Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Population Biology
Recolonisation dynamics of grey wolves: delayed recovery in a Central European country
Published: 2025-11-07
Subjects: Biodiversity, Population Biology, Zoology
Grey wolves have been recovering throughout Europe over the last decades, widely portrayed as a conservation success story. We evaluated the trends and demography of two wolf populations that recolonised the Czech Republic between 2011/2012 and 2022/2023, integrating a variety of fieldwork and laboratory methods including snow tracking, camera trapping, telemetry and non-invasive genetics, with [...]
How much monitoring is needed to reliably track progress towards genetic diversity targets?
Published: 2025-11-07
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Genetics, Population Biology
Achieving global biodiversity targets hinges on indicators of biodiversity change that convert raw data into reliable numbers that can shape policy, conservation, management, and, ultimately, the future of biodiversity worldwide. Indicators can only be used confidently if they detect and summarise biodiversity trends as intended, given the available data worldwide. Knowing whether indicators can [...]
Going with, or going to the dogs: City Serenade of Multispecies Survival
Published: 2025-11-03
Subjects: Animal Studies, Behavior and Ethology, Biodiversity, Community-based Research, Human Ecology, Ornithology, Other Animal Sciences, Population Biology, Urban Studies and Planning, Zoology
1. As tropical cities rapidly urbanise, multispecies coexistence faces unprecedented challenges. Ground-dwelling (dogs), arboreal (macaques), and aerial (black kites) urban commensals navigate complex social-ecological systems shaped by anthropogenic resource provisioning, cultural practices, and architectural constraints. Despite escalating human-animal conflicts—20 million annual dog bites in [...]
Host specificity and activity synchronization drive frog-biting midge incidence on torrent frogs (Hylodidae) in southeastern Brazil
Published: 2025-10-27
Subjects: Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Population Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Frog-bitting midges (Corethrellidae) are widespread micropredators that feed on the blood of frogs. Furthermore, frog-biting midges carry pathogens such as Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), an important cause of worldwide amphibian declines. Female midges usually target calling male frogs by using acoustic cues. However, how midges target frogs that use conspicuous visual cues, especially [...]
Neighbourhood canopy cover alleviates increased tree mortality after exceptionally dry summers at a climatic range limit
Published: 2025-10-27
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Forest Biology, Population Biology
Populations situated at range margins are often at their environmental niche limit. The stress gradient hypothesis posits that facilitation effects should be more common in such conditions, but few studies have examined the joint effects of biotic interactions and climatic factors on vital rates at species range limits. We used eight years of annual unmanned aerial vehicle surveys to assess the [...]
Invasive mosquitofish become more aggressive in the presence of native pike young-of-year: implications for native predator recruitment
Published: 2025-10-14
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Population Biology
Invasive species often exhibit aggressive behaviour, boldness, and high foraging activity, which contribute to their establishment success and impact on native ecosystems. The mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki), one of the world’s most invasive fish species, is known for its aggressive nature, which threatens the survival of native species. Lake littoral zones, critical for juvenile fish [...]
Development and implementation of a passive surveillance system for Aedes albopictus in Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Published: 2025-10-06
Subjects: Biology, Entomology, Life Sciences, Population Biology, Public Health, Statistical Methodology, Virus Diseases
The invasive Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) has become an important public health concern in Italy, particularly in the Po Valley area, where its biting behaviour and nuisance have contributed to multiple outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases over the last two decades. To address this growing threat, the Emilia-Romagna region has conducted intensive mosquito monitoring efforts since 2010, [...]
Species Invasion in a Two-Dimensional Space with Irregularly Shaped Patches
Published: 2025-09-24
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Population Biology
Accounting for spatial heterogeneity in the evolution of a species population in a given space is of much importance in population ecology, epidemiology and related fields in biosciences. Past literature has presented such analysis in the presence of regions with distinct diffusion/growth properties, often referred to as patches. However, most of the past work is limited to one-dimensional space, [...]
Spatial networks of habitats, populations, and communities: connecting approaches to keep cutting edges
Published: 2025-09-23
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Population Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Purpose of review: Spatial networks are extensively used in ecology to represent exchanges among landscape features (e.g., habitat patches, river segments) or biological entities (e.g., individuals, populations, communities). I reviewed the literature produced in the past 25 years using these networks. Distinct types of spatial networks have emerged in several subfields of ecology. I aimed to [...]
Trends of ungulate species in Europe: not all stories are equal
Published: 2025-09-17
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Population Biology, Zoology
Wild ungulates have deep impacts on socio-ecological systems, and analyzing large-scale population trends in a multispecies set can identify their environmental and socio-economic drivers. We collected annual hunting bags (n = 11,046, period 1975-2018) of 7 wild ungulates of high management interest across 25 European countries. We identified different temporal trends in hunting bags and for roe [...]
Genetic Structure and Population Differentiation of Chrysanthemum zawadzkii in Its Isolated European Range
Published: 2025-09-03
Subjects: Population Biology
This study investigated the genetic structure and diversity of Zawadzki's chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum zawadzkii), a relict and endemic species with an isolated population in the Pieniny Mountains, Central Europe. The primary objective was to determine whether this population is genetically homogenous or consists of distinct subpopulations. To achieve this, plant material was collected from 13 [...]
Persefone.jl: Modelling Biodiversity in Dynamic Agricultural Landscapes
Published: 2025-08-31
Subjects: Agriculture, Behavior and Ethology, Biodiversity, Population Biology
Agricultural landscapes are highly dynamic, constantly changing in space and time due to the effects of farm management and environmental factors. To forecast the effects of changes in agricultural systems on biodiversity, we need to understand these landscape dynamics and how they impact different species. Here, we present Persefone.jl, an open-source process-based model of agricultural [...]
Changes in pollen production, pollen heteromorphism and ovule production with increased selfing in Viola arvensis
Published: 2025-08-21
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Plant Biology, Population Biology
Predictive Evolutionary Genomics: Principles, Validation, and Practice
Published: 2025-08-11
Subjects: Agriculture, Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Genomics, Life Sciences, Plant Sciences, Population Biology
Contemporary evolution occurs on observable timescales, enabling prospective evolutionary forecasting with quantitative frameworks rather than only retrospective inference. We propose a unified probabilistic framework that integrates three approaches linked to detectability windows through time. Trait-based models use multivariate quantitative-genetic equations to project correlated phenotypic [...]
Progress toward sustainable management of marine crustacean fisheries
Published: 2025-08-11
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Sciences, Marine Biology, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Population Biology
Marine crustacean capture fisheries have been contributing increasingly more to global aquatic food production in recent decades, helping secure socioeconomic benefits. In the past decade the landings of marine crustaceans rose by more than 67% while expanding spatially and taxonomically, doubling their contribution to global fisheries landings. Although efforts to improve the data collection [...]