Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Tundra vegetation community, not microclimate, controls asynchrony of above and belowground phenology
Published: 2024-06-24
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Plant Sciences, Plant Biology, Plant Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
The below-ground growing season often extends beyond the above-ground growing season in tundra ecosystems. However, we do not yet know where and when this occurs and whether these phenological asynchronies are driven by variation in local vegetation communities or by spatial variation in microclimate. Here, we combined above- and below-ground plant phenology metrics to compare the relative [...]
trophiCH - a national species-level trophic metaweb of 23k species for Switzerland
Published: 2024-06-21
Subjects: Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Environmental pressures on species can cascade within food webs and even extend beyond individual ecosystems to interconnected systems at large spatial scales. To facilitate the exploration of these dynamics, we construct a data-based national trophic meta-food web (henceforth metaweb), that includes well-documented vertebrates, invertebrates, and vascular plants within Switzerland's national [...]
Species- and community-level demographic responses of saplings to drought during tropical secondary succession
Published: 2024-06-01
Subjects: Climate, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Forest Biology, Plant Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Naturally regenerating secondary vegetation dominates the tropical forest landscapes, showing a remarkable capacity to sequester carbon, but such a role is threatened by increasing drought predicted with climate change. To understand how secondary forest species and communities respond to drought, we leverage a long-term chronosequence of tropical successional forests from Central Panama that [...]
Light Pollution at Sea: Implications and Potential Hazards of Human Activity for Offshore Bird and Bat Movements in the Greater North Sea
Published: 2024-05-25
Subjects: Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Studies, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Nature and Society Relations, Ornithology, Other Animal Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Water Resource Management, Zoology
Human activity in the North Sea is intensifying, as emerging uses, such as offshore wind farms (OWFs) and liquid natural gas (LNG) terminals, are added to fishing, freight shipping and fossil fuel production as traditional forms of resource exploitation. The volume and scale of these additional installations are projected to increase substantially in the coming decades, which amplifies the need [...]
Effectiveness of toxic baiting for the control of canines and felines
Published: 2024-04-12
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Toxic baiting is used for the lethal control of mammalian predators. It is easily applied over large areas and can be highly effective, but also receives significant criticism. We conducted a meta-analysis of the efficacy of lethal baiting for the feral cat, red fox and dingo; our outcome of interest was predator survival. Our dataset contained 125 effects from 35 studies, comprising 1560 [...]
Searching for and Monitoring the Nests of Imperiled Grassland Birds: Recommendations from the Grand River Grasslands of Iowa
Published: 2024-04-06
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Population Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Grassland birds are the most imperiled avian group in North America, with greater than 50% abundance declines since 1970. Studies examining factors that impact habitat preferences, habitat selection, and reproductive success are critical to developing effective conservation and management plans for these species. These studies often involve searching for and monitoring nests in grasslands, which [...]
Predicting macroinvertebrate average score per taxon (ASPT) at water quality monitoring sites in Japanese rivers
Published: 2024-03-29
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Studies, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Freshwater ecosystems provide essential services for human well-being but are impacted by multiple anthropogenic stressors. Biomonitoring with bioindicators such as river macroinvertebrates is fundamental for assessing the status of freshwater systems. In Japan, water quality and biomonitoring surveys are conducted separately, leading to a lack of nationwide information on the biological status [...]
Blood lead increases and haemoglobin decreases in urban birds along a soil contamination gradient in a mining city
Published: 2024-03-29
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Lead contaminated soil is a persistent global threat to the health of animal populations. Nevertheless, links between soil lead and its adverse effects on exposed wildlife remain poorly understood. Here, we explore local geographic patterns of exposure in urban birds along a gradient of lead contamination in Broken Hill, an Australian mining city. Soil lead concentrations are linked to [...]
Japanese mayfly family classification with a vision transformer model
Published: 2024-02-10
Subjects: Aquaculture and Fisheries Life Sciences, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Biodiversity, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computer Sciences, Databases and Information Systems, Engineering, Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Benthic macroinvertebrates are a frequently used indicator group for biomonitoring and biological assessment of river ecosystems. However, their taxonomic identification is laborious and requires special expertise. In this study, we aimed to assess the capability of a vision transformer (ViT) model for family-level identification of mayflies (order Ephemeroptera). Specifically, we focused on [...]
Multiple habitat graphs: how connectivity brings forth landscape ecological processes
Published: 2024-01-31
Subjects: Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Population Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Purpose: Habitat connectivity is integral to current biodiversity science and conservation strategies. Originally, the connectivity concept stressed the role of individual movements for landscape-scale processes. Connectivity determines whether populations can survive in sub-optimal patches (i.e., source-sink effects), complete life cycles relying on different habitat types (i.e., landscape [...]
Distribution, Abundance and Status of At-Risk Birds at a Six-Acre Site Within the Upper Boileau Biodiversity Reserve, Québec: A Year-Long Research Study
Published: 2024-01-23
Subjects: Biodiversity, Life Sciences, Ornithology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Understanding the distribution, abundance and status of at-risk birds in any area where human impact is low is an imperative in understanding the larger ecological situation. Birds have been widely seen as reliable indicators of ecological health and there have been significant population declines in North America, especially among migratory aerial insectivores, and are escalading rapidly. As a [...]
Reef fish functional groups show variable declines due to deforestation-driven sedimentation, while flexible harvesting mitigates this damage
Published: 2024-01-22
Subjects: Dynamic Systems, Natural Resources and Conservation, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Sedimentation is a major coral reef stressor, with effects including suppressing algae consumption by herbivorous fish. This puts pressure on reef fish populations and the fisheries that harvest them. Deforestation causes much sedimentation on reefs, and is an ongoing concern in Pacific island states. Although ecosystem processes like deforestation and fish population dynamics are usually far [...]
A big data and machine learning approach for monitoring the condition of ecosystems
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 [...]
Meta-analysis reveals that the effects of precipitation change on soil and litter fauna in forests depend on body size
Published: 2024-01-11
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Anthropogenic climate change is altering precipitation regimes at a global scale. While precipitation changes have been linked to changes in the abundance and diversity of soil and litter invertebrate fauna in forests, general trends have remained elusive due to mixed results from primary studies. We used a meta-analysis based on 352 comparisons from 30 primary studies to address associated [...]
The role of deadwood in the carbon cycle: Implications for models, forest management, and future climates
Published: 2024-01-11
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Sciences, Forest Biology, Forest Management, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Plant Biology, Plant Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Deadwood represents a significant carbon pool in forests and savannas. Although previous research has focused mainly on forests, we synthesise deadwood studies across all ecosystems with woody vegetation. Storage and release of carbon from deadwood is controlled by interacting decomposition drivers including biotic consumers (animals, microbes) and abiotic factors (water, fire, sunlight, [...]