Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Social and Behavioral Sciences
Püllomen: an ethnoecological perspective of the Mapuche protector spirit insect
Published: 2020-09-17
Subjects: Anthropology, Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Life Sciences, Other Anthropology, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Biodiversity plays an important role in cultural worldviews, influencing myths, stories, and spiritual beliefs of indigenous peoples. This short review explores an ecological phenomenon that may have influenced and contributed to the development of the Mapuche good spirit insect (Püllomen), which represents the spirit of someone who passed away and comes back to the world of the living providing [...]
Shifting to broad patterns of interests in conservation culturomics with Bayesian dynamic factor analysis
Published: 2020-09-16
Subjects: Environmental Studies, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Biological invasions are a major driver of global change and the target of many public policies. However, we still do not know whether they attract the interest of laypeople and motivate them to know more about this topic. We modeled the temporal evolution of on-line searches about general terms regarding invasive alien species in Italy, on Wikipedia and Google. Wikipedia pages about biological [...]
Blacklists do not necessarily make people curious about invasive alien species. A case study with Bayesian structural time series and Wikipedia searches about invasive mammals in Italy
Published: 2020-09-16
Subjects: Environmental Studies, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Blacklists of invasive alien species are a popular tool to manage and prevent biological invasions. Furthermore, by providing accessible examples of invasive alien species and by having a certain media resonance, they can in principle raise the awareness and make laypeople curious towards this topic. However, no study ever tested for this side-effect of blacklists. We tested if the implementation [...]
Alternative seafood networks during COVID-19: Implications for resilience and sustainability
Published: 2020-09-14
Subjects: Social and Behavioral Sciences
Export-oriented seafood trade faltered during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. In contrast, alternative seafood networks (ASNs) that distribute seafood through local and direct marketing challenges were identified as a “bright spot”. In this paper, we draw on multiple lines of quantitative and qualitative evidence to show that ASNs experienced a temporary pandemic “bump” in both the [...]
Beekeeping in, of, or for the city? A socioecological perspective on urban apiculture
Published: 2020-08-31
Subjects: Agriculture, Entomology, Environmental Studies, Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Urban Studies and Planning
The term “urban beekeeping” has come to connote a host meanings --- sociopolitical, commercial, ecological, personal --- beyond the mere description of where bees and beekeepers happen to coincide. Yet these meanings are seldom articulated explicitly and seldom brought into critical engagement with the relevant fields of urban ecology and political ecology. Beginning with a brief account of the [...]
Cultural inheritance is driving a major transition in human evolution
Published: 2020-08-23
Subjects: Social and Behavioral Sciences
An evolutionary transition in individuality (ETI) is the emergence of a new level of biological complexity, such as multicellular life or eusocial insects. There is disagreement on the degree to which the human species is undergoing such a transition. Here, we advance a theory of long-term human evolution in which a transition in individuality is driven by an underlying transition in inheritance [...]
Unifying individual differences in personality, predictability, and plasticity: a practical guide
Published: 2020-08-23
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
1. Many animal species show individual differences in behaviour that are partially consistent across repeated measurements. Commonly referred to as personality traits, differences in average behaviours are often correlated across individuals, forming ‘behavioural syndromes’ (e.g. individuals who are more aggressive are also bolder). 2. Generally, differences in the average behaviour of [...]
Experimentation preceding innovation in a MIS5 Pre-Still Bay layer from Diepkloof Rock Shelter (South Africa): emerging technologies and symbols
Published: 2020-08-04
Subjects: Social and Behavioral Sciences
In southern Africa, key technologies and symbolic behaviors develop as early as the later Middle Stone Age in MIS5. These innovations arise independently in various places, contexts and forms, until their full expression during the Still Bay and the Howiesons Poort. The Middle Stone Age sequence from Diepkloof Rock Shelter, on the West Coast of the region, preserves archaeological proxies that [...]
Indigenous Conservation Practices Are Not a Monolith: Western cultural biases and a lack of engagement with Indigenous experts undermine studies of land stewardship
Published: 2020-07-24
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Other Social and Behavioral Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Plant Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Commentary On: Oswald, W. W., Foster, D. R., Shuman, B. N., Chilton, E. S., Doucette, D. L., Duranleau, D. L. Conservation implications of limited Native American impacts in pre-contact New England. Nature Sustainability https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0466-0
Optimism, pessimism and judgement bias in animals: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Published: 2020-07-15
Subjects: Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Just as happy people see the proverbial glass as half-full, ‘optimistic’ or ‘pessimistic’ responses to ambiguity might also reflect affective states in animals. Judgement bias tests, designed to measure these responses, are an increasingly popular way of assessing animal affect and there is now a substantial, but heterogeneous, literature on their use across different species, affect [...]
Online conferences for better learning
Published: 2020-06-23
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Conferences provide an invaluable set of opportunities for professional development. Online, virtual, and distributed conferences do not necessarily mean less opportunity for growth and innovation in science but varied and novel options for communicating the scientific process. Open science and many existing tools and structures are in place in the practice of contemporary ecology and evolution [...]
Desert Locust in India: The 2020 invasion and associated risks
Published: 2020-06-02
Subjects: Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Science, Agriculture, Agronomy and Crop Sciences Life Sciences, Animal Sciences, Entomology, Life Sciences, Plant Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Urban Studies and Planning, Zoology
Wind direction, often used in forecasting locust migration, indicates a non-zero probability of desert locust invasion in eastern Indian states. Apart from present controlling measures, we are additionally suggesting to be cautious about the eggs of locust as the rainfall associated with Super Cyclone Amphan has created a favorable breeding ground for the gregarious locust. Also reverse migration [...]
Tongue spots of dunnock nestlings vary in number and position over time but exert no clear influence on parental allocation
Published: 2020-05-16
Subjects: Other Social and Behavioral Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
The nestlings of many bird species have ornaments in their mouths (e.g., tongue spots), yet the within-species variation of these ornaments remains poorly explored. Here, we described a subtle and intriguing pattern of variation in the tongue spots of dunnock (Prunella modularis) nestlings and further evaluated their potential influence on parental feeding allocation. We observed that tongue [...]
Small-scale farming in drylands: New models for resilient practices of millet and sorghum cultivation
Published: 2020-05-11
Subjects: Agriculture, Life Sciences, Other Social and Behavioral Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Finger millet, pearl millet and sorghum are amongst the most important drought-tolerant crops worldwide. They constitute primary staple crops in drylands, where their production is known to date back over 5000 years ago. Compared to other crops, millets and sorghum have received less attention until very recently, and their production has been progressively reduced in the last 50 years. Here, we [...]
COVID-19 has led to a global increase in web searches for bats: a risk for conservation ?
Published: 2020-04-29
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Life Sciences, Other Social and Behavioral Sciences, Research Methods in Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused COVID-19 pandemic, is genomically similar to a SARS-like beta-coronavirus found in Chinese rhinolophids. This evolutionary relationship impressed global media, which emphasized bats as key actors in the spillover during the pandemic outbreak. In this study we highlight qualitative and quantitative changes about bats in the media coverage, and Internet search [...]