behavioral Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Obtaining insights on the illicit consumption of endangered wildlife products is challenging, especially when the study objects are the super-rich. This research note draws upon my experience interviewing nearly 1,000 rhino horn consumers in Vietnam. Trust is crucial in such interactions. No interviews could have been conducted without good rapport between interviewers and respondents. [...]
COVID-19 restrictions and recreational fisheries in Ontario, Canada: preliminary insights from an online angler survey
Published: 2020-12-18
Subjects: Biology, Environmental Studies, Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
The COVID-19 pandemic and corresponding public health mitigation strategies have altered many facets of human life. And yet, little is known about how public health measures have impacted complex socio-ecological systems such as recreational fisheries. Using a web-based online snowball survey, we targeted resident anglers in Ontario, Canada, to obtain preliminary insight on how the pandemic has [...]
Agricultural Beneficial Management Practices: A Synthesis of Co-benefits, Tradeoffs, and Co-costs between Crop Yield and Non-provisioning Ecosystem Services
Published: 2020-12-17
Subjects: Agricultural and Resource Economics, Agricultural Economics, Agriculture, Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Although agricultural “best (or beneficial) management practices” (BMPs) first emerged to mitigate agro-environmental resource challenges, they may also enhance ‘non-provisioning’ ecosystem services. The enthusiasm for adopting BMPs partially depends on evidence that doing so will lead to agro-environmental benefits while not substantially reducing crop productivity or farmer income. We survey [...]
Students of color speak on racial equity in environmental sustainability
Published: 2020-12-17
Subjects: Environmental Education, Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Race and Ethnicity, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Sociology, Sustainability
This is a preprint of an article published in Nature Sustainability. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-021-00759-7. Racial and ethnic diversity in environmental sustainability advances social equity and innovation solving social-ecological crises. Yet, Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) remain underrepresented in sustainability [...]
Management effectiveness positively influences forest conservation outcomes in protected areas in Mexico
Published: 2020-12-07
Subjects: Geography, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Understanding the factors that drive protected area outcomes is critical to increase the success of global conservation efforts. Until recently, our understanding of the influence of management effectiveness has been restricted by the limited availability of standardized management data and study design limitations of prior evaluations. Here we use a quasi-experimental matching approach to test [...]
Land use-induced spillover: priority actions for protected and conserved area managers
Published: 2020-11-23
Subjects: Agricultural and Resource Economics, Biodiversity, Communication, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Policy, Environmental Studies, Geography, Health Policy, Immunity, Immunology and Infectious Disease, Immunology of Infectious Disease, International and Area Studies, Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Other Immunology and Infectious Disease, Other Medicine and Health Sciences, Other Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration, Policy Design, Analysis, and Evaluation, Population Biology, Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration, Public Health, Public Policy, Recreation, Parks and Tourism Administration, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Veterinary Medicine
Earth systems are under ever greater pressure from human population expansion and intensifying natural resource use. Consequently, novel micro-organisms that cause disease are emerging, dynamics of pathogens in wildlife are altered by land use change bringing wildlife and people in closer contact. We provide a brief overview of the processes governing ‘land use-induced spillover’, emphasising [...]
Validating morphological condition indices and their relationship with reproductive success in great-tailed grackles
Published: 2020-11-19
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Animal Studies, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Ornithology, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Morphological and physiological variation among individuals has the potential to influence multiple life history characteristics such as dispersal, migration, reproductive success, and survival. Individuals that are in better "condition" can disperse or migrate further or more successfully, have greater reproductive success, and survive longer, particularly in years where environmental conditions [...]
Reducing land use-induced spillover risk by fostering landscape immunity: policy priorities for conservation practitioners
Published: 2020-10-15
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Animal Studies, Biodiversity, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Studies, Forest Sciences, Immunity, Immunology and Infectious Disease, Immunology of Infectious Disease, Immunopathology, International and Area Studies, Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Parasitology, Population Biology, Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration, Science and Technology Studies, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Systems Biology
Anthropogenic land use change is the major driver of zoonotic pathogen spillover from wildlife to humans. In response to the global spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus (the agent of COVID-19 disease), there have been renewed calls for landscape conservation as a disease preventive measure. While protected areas are a vital conservation tool for wildlands, more than 50% of habitable land is now [...]
Protected area downgrading, downsizing, and degazettement (PADDD) in marine protected areas
Published: 2020-10-10
Subjects: Social and Behavioral Sciences
Marine protected areas (MPAs) are foundational to global marine biodiversity conservation efforts. Recently, countries have rapidly scaled up their MPA networks to meet targets established by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). While MPA networks are intended to permanently safeguard marine ecosystems, evidence points to widespread legal changes that temper, reduce, or eliminate [...]
Is Human Society an Organism Made of Many Animals?
Published: 2020-10-04
Subjects: Life Sciences, Other Sociology, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Sociology
Social organism theories of the past have defined human societies as “biological organisms”, similar to animals or plants. This present work draws from the recent technological breakthroughs in both biology and astronomy to define the worldwide human society as a “multizoa organism”, i.e. an organism made of many animals. The paper then puts forth the idea that as a multizoa organism, human [...]
Transformation and endurance of Indigenous hunting: Kadazandusun-Murut bearded pig hunting practices amidst oil palm expansion and urbanization in Sabah, Malaysia
Published: 2020-10-01
Subjects: Environmental Studies, Social and Behavioral Sciences
**This article has now been published in the journal People and Nature. The final, peer-reviewed version of the article can be found at: https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10250** [...]
A fine balance: specialized questioning techniques and their use in conservation
Published: 2020-10-01
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Studies, Life Sciences, Other Social and Behavioral Sciences, Research Methods in Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Conservationists measuring noncompliance with rules about the exploitation of natural resources often need to ask sensitive questions. However, respondents can introduce bias through distorting their answers to direct questions, due to social norms and/or the risk of legal sanctions. Specialized Questioning Techniques (SQTs) are often a more suitable approach to counteracting respondent bias, as [...]
GoogleTrends reflects the abundance of the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus): a call for the web-based surveillance of invasive alien vector species
Published: 2020-09-23
Subjects: Entomology, Environmental Studies, Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
The Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) is becoming widespread in Europe, where it can transmit some major arboviruses, including Chikungunya and Dengue. While surveillance initiatives are being implemented and harmonized between states, the spread of A.albopictus is outrunning them and cost-effective surveillance tools are needed. In this study, we tested whether on-line searches on Google [...]
Pathways linking biodiversity to human health: A conceptual framework
Published: 2020-09-23
Subjects: Biodiversity, Environmental Public Health, Epidemiology, Geography, Immunology and Infectious Disease, Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Nature and Society Relations, Other Psychology, Psychology, Public Health, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Biodiversity is a cornerstone of human health and well-being. However, while evidence of the contributions of nature to human health is rapidly building, research into how biodiversity relates to human health remains limited in important respects. In particular, a better mechanistic understanding of the range of pathways through which biodiversity can influence human health is needed. These [...]