Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Biology
Datathons: fostering equitability in data reuse in ecology
Published: 2024-04-04
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences, Genetics, Genetics and Genomics, Genomics, Life Sciences, Microbiology
Approaches to rapidly collect global biodiversity data are increasingly important, but biodiversity blindspots persist. We organized a three-day Datathon event to improve the openness of local biodiversity data, and facilitate data reuse by local researchers. The first Datathon, organized among microbial ecologists in Uruguay and Argentina assembled the largest microbiome dataset in the region to [...]
No place for phylogeny in structuring a sandy coastal plain community
Published: 2024-04-03
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Although inference of assembly processes from phylogenetic patterns has become ubiquitous in community ecology, surprisingly few studies simultaneously test assumptions of such an approach and integrate over spatial scales and plant life stages. Here we investigate the roles of phylogeny, functional traits, and abiotic conditions in the spatial structuring of a sandy coastal plain community using [...]
Running a queer- and trans-inclusive faculty hiring process
Published: 2024-03-02
Subjects: Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Microbiology
Queer and transgender scientists face documented systemic challenges across the sciences, and as a result have a higher attrition rate than their peers. Recent calls for change within science have emphasized the importance of addressing barriers to the success and retention of queer and trans scientists to create a more inclusive, equitable, and just scientific establishment. Crucially, we note [...]
Satellite derived trait data slightly improves tropical forest biomass, NPP and GPP predictions
Published: 2024-02-25
Subjects: Biology, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences
Improving tropical forest current biomass estimates can help more accurately evaluate ecosystem services in tropical forests. The Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) lidar provides detailed 3D forest structure and height data, which can be used to improve above-ground biomass estimates. However, there is still debate on how best to predict tropical forest biomass using GEDI data. Here [...]
Limited plasticity but increased variance in physiological rates across ectotherm populations under climate change
Published: 2024-02-17
Subjects: Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
1. Climate change causes warmer and more variable temperatures globally, impacting physiological rates and function in ectothermic animals. Acclimation of physiological rates can help maintain function. However, it is unresolved how variance in physiological rates changes with temperature despite its potential ecological and evolutionary importance. 2. We developed new effect sizes that [...]
The costs and benefits of publicising species discoveries.
Published: 2024-02-09
Subjects: Applied Mathematics, Biodiversity, Biology
Public information about where species are found can influence what happens to them – from building support to protect their habitat, to telling poachers where to find a target. Recent heated scientific debate about whether to release information about species’ locations when new species or populations are found have highlighted the trade-off between the risk of damage or loss versus the benefits [...]
Sexual system variation in legumes (Leguminosae): underpinning genomic study with new tools to describe inflorescence morphology
Published: 2024-02-01
Subjects: Biology, Botany, Plant Biology, Plant Breeding and Genetics Life Sciences, Plant Sciences
Although the great majority of legume species are cosexual with hermaphrodite flowers, a variety of sexual systems are observed in the family, including monoecy, andromonoecy, androdioecy and dioecy. Such broad terms conceal much variation, details that may be of importance in understanding the evolutionary and ecological basis of reproductive systems. This variation is often inadequately [...]
The genetic basis of a regionally isolated sexual dimorphism involves cortex
Published: 2024-01-29
Subjects: Biology, Evolution, Genetics and Genomics, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Population Biology
Sexual dimorphisms represent a source of phenotypic variation and result from differences in how natural and sexual selection act on males and females within a species. Identifying the genetic basis of dimorphism can be challenging, especially once it is fixed within a species. However, studying polymorphisms, even when fixed within a population, can provide insights into the genetic basis of [...]
Switching to bioplastics may exacerbate ingestion of lost and discarded fishing gear by marine invertebrates
Published: 2024-01-09
Subjects: Animal Experimentation and Research, Biology, Environmental Health Life Sciences, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Natural Resources and Conservation, Sustainability
Bioplastics are argued to be more environmentally sustainable than conventional plastics. Yet, little is known about how bioplastics degrade in marine environments or their likelihood of being ingested by animals. We measured changes in the weight of biodegradable, semi-biodegradable, and non-biodegradable fishing gears (soft plastic lures, SPLs) in or out of seawater over 14 days. We then [...]
Inferring the seasonal dynamics and abundance of an invasive species using a spatio-temporal stacked machine learning model
Published: 2023-12-22
Subjects: Biology, Entomology, Life Sciences, Population Biology, Public Health, Virus Diseases
Various modelling techniques are available to understand the temporal and spatial variations of the phenology of species. Scientists often rely on correlative models, which establish a statistical relationship between a response variable (such as species abundance or presence-absence) and a set of predominantly abiotic covariates. The modelling approach choice, i.e. the algorithm, is a crucial [...]
Quantifying clearance rates of restored shellfish reefs using modular baskets
Published: 2023-12-08
Subjects: Animal Experimentation and Research, Aquaculture and Fisheries Life Sciences, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Research Methods in Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Water Resource Management, Zoology
Shellfish reefs are among the most degraded ecosystems globally, prompting substantial efforts to restore them. While biodiversity gains of restored reefs are well documented, other ecosystem services such as water filtration remain poorly quantified. We present a novel way of measuring water filtration by restored reefs using modular restoration structures called Robust Oyster Baskets (ROB 400). [...]
Linking biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people (NCP): a macroecological energy flux perspective
Published: 2023-12-08
Subjects: Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Linking biodiversity and the provision of nature’s contribution to people (NCP) remains a challenge. This hinders our ability to properly cope with the decline in biodiversity and the provision of NCP under global climate and land use changes. Here, we propose a framework that combines biodiversity models with food web energy flux approaches to evaluate and map NCP at large spatio-temporal [...]
The Palearctic view on a bat fungal disease
Published: 2023-12-08
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Biology, Immunology and Infectious Disease, Life Sciences, Zoology
The fungal infection causing white-nose disease in hibernating bats in North America has resulted in dramatic population declines of affected species since it was first discovered in 2007. Shortly after, it was demonstrated that the causative agent, Pseudogymnoascus destructans, is native to the Palearctic, where it also infects several bat species. However, infection in the Palearctic rarely [...]
Towards the next generation of species delimitation methods: an overview of Machine Learning applications
Published: 2023-12-07
Subjects: Biology, Computational Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Genetics and Genomics
Species delimitation is the process of distinguishing between populations of the same species and distinct species of a particular group of organisms. Various methods exist for inferring species limits, whether based on morphological, molecular, or other types of data. In the case of methods based on DNA sequences, most of them are rooted in the coalescent theory. However, coalescence-based [...]
Functional coherence among miRNA targets: a potential metric for assessing biological signal among target prediction methods in non-model species
Published: 2023-11-30
Subjects: Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Although miRNA regulation of protein production is a likely target of adaptive evolution, high false-positive rates in the identification of mRNAs targeted by miRNAs in non-model species’ complicates interpretation of recent advances. Here we document the challenges and then outline steps for the community to address these challenges.