Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Botany
GRACE Resurvey of Central European Grassland Vegetation to study the Impacts of Country-Level Landscape Dynamics on Biodiversity
Published: 2026-08-05
Subjects: Biodiversity, Botany, Life Sciences
Grasslands harbor high species diversity and are strongly influenced by local management and land-use histories. In countries of Central Europe, these ecosystems were severely impacted by different agricultural policies on both sides of the former Iron Curtain in the second half of the 20th century,, reshaping grassland extent and habitat quality. These land-use changes turned border regions into [...]
An assessment of biodiversity data shortfalls for ectomycorrhizal fungi in Canada
Published: 2026-07-22
Subjects: Biodiversity, Botany, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Microbiology
Ectomycorrhizal (EcM) fungi play critical roles in global carbon and nutrient cycling. In Canada, vast forest ecosystems dominated by EcM trees are experiencing rapid environmental and anthropogenic change that threaten the symbiosis. Here we quantify and discuss seven biodiversity data shortfalls that constrain our knowledge of EcM fungi in Canada, and impede the development of effective [...]
Sniffing for fungi: Use of a conservation dog uncovers high regional truffle diversity
Published: 2026-07-09
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Botany, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences, Forest Biology, Forest Sciences, Plant Sciences, Research Methods in Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Hypogeous aromatic fungi (‘truffles’) contribute significantly to overall fungal diversity but are difficult to find using traditional survey methods because they fruit underground, leading to under-documentation and a lack of understanding of truffle ecology. Truffles evolved to emit strong aromatic compounds to attract mycophagists for spore dispersal, a trait that culinary truffle harvesters [...]
Analysis of in-situ biodiversity conservation and ecosystem management in Twenty-three selected Sacred Groves of Manipur within Indo-Burma Biodiversity Hotspot : Bio-legal aspects
Published: 2026-07-07
Subjects: Biodiversity, Botany, Environmental Law, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
In Manipur, Sacred Groves (SGs), known as “Umang Lai," which literally means ‘forest deities’, are worshipped in forest or thick vegetation areas. A total of 365 SGs have been officially reported in Manipur, a biodiversity hotspot of India. The concept of SG is founded on the traditional religious belief systems which aid in the sustainable and restrictive utilization of resources within it. [...]
Taming the dragon: genetic variation in wild and domesticated Antirrhinum majus
Published: 2026-06-30
Subjects: Botany, Genetics, Genetics and Genomics, Horticulture, Life Sciences, Plant Sciences
Domesticated species and their wild relatives provide powerful case studies for examining the processes that shape rapid diversification. Here, we conduct a population genetic analysis of 31 domesticated varieties and 33 natural populations of the common snapdragon, Antirrhinum majus, a species in which closely related flower colour varieties form hybrid zones and display extensive variation in [...]
A Protocol for Standardizing Measurements and Enabling Global Harmonization of Herbarium Leaf Reflectance Spectra
Published: 2026-05-19
Subjects: Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology, Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Botany, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Research Methods in Life Sciences
Reflectance spectroscopy offers a powerful approach to integrate high- throughput phenotypic data from herbarium specimens into the digital landscapes of ecology, evolution, and systematics. Spectral digitization complements specimen metadata capture and photographic imaging by generating high-dimensional optical data from herbarium tissues that encode information about plant chemistry and [...]
Making use of oak genomes
Published: 2026-05-13
Subjects: Biodiversity, Botany, Genomics, Life Sciences
This review summarizes the contributions of genomics to our understanding of oak evolution and management, both past and ongoing. Far from being exhaustive given the large number of publications following the publication of the genomes, this review emphasizes work conducted in the decade following publication of the first two complete oak genome assemblies, and major findings and achievements [...]
The evolutionary link between food, condiments and medicine
Published: 2026-05-06
Subjects: Agricultural Science, Anthropology, Biodiversity, Biology, Botany, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Food Science, Life Sciences, Plant Biology, Plant Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
The deep relationship between humans and plants is of great interest to ethnobotanists, human ecologists, and evolutionary biologists. Humans have incorporated thousands of plant species into both traditional medicine and our diets, as foods and condiments. Many of these provide not only calories but also micronutrients and other bioactive compounds that contribute to health [1]. The boundaries [...]
Molecular identification and diversity assessment of Tyrrhenian Romulea species (iridaceae)
Published: 2026-04-10
Subjects: Biodiversity, Botany, Plant Sciences
Taxonomic assignments based only on morphology are often insufficient for delimiting species, particularly in polyploid complexes with extensive morphological overlap. This limitation hinders biogeographic and conservation issues. The genus Romulea (Iridaceae), distributed across Africa and the Mediterranean Basin, exemplifies this challenge. Despite its remarkable diversity, Mediterranean [...]
The origins and diversification of hummingbird pollination in Bromeliaceae
Published: 2026-02-06
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Botany, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Plant Sciences
Bromeliaceae are a model group for understanding explosive Neotropical diversification, combining remarkable ecological breadth and high species richness, despite relatively recent evolutionary origins. Multiple drivers are hypothesised to accelerate bromeliad diversification, and hummingbird pollination is frequently proposed to be among the strongest. However, our understanding has been limited [...]
Paronychia leucochthonicola (Caryophyllaceae: Paronychieae), a new species of the San Luis Valley, north-central New Mexico and adjacent Colorado.
Published: 2026-02-03
Subjects: Botany
Paronychia leucochthonicola C.E.V.Alexander sp. nov. is described from two population complexes in the San Luis Valley, one along the Rio Grande Gorge west of Taos (New Mexico), the other centered on Flat Top in the San Luis Hills (Colorado). This is a rare species, occurring in narrow bands of habitat along rimrock. These plants have previously been identified as either Paronychia pulvinata or [...]
Evolving on two fronts: Oak species and syngameons
Published: 2025-12-16
Subjects: Botany, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Plant Sciences
William ‘Bill’ Burger wrote in 1975, “I believe that the classical species-concept in Quercus defines a very real population system and that it evolves on two fronts. One is that of continuing to adapt to a niche that differs slightly from its close relations. The second is in sharing the broader evolutionary advances of these same close relations that together comprise the genetically [...]
The Plant Communities of Oman’s Central Coastline: A Baseline Ecological Assessment amid Rising Threats
Published: 2025-12-10
Subjects: Biodiversity, Botany, Desert Ecology, Life Sciences, Plant Sciences
In recent decades, the botanical knowledge within the Sultanate of Oman has advanced considerably. However, the coastal vegetation is comparatively understudied with much of the country’s extensive coastline still undocumented. This is despite Oman’s coast being faced with a plethora of threats including development, overgrazing and the invasive species Neltuma juliflora. This study presents the [...]
INTEGRATED LANDSCAPE SCALE VEGETATION ASSESSMENT USING SURFACE SOIL AND BEE POLLEN DATA IN THE NILGIRIS AND THE COROMANDEL COAST, SOUTH INDIA - VISUALIZING POLLEN AS A REMOTE BIOLOGICAL SENSOR
Published: 2025-12-04
Subjects: Botany, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Other Life Sciences, Other Plant Sciences, Plant Sciences
Modern pollen analogues remain a powerful tool in Quaternary palynology but classically the most favored repositories are moss cushions and surface soils. Here we use both surface soils and bee pollen to characterize modern pollen spectra from contrasting landscapes, evaluate their potential as biological proxies complementing each other in reconstructing vegetation comprised of anemophilous and [...]
Pollinator specialisation fails to explain rapid speciation in terrestrial orchids
Published: 2025-08-27
Subjects: Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Biology, Botany, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Plant Sciences
Pollinator attraction is central to the reproductive biology and ecology of flowering plants, and pollinator specialisation has long been thought of as a driving force of species generation. Orchids are central to this idea, which dates back to Darwin’s work on pollinator-driven floral evolution. However, most macroevolutionary evidence for the speciation hypothesis comes from studies of genera [...]