Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Population Biology
Will Climate Change Affect the Sustainability of Krill Fishing? A Simulation Study.
Published: 2026-03-31
Subjects: Marine Biology, Population Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
In the Southern Ocean, Antarctic krill form the base of the food web, and are the primary food source for a wide range of species, including whales, penguins and fish. Krill also comprises the largest fishery resource in Antarctica, but are increasingly thought to be impacted by changing environmental conditions associated with climate change. In order to explore potential synergistic impacts of [...]
On Information in Evolutionary Processes
Published: 2026-03-26
Subjects: Evolution, Population Biology
Since the first attempts to introduce an information-theoretical formalism into the description of evolutionary processes, several authors have argued that such approaches are inappropriate because biological evolution does not unfold in a predefined space of possibilities. To properly address that objection, we need to separate the semantics of the emergence of biological functions from the [...]
A robust method for quantifying the contribution of transient dynamics to variation in population growth rate
Published: 2026-03-20
Subjects: Population Biology
Understanding why population growth rates vary through time is central to ecology, evolution, and conservation. In structured populations, such variation arises from both environmentally-driven fluctuations in vital rates and intrinsic transient dynamics generated by changes in population structure. Despite long-standing recognition of these processes, existing approaches do not provide an exact [...]
Towards a better understanding of adaptation: Problem description, partial solutions, and recommendations
Published: 2026-03-20
Subjects: Animal Experimentation and Research, Animal Studies, Behavior and Ethology, Biodiversity, Developmental Biology, Evolution, Human Ecology, Integrative Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Other Genetics and Genomics, Other Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration, Population Biology, Science and Technology Studies
This paper is the product of an international workshop aiming to make progress in our general understanding of adaptation. We met from 5-7 February 2025 in Hannover (Germany), funded by the foundation “Volkswagen Stiftung”. For our group of theoretical and empirical biologists, social scientists, and philosophers of science we set up a program to facilitate communication and collaboration between [...]
The scent of survival in a warming world: how monoterpenes drive thermal adaptation in thyme
Published: 2026-03-17
Subjects: Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Other Plant Sciences, Physiology, Plant Biology, Plant Sciences, Population Biology
1 Monoterpenes are key plant secondary metabolites with well known defensive and ecological functions, yet their role in abiotic stress tolerance remains poorly understood. In many Mediterranean plants, monoterpene composition varies markedly within and among species and is associated with climatic gradients, suggesting that these compounds may mediate plant responses to extreme heat. 2 We [...]
Evaluating population resilience to anticipated stressors using integrated population modeling: a case study of Peregrine Falcons
Published: 2026-03-15
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Ornithology, Population Biology
Reliable estimates of demographic parameters are fundamental to understanding population dynamics and guiding conservation efforts. Integrated population models (IPMs) provide a powerful framework for jointly analyzing diverse data sources to estimate demographic rates and population trajectories, evaluate resilience to environmental stressors, and project population dynamics info the future. We [...]
Echo-dash: Keeping ecologists in the loop with an open source, online ecoacoustic dashboard for interactive exploration of spatiotemporal soundscape data
Published: 2026-03-07
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 [...]
Do harbour porpoise mortality records reflect living population structure? A matrix population model diagnostic
Published: 2026-03-04
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Population Biology
Effective conservation of marine mammals depends on reliable demographic information, yet acquiring such data for highly mobile cetaceans is challenging. Harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) are widely used as sentinel species, but much of what is known about their demography comes from opportunistic sources, such as stranding and bycatch records. While invaluable, these data may be subject to [...]
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.
Social organisation predicts lifespan in mammals
Published: 2026-02-17
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Population Biology
1. Recent comparative analyses have identified positive associations between social organisation and longevity in mammals, but independent replication with larger datasets is needed to establish the robustness of this pattern. 2. Here, we analysed maximum recorded lifespan, body mass, and social organisation data for 1,436 mammal species using Bayesian phylogenetic comparative methods, confirming [...]
A macroevolutionary gene network reveals diapause evolutionary dynamics beyond the circadian clock and predicts microevolution
Published: 2026-02-16
Subjects: Computational Biology, Evolution, Genomics, Other Genetics and Genomics, Population Biology
Diapause is an alternative developmental pathway evolved independently in many insects to synchronize life cycles with resource abundance. While subsets of this essential phenotype have long been studied at a single species level, the genomic basis of the full diapause syndrome remains poorly understood. Remaining unknown is whether convergent diapause syndromes employ shared mechanisms. This [...]
Should hunters fear the wolf? Effects of wolf recolonization on ungulate harvests in a multi-species European landscape
Published: 2026-02-10
Subjects: Biodiversity, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Population Biology, Zoology
1. The recolonization of European landscapes by the gray wolf Canis lupus raises questions about the ecological effects of predators and their impact on human interests such as large-game hunting bags, leaving room for alarmism among hunters. 2. We investigated the impact of wolf on recreational hunting by using long-term (2006-2023) and high-resolution (234 hunting districts) hunting bag data on [...]
Predicting demographic impacts from sublethal cumulative effects of offshore renewable developments on breeding seabirds
Published: 2026-02-05
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Marine Biology, Population Biology
1. Offshore renewable developments (ORDs) are often located in habitat used by protected seabird species and may cause sublethal effects by altering movement patterns and displacing individuals from key resources. Predicting how these effects translate into population-level impacts is challenging for long-lived species because demographic consequences emerge from complex, state-dependent [...]
Population dynamics and disease-linked host use of the sea urchin symbiont Dactylopleustes yoshimurai (Crustacea: Amphipoda: Pleustidae) on Strongylocentrotus intermedius
Published: 2026-01-28
Subjects: Marine Biology, Population Biology
Dactylopleustes yoshimurai is an echinoid-associated amphipod that frequently aggregates on disease lesions of the short-spined urchin Strongylocentrotus intermedius in Otsuchi Bay, northeastern Japan. However, its life history and use of diseased hosts remain poorly understood. We combined four years of monthly SCUBA surveys (Jan 2020–Jan 2024) with quantitative sampling of diseased and healthy [...]