Preprints

Filtering by Subject: Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Laguna Beach Nearshore Giant Kelp and Bryozoan

Keanu Mir-Scaer, Zen Mir-Scaer

Published: 2024-12-14
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics

This paper examines the scattered nearshore kelp beds in Laguna Beach subtidal shallow rock reef substrate between Brooks Street and Thalia Street, referred to as town. The nearshore kelp is approximately 200 meters from the shore. This area has been protected since 2012 when it was considered a California Marine Protected Area (MPA) and classified as Laguna Beach State Marine Reserve (LBSMR). [...]

One Earth + One Health: An agile, evolutionary, system-of-systems, convergence paradigm for societal challenges of the Anthropocene

John Charles Little, Roope Kaaronen, Michael Muthukrishna, et al.

Published: 2024-12-06
Subjects: Education, Engineering, Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Evolutionary mechanisms enabled humans to profoundly transform Earth systems. Because the resulting Anthropocene systems are highly interdependent and dynamically evolving, often with accelerating rates of cultural and technological evolution, the ensuing family of societal challenges must be framed and addressed in a holistic fashion. An agile, evolutionary, system-of-systems, convergence [...]

Managing Water for Birds—a Tool for the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge

Cassandra D Smith

Published: 2024-10-22
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Natural Resources and Conservation, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Water Resource Management

The “Water for Birds Tool” is a spreadsheet-based model (using Microsoft Excel) designed for resource managers to assess the spatial extent and types of bird habitats in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. The model quantifies the areas of open water, partial water, and water depths on a monthly timescale during the irrigation season (April–July) from 2021–2024. This model combines previously [...]

Background nutrient concentration determines phytoplankton bloom response to marine heatwaves

Hakase Hayashida, Peter Strutton, Richard Matear

Published: 2024-10-12
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Ocean temperature extreme events such as marine heatwaves are expected to intensify in coming decades due to anthropogenic global warming. Reported ecological and economic impacts of marine heatwaves include coral bleaching, local extinction of mangrove and kelp forests, and elevated mortalities of invertebrates, fishes, seabirds, and marine mammals. In contrast, little is known about the impacts [...]

An introduction to generative network models and how they may be used to study animal sociality

Josefine Bohr Brask, Matthew Silk, Michael N. Weiss

Published: 2024-09-18
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Social networks constitute an important approach in the study of animal social behaviour. So far, focus has been on statistical analysis of animal social network structures. However, social networks can also be studied by generative network models - procedures that create simulated network structures. These models play a key role in wider network science, but despite occasional use, have not yet [...]

Sixty years since Silent Spring: a map of meta-analyses on organochlorine pesticides reveals urgent needs for improving methodological quality.

Kyle Morrison, Yefeng Yang, Lorenzo Ricolfi, et al.

Published: 2024-04-16
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring inspired a wave of research on the impacts of organochlorine pesticides, followed by a subsequent wave of meta-analyses. These meta-analyses are now routinely used to inform policy decisions. However, the methodological quality of meta-analyses on organochlorine pesticides remains largely unknown. Here, our study systematically maps and evaluates the methodological [...]

Equivalence between short- and long-distance dispersal in individual animal movement

Danish Ali Ahmed, Naveed Ahmed, Sergei Petrovskii, et al.

Published: 2024-03-29
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Random walks (RW) provide a useful modelling framework for the movement of animals at an individual level. If the RW is uncorrelated and unbiased such that the direction of movement is completely random, the dispersal is characterised by the statistical properties of the probability distribution of step lengths, or the dispersal kernel. Whether an individual exhibits short-or long-distance [...]

New directions for Indigenous and Local Knowledge research and application in fisheries science: Lessons from a Systematic Review

Benjamin Lawrence Hopper Jones, Rolando Santos, W. Ryan James, et al.

Published: 2024-03-29
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Social-ecological systems like fisheries provide food, livelihoods, and recreation. However, lack of data and its integration into governance hinders their conservation and management. Stakeholders possess site-specific knowledge crucial for confronting these challenges. There is increasing recognition that Indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) is valuable, but structural differences between ILK [...]

A big data and machine learning approach for monitoring the condition of ecosystems

Miguel Equihua, Octavio Pérez-Maqueo, Julián Equihua, et al.

Published: 2024-01-16
Subjects: Applied Statistics, Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Sciences, Forest Biology, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Statistical Methodology, Statistical Models, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology

Ecosystems are highly valuable as a source of goods and services and as a heritage for future generations. Knowing their condition is extremely important for all management and conservation activities and public policies. Until now, the evaluation of ecosystem condition has been unsatisfactory and thus lacks practical implementation for most countries. We propose that ecosystem integrity is a [...]

House Sparrows as Sentinels of Childhood Lead Exposure

Max M Gillings, Riccardo Ton, Tiarne Harris, et al.

Published: 2024-01-04
Subjects: Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Our understanding of connections between human and animal health has advanced substantially since the canary was introduced as a sentinel of toxic conditions in coal mines. Nonetheless, the development of wildlife sentinels for monitoring human exposure to toxins has been limited. Here, we capitalized on a three-decade long child blood lead monitoring program to demonstrate that the globally [...]

A systematic evidence map and bibliometric analysis of the behavioural impacts of pesticide exposure on zebrafish

Kyle Morrison, Yefeng Yang, Manuela Santos Santana, et al.

Published: 2023-10-27
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Pesticides are indispensable in agriculture and have become ubiquitous in aquatic environments. Pesticides in natural environments can cause many negative impacts on aquatic species, ranging from mortality to sub-lethal physiological and behavioural changes. The complex sub-lethal impacts of pesticides are routinely tested on model species, with zebrafish (Danio rerio) being regularly used as a [...]

A Perspective on How Glyphosate and 2,4-D May Impact Climate Change

Christine M Cornish, Jon Sweetman

Published: 2023-08-26
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Climate, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics

An increase in herbicide use is occurring due to a growing population and herbicide-resistant crops in agriculture, which has resulted in more herbicide tolerant target species. Glyphosate and 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) are two of the most commonly used herbicides worldwide and are more recently being used in combination in pre-mixed commercial formulas. Subsequently, herbicide [...]

Sea otter recovery buffers century-scale declines in California kelp forests

Teri E. Nicholson, Loren McClenachan, Kisei R. Tanaka, et al.

Published: 2023-08-25
Subjects: Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics

The status of kelp forests and their vulnerability to climate change are of global significance. As the foundation for productive and extensive ecosystems, understanding the long-term trends in kelp is critical to coastal ecosystem management, climate resiliency, and restoration programs. In this study, we curate historical US government kelp inventories, develop methods to compare them with [...]

On the trade-off between accuracy and spatial resolution when estimating species occupancy from geographically biased samples

Rob James Boyd, Diana E. Bowler, Nick J. B. Isaac, et al.

Published: 2023-08-23
Subjects: Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Species occupancy is often defined as the proportion of areal units (sites) in a landscape that the focal species occupies, but it is usually estimated from the subset of sites that have been sampled. Assuming no measurement error, we show that three quantities–the degree of sampling bias (in terms of site selection), the proportion of sites that have been sampled and the variability of [...]

Amplitude Increases of Vocalizations are Associated with Body Accelerations in Siamang (Symphalangus syndactylus)

Wim Pouw, Mounia Kehy, Marco Gamba, et al.

Published: 2023-07-15
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Siamangs (Symphalangus syndactylus), one of the few singing apes, vocalize loudly, often while they move. We hypothesize that movement and vocalization coordinate, possibly due to vigorous thorax-loading movements such as brachiation affecting vocal-respiratory dynamics. To assess this vocal-motor coordination we recorded more than a hundred stereotypical vocalizations combined with movement from [...]

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