Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Environmental Studies
Facing the heat: behavioral and molecular underpinnings of climate hardiness in bumblebees
Published: 2025-04-26
Subjects: Animal Studies, Behavior and Ethology, Behavioral Neurobiology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Environmental Studies, Life Sciences, Neuroscience and Neurobiology, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Climate change heralds an era of increased heat waves, with an estimated 20-30 additional high heat days per year. While climate change is upon us, we still have little understanding of the organismal impacts of high heat and how to combat them. Insects, due to their short generation times and their sensitive ecological requirements, offer a powerful model for studying rapid physiological and [...]
Language, economic, and gender disparities widen the scientific productivity gap
Published: 2024-11-01
Subjects: Environmental Studies
Scientific communities need to understand and eliminate barriers that prevent scientists from reaching their full potential. However, the combined impact of individuals’ linguistic, economic, and gender backgrounds on their scientific productivity is poorly understood. Using a survey of 908 environmental scientists, we show that being a woman is associated with up to a 45% reduction in the number [...]
Land use change models that integrate quantitative and qualitative approaches better explain deforestation patterns in Amazonian protected areas
Published: 2024-10-14
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Studies
Agricultural frontiers in the Amazon Basin – many of which overlap with protected areas – experience rapid forest conversion to agriculture and pasture, threatening ecological health and globally significant ecosystem services. Effective responses to protected area deforestation require understanding the socio-environmental factors that increase the likelihood of forest conversion, which may be [...]
Local knowledge enhances the sustainability of interconnected fisheries
Published: 2024-10-09
Subjects: Agricultural and Resource Economics, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Studies, Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Global demand for natural resources challenges the sustainability of small-scale fisheries. Fisheries Co-Management (FCM), where management is shared between the government and locals, is crucial for maintaining viable fish populations while mitigating market pressures and illegal fishing. Using a data-informed model applied to a fish metapopulation network, we contrasted the effects of various [...]
The ecosystem-climate-human nexus in the Arctic
Published: 2024-09-12
Subjects: Environmental Studies
The Arctic has warmed at nearly four times the global average since 1979, which has intensified the disruption of its biotic and local human communities under ongoing environmental change. Here, we explore the ecosystem-climate-human nexus in the Arctic region. We summarize current knowledge of regional climate change and its impact on ecosystems and their functions, highlight gaps and [...]
Cultural inception of invasive species
Published: 2024-09-03
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Studies, Natural Resources and Conservation, Sustainability
1. Many invasive alien species gradually become embedded within local cultures. Such species can increasingly be perceived by society as familiar and native elements of the social-ecological system and as integral parts of local cultures. 2. Here, we explore this phenomenon and define it as cultural inception. Cultural inception can greatly hinder our ability to successfully manage invasive [...]
Untangling the impact of live baitfish restrictions on recreational fishing participation in the United States
Published: 2024-08-30
Subjects: Environmental Studies, Social and Behavioral Sciences
In recent decades, many jurisdictions have established regulations governing the use of live baitfish in recreational fishing. These regulations are usually motivated by environmental concerns, such as the role that live baitfish play in the spread of invasive species and aquatic diseases. One question that might be posed by policymakers is whether limiting the use of live baitfish could impact [...]
Seasonal Migrants and Traditional Ecological Knowledge in a Region of Risk: The Pulse Seine Fisheries in Limfjorden, Denmark, c. 1740-1860
Published: 2024-07-31
Subjects: Aquaculture and Fisheries Life Sciences, Arts and Humanities, Biodiversity, Economic History, Environmental Studies, Marine Biology, Other Arts and Humanities, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
This article presents the commercial scale and organization of the Danish pulse seine eel fishery in the Limfjord before the advent of modern offshore fisheries. Partly, for environmental concerns, the pulse seine fishery was tightly regulated, with every seine having to be checked and certified by the local district bailiffs. Here, we present the first in-depth analysis of all preserved [...]
Asian Hornbill Bibliography: a dynamic, online, open-access reference database for use in manuscript citations and hornbill research
Published: 2024-06-18
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Studies, Forest Sciences, Library and Information Science, Nature and Society Relations, Ornithology, Plant Sciences, Publishing, Scholarly Publishing
Bibliographic databases and citation tools are integral aids to research. The Asian Hornbill Bibliography presents a compendium of research on Asian hornbills by combining an open access bibliographic database with the free and open source reference manager, Zotero. The bibliography, also hosted and made accessible from the IUCN Hornbill Specialist Group website, includes 725 publications, [...]
Light Pollution at Sea: Implications and Potential Hazards of Human Activity for Offshore Bird and Bat Movements in the Greater North Sea
Published: 2024-05-25
Subjects: Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Studies, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Nature and Society Relations, Ornithology, Other Animal Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Water Resource Management, Zoology
Human activity in the North Sea is intensifying, as emerging uses, such as offshore wind farms (OWFs) and liquid natural gas (LNG) terminals, are added to fishing, freight shipping and fossil fuel production as traditional forms of resource exploitation. The volume and scale of these additional installations are projected to increase substantially in the coming decades, which amplifies the need [...]
Factors Influencing Support for Bat Management and Conservation in the Wildland-Urban Interface
Published: 2024-05-13
Subjects: Biodiversity, Environmental Studies, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about bats often underlie social support for bat management and intentions to conserve bats. Effective bat conservation and management hinges on understanding these drivers across contexts. Lands classified as wildland-urban interface (WUI) are rapidly expanding in the USA, increasing the likelihood of human-bat interactions from management practices and [...]
COVID-19 could accelerate the decline in recreational hunting: a natural experiment from Northern Italy
Published: 2024-04-17
Subjects: Agricultural and Resource Economics, Environmental Studies, Sociology
Although many studies highlighted the potential of COVID-19 to reshape existing models of wildlife management, empirical research on this topic has been scarce, particularly in Europe. We investigated the potential of COVID-19 pandemic to accelerate the ongoing decline in an aging population of recreational hunters in Italy. Namely, we modeled spatiotemporal trends between 2011 and 2021 in the [...]
Predicting macroinvertebrate average score per taxon (ASPT) at water quality monitoring sites in Japanese rivers
Published: 2024-03-29
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Studies, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Freshwater ecosystems provide essential services for human well-being but are impacted by multiple anthropogenic stressors. Biomonitoring with bioindicators such as river macroinvertebrates is fundamental for assessing the status of freshwater systems. In Japan, water quality and biomonitoring surveys are conducted separately, leading to a lack of nationwide information on the biological status [...]
Fuentes para el Estudio de la historia de extracción, consumo y comercio de tres especies de aves venezolanas amenazadas
Published: 2023-11-22
Subjects: Agricultural and Resource Economics, Environmental Studies, Natural Resources and Conservation
El comercio y uso de vida silvestre es un problema complejo que se ve afectado por la dinámica temporal y geográfica de las redes de comercio y tráfico que estimulan la extracción y consumo de recursos. Para estudiar la historia de valoración, consumo y tráfico de la cotorra cabeciamarilla (Amazona barbadensis), el cardenalito (Sporagra cucullata) y el paují copete de piedra (Pauxi pauxi) [...]
Urban heat stress and perceived health impacts in major cities of Bangladesh
Published: 2023-11-12
Subjects: Environmental Studies, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Urban Studies and Planning
Urban heatwaves are a growing concern, especially in South Asian countries grappling with rapid urbanization and limited resources. While prior studies focused on the biophysical aspects of urban heat islands in this region, there is limited evidence of people’s understanding of urban heat stress and its health consequences. This study aimed to investigate the perceived urban heat risk and [...]