Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Population Biology
Cushion plants act as facilitators for soil microarthropods in high alpine Sweden
Published: 2020-09-25
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Life Sciences, Population Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
1. Cushion plants can have positive impacts on plant richness in severe environments and possibly across trophic levels on arthropods, an under-studied topic. 2. This study examined whether soil communities under cushions of Silene acaulis and Diapensia lapponica have higher richness and abundance of soil microarthropods (Acari, Collembola) than adjacent non-cushion vegetation; and whether [...]
Records of rat control campaigns in a food market with the largest seafood trading volume worldwide
Published: 2020-09-15
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Population Biology
Brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) and roof rats (Rattus rattus) are among the most common mammals worldwide. Little is known about the effects of season on rat population size, which is important for understanding rat ecology and/or performing effective rat control campaigns. Tsukiji Market was a metropolitan central wholesale market in Tokyo and was located within 1 km from one of the biggest [...]
Studies of insect temporal trends must account for the complex sampling histories inherent to many long-term monitoring efforts
Published: 2020-08-21
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Life Sciences, Population Biology
In a recently published study, Crossley et al. (2020, Nature Ecology & Evolution, “No net insect abundance and diversity declines across US Long Term Ecological Research sites”) examine patterns of change in insect abundance and diversity across US Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites, concluding “a lack of overall increase or decline”. This is notable if true, given mixed conclusions [...]
Adaptation, Local Frequency-Dependent and Global Frequency-Independent Selection
Published: 2020-08-18
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Population Biology
There is a tension between, on the one hand, the view that natural selection produces adaptations, and on the other hand, the theoretical results showing that the links between natural selection are weakened in different evolutionary scenarios such as situations of (negative) frequency-dependent selection or more generally in situations where fitnesses are not constant. If these results are taken [...]
The effects of population synchrony, life history, and access constraints on benefits from fishing portfolios
Published: 2020-08-12
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Population Biology
Natural resources often exhibit large interannual fluctuations in productivity driven by shifting environmental conditions, and this translates to high variability in the revenue resource users can earn. However, users can dampen this variability by harvesting a portfolio of resources. In the context of fisheries, this means targeting multiple populations, though the ability to actually build [...]
First estimates of survival and densities of invasive alien Eastern cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus) in Italy: a Bayesian robust design approach
Published: 2020-08-06
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Population Biology
The Eastern cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus) has become invasive in Central and Northern Italy, where it affects prey-predator dynamics between native species. Although many different studies explored survival rates and the density of cottontails in North America, no information is available for its invasive range. Between December 2003 and October 2005, a capture-recapture scheme for Eastern [...]
Directed evolution of microbial communities
Published: 2020-07-29
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Population Biology
Directed evolution is a form of artificial selection that has been used for decades to find biomolecules and organisms with new or enhanced functional traits. Directed evolution can be conceptualized as a guided exploration of the genotype-phenotype map, where genetic variants with desirable phenotypes are first selected and then mutagenized to search the genotype space for an even better mutant. [...]
Husby, Reed & Visser - Demonstrating temperature induced phenological mismatch does not require negative effects on fitness or population growth: A comment on Samplonius et al.
Published: 2020-06-19
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Population Biology
In a recent article Samplonius et al. (2020; preprint on EcoEvoRxiv, Version 1, Submitted 05, 2020 | Last edited: May 06, 2020) argue that there are “systematic weaknesses in the evidence for temperature mediated phenological mismatch”. While we appreciate their review of the literature on this topic and their call for a broadening of the taxonomic and geographic scope of mismatch research, their [...]
Local landscape position impacts demographic rates in a widespread North American steppe bunchgrass
Published: 2020-05-28
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Population Biology
[this article now published at Ecosphere: https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.3351] Understanding the environmental drivers of demographic rates and population dynamics over space and time is critical for anticipating how species will respond to climate change. While the influence of temporal environmental variation and large environmental gradients are well recognized, less is known about how local [...]
Strengthening the evidence base for temperature-mediated phenological asynchrony and its impacts
Published: 2020-05-06
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Population Biology
Climate warming has caused the seasonal timing of many components of ecological food chains to advance (Thackeray et al. 2010, 2016). Differential shifts lead to phenological asynchrony, often referred to as trophic mismatch when it is detrimental for consumers (Cushing 1990). In the context of trophic interactions, it has been suggested that consumers will shift their phenology to adapt to [...]
Interpopulation differences in developmental plasticity of carnivores determine the emergence of a trophic interaction
Published: 2020-04-16
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Population Biology
1. Through its influence on trait expression, phenotypic plasticity can shape variation in strengths of interspecific interactions across environmental gradients. If species exhibit interpopulation differences in phenotypic plasticity, their genotypes and environmental conditions may jointly determine the strength of interspecific interactions. 2. To examine this prediction, we experimentally [...]
Survival and cause-specific mortality of harvested willow ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus) in central Norway
Published: 2020-04-14
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Population Biology
Survival is a key demographic component that often vary as a result of human activities such as recreational harvest. Detailed understanding of seasonal variation in mortality patterns and the role of various risk factors is thus crucial for understanding the link between environmental variation and wildlife population dynamics, and to design sustainable harvest management systems. Here, we [...]
Development time mediates the effect of larval diet on ageing and mating success of male antler flies in the wild
Published: 2020-03-17
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Population Biology
High-quality developmental environments often improve individual performance into adulthood, but allocating toward early-life traits, such as growth, development rate, and reproduction, may lead to trade-offs with late life performance. It is therefore uncertain how a rich developmental environment will affect the ageing process (senescence), particularly in wild insects. To investigate the [...]
Natural variation in the growth and development of Protopiophila litigata (Diptera: Piophilidae) developing in three moose (Artiodactyla: Cervidae) antlers
Published: 2020-03-17
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Population Biology
In animals, the early-life environment influences growth and development, which can have lasting effects on life history and fitness into adulthood. We investigated patterns of growth, pupal development time, and their covariation, in wild antler fly larvae (Protopiophila litigata; Diptera: Piophilidae) of both sexes collected from three discarded moose antlers of varying size, chewing damage [...]
Toward a metabolic theory of life history
Published: 2019-09-29
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Population Biology
Significance Data and theory reveal how organisms allocate metabolic energy to components of the life history that determine fitness. In each generation animals take up biomass energy from the environment and expended it on survival, growth, and reproduction. Life histories of animals exhibit enormous diversity – from large fish and invertebrates that produce literally millions of tiny eggs and [...]