Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Marine Biology
Body condition, but not reproductive success, is associated with sociality in a colonial seabird.
Published: 2026-06-19
Subjects: Biodiversity, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Ornithology, Zoology
Body condition, breeding habitat quality and access to socially acquired information are generally associated with higher fitness in social animals. In colonial species that breed in dense aggregations, such as seabirds, the combined effects of these factors on reproductive success have rarely been tested together. In this study, we investigated the relationship between fledging success, body [...]
Mind the Gap: A critical 40-fold workforce shortfall for protecting 30% of the ocean
Published: 2026-06-18
Subjects: Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Other Social and Behavioral Sciences, Public Economics
Despite being tasked with protecting ocean biodiversity, the marine protected area (MPA) workforce remains poorly described. Using a global site-level questionnaire, we assessed staffing, workforce adequacy, technology use, and personnel requirements for effectively and equitably conserving 30% of the ocean by 2030 (30 x 30). Responses represented 52.8% of global MPA area across 63 countries and [...]
Historical and modern data sources reveal long-term declines in Caribbean coral reef water quality
Published: 2026-06-17
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Marine Biology
Although it is suspected that the widespread death of Caribbean corals is associated with declining reef water quality from land-based pollution, this link has been difficult to quantify due to a dearth of reef water quality data. To assess the role of land-based pollution in recent coral declines, we synthesized paleoecological, historical, and modern data on reef water quality across the [...]
A data-driven assessment of the global community structure of pelagic zooplankton biomass
Published: 2026-06-12
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Marine Biology, Statistical Models
Aim: Zooplankton often dominate pelagic metazoan biomass, making them a central component of marine ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles. In this study, we aimed to: (1) provide biomass distributions of zooplankton functional types to support marine ecosystem monitoring and biogeochemical model evaluation; and (2) investigate regional and seasonal patterns of biomass across marine zooplankton [...]
Advancing public pro-environmental action for global seagrass conservation
Published: 2026-06-12
Subjects: Environmental Education, Environmental Studies, Marine Biology, Natural Resources and Conservation, Other Psychology, Other Social and Behavioral Sciences
Seagrass meadows support biodiversity, climate mitigation, and human well-being, yet remain threatened by interacting anthropogenic pressures. Public engagement is increasingly promoted in seagrass conservation, but the behaviours most relevant to reducing seagrass decline remain poorly defined. We surveyed 172 seagrass knowledge holders from 39 countries and territories, representing 1942 [...]
Intertidal Exposure Modulates Time-Integrated Heat Tolerance of the Eastern Oyster Crassostrea virginica
Published: 2026-06-08
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Integrative Biology, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
The rise of unprecedented heatwaves globally has caused an increase in mass mortality events, motivating the need for accurate predictions of population declines. Predicting organismal function under fluctuating thermal regimes is a central challenge in thermal biology, particularly in intertidal systems where organisms experience rapid shifts between submerged and aerial exposure. Here, we [...]
Fishers’ local knowledge strengthens seagrass restoration planning
Published: 2026-05-20
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Marine Biology, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Seagrass restoration is increasingly guided by habitat suitability models, yet restoration outcomes depend on more than biophysical suitability alone. In coastal social-ecological systems, fishers and anglers hold fine-scale, time-integrated knowledge of habitat condition, human use, and local constraints that are rarely incorporated at the outset of restoration planning. Here, we tested whether [...]
The number and changing global distribution of seagrass-proximate people
Published: 2026-05-06
Subjects: Human Geography, Marine Biology, Natural Resources and Conservation
Seagrass meadows are increasingly recognised as critical natural capital, yet global seagrass conservation still lacks a basic human geography. Building on examples from forests, here, we provide the first global estimate of seagrass-proximate people, defined as people living within specified distances of known seagrass. We combined a global distribution layer of known, mapped and observed [...]
Parasite species identity reshapes geographic patterns of morphology in the hermit crab Pagurus filholi across Japan
Published: 2026-04-29
Subjects: Life Sciences, Marine Biology
Geographic variation in morphological traits of marine invertebrates is commonly attributed to local adaptation or phenotypic plasticity, yet such interpretations can be confounded when parasite assemblages — and their morphological effects on hosts — differ systematically among localities. Here, we tested whether the identity of five parasite species—rhizocephalans Peltogaster postica and [...]
Representational limits in detecting ecological change
Published: 2026-04-28
Subjects: Agriculture, Animal Sciences, Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology, Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Biology, Biotechnology, Cell and Developmental Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Food Science, Forest Sciences, Genetics and Genomics, Immunology and Infectious Disease, Laboratory and Basic Science Research Life Sciences, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Microbiology, Neuroscience and Neurobiology, Other Life Sciences, Pharmacology, Toxicology and Environmental Health, Physiology, Plant Sciences, Research Methods in Life Sciences, Systems Biology
Detecting ecological change remains a persistent challenge, even in systems with extensive monitoring data and increasingly sophisticated analytical tools. Uncertainty is usually attributed to stochasticity, limited observations, or imperfect models. Here, I argue that an additional and largely overlooked constraint arises from representational limits: systematic ways in which graphs, indicators, [...]
Multi-scale collapse of coral cover under climate change
Published: 2026-04-09
Subjects: Applied Mathematics, Applied Statistics, Biodiversity, Biology, Dynamic Systems, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Longitudinal Data Analysis and Time Series, Marine Biology, Mathematics, Numerical Analysis and Computation, Research Methods in Life Sciences, Statistical Methodology, Statistical Models, Survival Analysis, Systems Biology
Projecting ecosystem trajectories under future climates is critical for conservation planning, yet remains constrained by uncertainty arising from limited data, ecological complexity, and biological and environmental variability. Variability, when disentangled from uncertainty, offers critical insights into population and community dynamics. For example, enhanced vital rates (growth, survival, [...]
Network architecture and vulnerability of macroalgal epiphyte-host interactions in Caribbean coastal ecosystems: implications for marine conservation
Published: 2026-04-07
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Background and Aims Tropical coastal marine ecosystems depend critically on macroalgal epiphyte–host interaction networks to sustain biodiversity, primary production, and ecosystem services, yet the architecture and vulnerability of these networks remain poorly characterised in the Caribbean. This study aimed to characterise the topological structure of the epiphyte–host interaction network in [...]
Fish in sand and gravel habitats in the North Sea and adjacent shelf seas: A systematic literature review
Published: 2026-04-03
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Marine Biology
Sedimentary habitats such as sand and gravel are among the most widespread seafloor environments in shelf ecosystems, yet fish–habitat relationships in these substrates remain poorly understood. Although these habitats support diverse and productive benthic communities, ecological information on how fish use them is fragmented, limiting the effectiveness of conservation frameworks such as EUNIS, [...]
Incorporating population genomic perspectives into kelp conservation and aquaculture in the Pacific Northwest
Published: 2026-04-01
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Genetics and Genomics, Genomics, Life Sciences, Marine Biology
Recent kelp forest declines and growth in the kelp aquaculture industry have fueled increasing interest in ecological and evolutionary research on kelp forests, including kelp population genomics. While many kelp management activities have inherent genetic and evolutionary implications, kelp management in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) of North America has to date made only limited use of [...]
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 [...]