Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Biology
Vocal Dimorphism in Anna’s Hummingbirds
Published: 2023-11-28
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Behavior and Ethology, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Integrative Biology, Life Sciences, Ornithology, Zoology
Whereas vocal sexual dimorphism is widespread amongst birds, it has been historically overlooked in non-passerines such as hummingbirds. By evaluating correlations among sex, behaviors, and vocalizations, the meaning and utility of intentional sound production may be inferred. Anna's Hummingbirds (Calypte anna) exhibit pronounced sexual dimorphism, with males being larger and having more vibrant [...]
Opinion: Missing half the picture, focus on stony corals during bleaching events has left critical knowledge gaps in our understanding of reef-scale bleaching and recovery
Published: 2023-11-28
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Covariance reaction norms: A flexible method for estimating complex environmental effects on trait (co)variances
Published: 2023-11-21
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Genetics, Integrative Biology, Life Sciences, Population Biology, Research Methods in Life Sciences, Zoology
Estimating quantitative genetic and phenotypic (co)variances is crucial for investigating evolutionary ecological phenomena such as developmental integration, life history tradeoffs, and niche specialization, as well as for describing selection and predicting multivariate evolution in the wild. While most studies assume (co)variances are fixed over short timescales, environmental heterogeneity [...]
The sugar kelp Saccharina latissima II: Recent Advances in farming and applications
Published: 2023-11-20
Subjects: Biology, Life Sciences
The sugar kelp Saccharina latissima has received intense scientific attention over the last decades. In recent years, interest in cultivation of the species has strongly increased in the North Atlantic Ocean and the Eastern Pacific Ocean, driven by the great potential of S. latissima to be utilised for various industrial applications, including food, feed, and biomaterials. Accordingly, current [...]
Impacts of necrotising disease on the Endangered cauliflower soft coral Dendronephthya australis
Published: 2023-11-20
Subjects: Biology, Life Sciences
Context: Diseases have impacted coral populations worldwide, leading to population declines and requiring active restoration efforts. Aims: Describe population and individual impacts of necrotising disease in the Endangered octocoral Dendronephthya australis. Methods: We quantified population loss and recruitment using reference photos, survey, and GPS mapping and described disease lesions [...]
Automated tracking of avian parental care behavior
Published: 2023-11-16
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Biology, Life Sciences
1. Parental care may be an important source of phenotypic variation for ecological and evolutionary processes. However, it can be difficult to collect and interpret data on parental care behaviors. To address these challenges, we developed a new hardware and software platform for automated behavioral tracking called ABISSMAL (Automated Behavioral Tracking by Integrating Sensors that Survey [...]
Polyploid plants take cytonuclear perturbations in stride
Published: 2023-11-13
Subjects: Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences, Plant Biology
Hybridization in plants is often accompanied by nuclear genome doubling (allopolyploidy), which has been hypothesized to perturb interactions between nuclear and cytoplasmic (mitochondrial and plastid) genomes by creating imbalances in the relative copy number of these genomes and producing genetic incompatibilities between maternally derived cytoplasmic genomes and the half of the allopolyploid [...]
Maternal investment and early thermal conditions affect performance and antipredator responses
Published: 2023-10-27
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Biology, Evolution, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Exposure to increased temperatures during early development can lead to phenotypic plasticity in morphology, physiology, and behaviour across a range of ectothermic animals. In addition, maternal effects are known to be important contributors to phenotypic variation in offspring. Whether the two factors interact to shape offspring morphology and behaviour has been barely explored. This is [...]
Applications of Machine Learning in Phylogenetics
Published: 2023-10-14
Subjects: Biology, Life Sciences
Machine learning has increasingly been applied to a wide range of questions in phylogenetic inference. Supervised machine learning approaches that rely on simulated training data have been used to infer tree topologies and branch lengths, to select substitution models, and to perform downstream inferences of introgression and diversification. Here, we review how researchers have used several [...]
A toolkit for the dynamic study of air sacs in siamang and other elastic circular structures
Published: 2023-10-14
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Biology, Neuroscience and Neurobiology
Biological structures are defined by rigid elements, such as bones, and elastic elements, like muscles and membranes. Computer vision advances have enabled automatic tracking of moving animal skeletal poses. Such developments provide insights into complex time-varying dynamics of biological motion. Conversely, the elastic soft-tissues of organisms, like the nose of elephant seals, or the buccal [...]
Withdrawn: Datathons: fostering equitability in data reuse in ecology
Published: 2023-10-06
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences, Genetics, Genetics and Genomics, Genomics, Life Sciences, Microbiology
Duplicate of https://doi.org/10.32942/X2389Q
Best practices for genetic and genomic data archiving
Published: 2023-09-25
Subjects: Bioinformatics, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences
Genetic and genomic data are collected for a vast array of scientific and applied purposes. Despite mandates for public archiving, data are typically used only by the generating authors. The reuse of genetic and genomic datasets remains uncommon because it is difficult, if not impossible, due to non-standard archiving practices and lack of contextual metadata. But as the new field of [...]
Plant mutations, beyond the clichés
Published: 2023-09-18
Subjects: Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences, Plant Sciences
Diversity and function of fluorescent molecules in marine animals
Published: 2023-09-05
Subjects: Biology, Life Sciences, Marine Biology
Fluorescence in marine animals has mainly been studied in Cnidaria but is found in many different phyla such as Annelida, Crustacea, Mollusca, and Chordata. While many fluorescent proteins and molecules have been identified, very little information is available about the biological function of fluorescence. In this review, we focus on describing the occurrence of fluorescence in marine animals [...]
Tick-tock, racing the clock: Parasitism is associated with decreased sprint performance in the Eastern Fence Lizard
Published: 2023-08-27
Subjects: Biology, Life Sciences, Physiology
Host-parasite relationships are important components of ecological systems that influence the evolution of both hosts and parasites. High levels of ectoparasitic infections can disrupt host homeostasis, causing adverse effects on health and performance. However, the effects of natural ectoparasitic levels on host physiology are less understood, with most research designs implementing experimental [...]