Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Integration of ecological knowledge in European landscape architecture: a systematic project-description review
Published: 2026-03-26
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Urban Studies and Planning
Landscape architecture has a strong environmental focus and clearly states the ambition to integrate ecological knowledge in its practice and theory. This study aims to assess the state of the art in integrating ecology in landscape architecture project design, identifying well-integrated ecological knowledge areas and potential knowledge gaps, to support future development of this integration. [...]
A guide for integration of community ecology in landscape architecture: The Ecological Filters Framework
Published: 2026-03-25
Subjects: Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Urban Studies and Planning
The accelerating biodiversity crisis, driven by habitat change and urbanization, underscores the need to integrate ecological knowledge and landscape architecture. This paper introduces the Ecological Filter Framework (EFF), as a tool to foster this integration. By structuring complex ecological knowledge into tangible categories, the EFF is meant to empower practitioners to shape environments [...]
iDeer: A decision-support tool for managing deer alongside woodland creation
Published: 2026-03-19
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Forest Management, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Increasing deer (Cervidae) densities driven by land-use change and climate warming represent a growing challenge to the establishment and management of woodlands across temperate biomes. Targeting deer management is challenging without spatially explicit information on potential impact risks under alternative management scenarios. Here we present the iDeer Tool [...]
Understanding Conservation Decision-makers’ Preferences for Evidence
Published: 2026-03-11
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Policy, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Other Economics, Other Social and Behavioral Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
1. Effective conservation depends on decisions informed by evidence that is both trustworthy and relevant to specific local contexts. However, little is known about which characteristics of evidence conservation decision-makers prioritise when deciding what information to trust. 2. We explored decision-makers’ preferences for different attributes of evidence using a discrete choice experiment in [...]
Global latitudinal and bathymetric gradients in body size among cartilaginous fishes (Gnathostomata: Chondrichthyes)
Published: 2026-03-11
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Understanding the macroecological rules governing body size variation across environmental gradients has long been a central focus of biology for centuries. Bergmann’s rule – the tendency for animals to reach larger body sizes in colder environments – has been studied in endotherms but with mixed support. However, phylogenetically informed tests of this rule in ectotherms remain scarce, and there [...]
Echo-dash: Keeping ecologists in the loop with an open source, online ecoacoustic dashboard for interactive exploration of spatiotemporal soundscape data
Published: 2026-03-08
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Biodiversity, Databases and Information Systems, Environmental Monitoring, Population Biology, Software Engineering, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) is being adopted in a range of contexts. Emerging methods facilitate analysis of large-scale data sets, but ecological interpretation of acoustic indices is not straightforward. In addition, the technical and logistical requirements of using emerging AI methods for big data mean that conservation actors increasingly adopt third-party analysis solutions. We argue [...]
Three decades later: A resurvey of vegetation biodiversity in Italian coastal dunes
Published: 2026-02-26
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Mediterranean coastal dunes have undergone substantial transformations over the last 70 years due to increasing anthropogenic pressure and environmental change. However, most studies on dune vegetation dynamics have been conducted at local scales, limiting our understanding of long-term plant diversity trends across broader regions. Here, we present the first national-scale assessment of [...]
The Individualised Niche in Motion; quantifying individualised niches with movement data
Published: 2026-02-26
Subjects: Aquaculture and Fisheries Life Sciences, Behavior and Ethology, Evolution, Ornithology, Other Animal Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Population Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Zoology
Individuals of the same species often differ consistently in their use of resources, their responses to environmental gradients, and their movement decisions. Between-individual variation across niche axes has been shown to have important ecological consequences. Yet practical frameworks that translate modern tracking data into operational, comparable measures of niche individual specialisation [...]
Beyond Observed Diversity: A Completeness-Based Invasion Theory
Published: 2026-02-26
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Population Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Charles Elton proposed that species-rich communities resist invasion better, but support is mainly from local studies, possibly because studies use observed richness alone, ignoring the dark diversity. I propose Completeness-Based Invasion Theory, linking invasibility inversely to community completeness, an index linking observed and dark diversity, enabling unified insights across scales.
Fitness costs of environmentally relevant concentrations of pharmaceuticals and personal care products in freshwater fauna: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Published: 2026-02-24
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Health Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are now ubiquitous in freshwater ecosystems, entering water bodies through widespread use and incomplete removal during wastewater treatment. These compounds include psychoactive substances, antibiotics, anti-inflammatory drugs, hormones, chemotherapeutic drugs, fragrances, preservatives, UV filters, plasticizers and others. Although many studies [...]
Roe Deer show an affinity for woodland and reluctance to cross roads
Published: 2026-02-19
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Zoology
Animals use landscapes unequally and have differential responses to anthropogenic changes such as land cover modification. Predicting such responses can be challenging, requiring knowledge of animal movements. This knowledge is particularly valuable where human-animal interactions have implications for either's well-being. Large herbivores, with relatively high mobility, often come in contact [...]
Life cycle complexity drives variation in thermal tolerance and plasticity
Published: 2026-02-09
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Evolution, Integrative Biology, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Zoology
Accumulating evidence suggests that heat tolerance varies substantially across insect development, yet patterns of variation remain difficult to generalise across species. We discuss how the diversity of insect developmental strategies shapes both the intensity and predictability of thermal environments across ontogeny, and how this likely generates variation in heat tolerance, plasticity, and [...]
Passive acoustic monitoring outperforms observer-based methods for Australian frog communities
Published: 2026-02-06
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Effective biodiversity monitoring is fundamental for evaluating conservation status and detecting population declines, yet traditional observer-based monitoring (OBM) is often constrained by high costs and logistical challenges resulting in limited spatial and temporal coverage. Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) offers a scalable alternative, but its efficacy for frog biodiversity assessments [...]
Decoding Benthic Macroinvertebrate Communities in Freshwater Ecosystems Leveraging Environmental DNA
Published: 2026-01-29
Subjects: Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Benthic macroinvertebrates are key indicator groups within freshwater ecosystems, with their community being closely tied to ecosystem functioning. Environmental DNA (eDNA) technology, with its high sensitivity and non-invasive nature, provides a promising tool for studying the spatiotemporal dynamics of benthic macroinvertebrate communities, their responses to anthropogenic disturbances, and the [...]
Emergent functions in the chemodiversity landscape
Published: 2026-01-23
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Nature produces countless metabolites that regulate organismal performance and the functioning of ecosystems. Specialised metabolites are particularly diverse and mediate ecological interactions across all geographic scales and levels of biological organisation. While chemodiversity, i.e., the richness, relative abundance and disparity of specialised metabolites within a blend of metabolites, has [...]