Preprints

Filtering by Subject: Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Effects of distinct data processing in the phylogenetic signature of foliar spectra of regenerating plants in Neotropical Forest gaps

Ecio Souza Diniz, Cibele Hummel do Amaral, Lucas Arthur de Almeida Telles, et al.

Published: 2022-09-13
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Important biochemical traits may be robustly mapped by optical spectroscopy, allowing inferences about phylogenetic conservation in plant species. However, distinct types of data processing might lead to distinct patterns of phylogenetic signal in the foliar spectra. Thus, investigate the standard analytical approaches in order to understand their influence over the phylogenetic signal is [...]

Realising the potential of real-time online monitoring for conservation culturomics

Thomas Frederick Johnson, Richard Cornford, Shawn Dove, et al.

Published: 2022-09-09
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Studies, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Environmental monitoring is increasingly shifting towards a set of systems that describe changes in real-time. In ecology specifically, a series of challenges have prevented the roll-out of real-time monitoring for features such as biodiversity change or ecosystem service provision. Conservation culturomics, a field concerned with interactions between people and nature, is well-placed to [...]

The promise of an evolutionary perspective of alcohol consumption

Hans Hofmann, Benjamin Clites, Jonathan Pierce

Published: 2022-08-24
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Neuroscience and Neurobiology, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Other Life Sciences, Pharmacology, Toxicology and Environmental Health

The urgent need for medical treatments of alcohol use disorders has motivated the search for novel molecular targets of alcohol response. Most studies exploit the strengths of lab animals without considering how these and other species may have adapted to respond to alcohol in an ecological context. Here, we provide an evolutionary perspective on the molecular and genetic underpinnings of alcohol [...]

A test of species’ mobility hypothesis in ecological niche modeling

Xiao Feng

Published: 2022-08-23
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Abstract Aim: Ecological niche model (ENM) or species distribution model is a modeling technique broadly used in ecology and biogeography and is increasingly used in decision-making regarding land use and biodiversity conservation. The methodology behind ENM applications is critical for model accuracy. One critical question that every ENM study faces is how to define a model training area. [...]

Effects of helicopter skiing on mountain goats and woodland caribou in British Columbia

Steven Foster Wilson

Published: 2022-07-25
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Helicopter skiing is a popular adventure tourism activity that occurs within the range of mountain goats (Oreamnos americanus) and/or woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) in British Columbia and, to a lesser extent in adjacent jurisdictions. Both are species of concern, with known or suspected population declines occurring in substantial portions of their respective ranges. Whether [...]

Effect of Forest Understorey Stand Density on Woodland Caribou Habitat Use

Steven Foster Wilson, Thomas D. Nudds, Philip Green, et al.

Published: 2022-07-21
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Woodland caribou are considered to preferentially use older forests that provide abundant terrestrial lichen forage and refuge from predators. However, structural characteristics vary widely, differing in terms of forage availability but also, perhaps, in the ability of caribou to move freely through forests to access the available forage or to escape predation. We examined the effect of forest [...]

fundiversity: a modular R package to compute functional diversity indices

Matthias Grenié, Hugo Gruson

Published: 2022-07-18
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Research Methods in Life Sciences

1. Functional diversity is widely used and widespread. However, the main package used to compute functional diversity indices FD is not flexible and not adapted to the volume of data used in modern ecological analyses. 2. We here present fundiversity, an R package that eases the computation of classical functional diversity indices. It leverages parallelization and memoization (caching results [...]

Herodotools: An R package to integrate macroevolution, community ecology, and biogeography

Gabriel Nakamura, Arthur Vinícius Rodrigues, André Luíz Luza, et al.

Published: 2022-07-05
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Aim: Historical processes like speciation, extinction, and historical dispersal are the ultimate factors generating and maintaining biodiversity in space and time. While detecting the effect of those processes on the distribution of biodiversity has great relevance by itself, how to measure them is critical to interpreting the underlying causes of biological patterns. However, metrics of [...]

The coevolutionary mosaic of bat betacoronavirus emergence risk

Norma Forero, Renata L. Muylaert, Stephanie N. Seifert, et al.

Published: 2022-07-01
Subjects: Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Biology, Biotechnology, Cell and Developmental Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Immunology and Infectious Disease, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Other Life Sciences

Pathogen evolution is one of the least predictable components of disease emergence, particularly in nature. Here, building on principles established by the geographic mosaic theory of coevolution, we develop a quantitative, spatially-explicit framework for mapping the evolutionary risk of viral emergence. Driven by interest in diseases like SARS, MERS, and COVID-19, we examine the global [...]

The vocal apparatus of bats: an understudied tool to reconstruct the evolutionary history of echolocation?

Nicolas Louis Michel Brualla, Laura AB Wilson, Michael Doube, et al.

Published: 2022-06-13
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Zoology

Until recently, bat phylogeny separated megabats (laryngeally non-echolocators) and microbats (all laryngeal echolocators) into two distinct clades. This segregation was consistent with the assumption that laryngeal echolocation was acquired by a common ancestor and inherited by all microchiropterans. Thus, laryngeal echolocation was regarded to have evolved once. Recent advances in bat genome [...]

Best practices for LGBTQ+ inclusion during ecological fieldwork: Considering safety, cis/heteronormativity, and structural barriers

Jaime Jo Coon, Nathan Alexander, Emmett M Smith, et al.

Published: 2022-05-31
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, and other marginalized gender and sexual identities (LGBTQ+) face unique barriers to participation in applied ecology. Such barriers are particularly relevant during fieldwork, including physical and discriminatory risks, increased isolation, and non-inclusive infrastructure.To be more inclusive, fieldwork should address LGBTQ+ safety and survival needs. [...]

A robust and readily implementable method for the meta-analysis of response ratios with and without missing standard deviations

Shinichi Nakagawa, Daniel W.A. Noble, Malgorzata Lagisz, et al.

Published: 2022-05-19
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

The log response ratio, lnRR, is the most frequently used effect size statistic for meta-analysis in ecology. However, often missing standard deviations (SDs) prevent estimation of the sampling variance of lnRR. We propose new methods to deal with missing SDs via a weighted average coefficient of variation (CV) estimated from studies in the dataset that do report SDs. Across a suite of simulated [...]

Within-colony segregation of foraging areas: from patterns to processes

Jennifer Morinay, Louise Riotte-Lambert, Geert Aarts, et al.

Published: 2022-05-18
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Spatial segregation of foraging areas among conspecifics breeding in different colonies has been observed in several colonial vertebrates and is assumed to originate from competition and information use. Segregation between sub-groups of foraging animals from the same colony (hereafter sub-colonies) has comparatively received limited attention, even though it may have strong impacts on colony [...]

Macroecological processes drive spiritual ecosystem services obtained from giant trees

Ryosuke Nakadai

Published: 2022-05-07
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Sociology, Sociology of Religion

Giant trees that have come to have their own unique identities are often named by local people and can inspire a sense of awe and become objects of faith. Although these giant trees provide various kinds of spiritual ecosystem services that are beneficial to the spiritual well-being of the human society, the drivers of these services remain unclear. Using structural equation modeling with 38,994 [...]

Community-sourced sightings of atypical birds can be used to understand the evolution of plumage color and pattern

Stepfanie M Aguillon, Allison J. Shultz

Published: 2022-05-03
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Birds are known for their brilliant colors and extraordinary patterns. Sightings of individuals with atypical plumage often cause considerable excitement in the birding public, but receive little attention beyond reporting one-off sightings by the scientific community. In this perspective, we argue that sightings of individuals with atypical plumage submitted to community science platforms hold [...]

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