Preprints
There are 3024 Preprints listed.
Understanding Conservation Decision-makers’ Preferences for Evidence
Published: 2026-03-11
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Policy, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Other Economics, Other Social and Behavioral Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
1. Effective conservation depends on decisions informed by evidence that is both trustworthy and relevant to specific local contexts. However, little is known about which characteristics of evidence conservation decision-makers prioritise when deciding what information to trust. 2. We explored decision-makers’ preferences for different attributes of evidence using a discrete choice experiment in [...]
The lens of the Sonic Holobiont. A perspective on acoustic influence on microbial communities and its application as an additional layer to the holobiont concept.
Published: 2026-03-11
Subjects: Arts and Humanities, Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology, Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Microbiology, Other Arts and Humanities, Other Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
When studying micro and macro biomes in the quest for a more general understanding, we can hardly escape from a holistic perspective. At first, symbiosis was demonstrated to be a ubiquitous phenomenon in living cells, shaping evolutionary patterns across species at very different scales. The “holobiont” concept gains a central role in modern biology. The observation of the complex inter- and [...]
Global latitudinal and bathymetric gradients in body size among cartilaginous fishes (Gnathostomata: Chondrichthyes)
Published: 2026-03-11
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Understanding the macroecological rules governing body size variation across environmental gradients has long been a central focus of biology for centuries. Bergmann’s rule – the tendency for animals to reach larger body sizes in colder environments – has been studied in endotherms but with mixed support. However, phylogenetically informed tests of this rule in ectotherms remain scarce, and there [...]
Why your causal diagram should probably include sampling and measurement processes
Published: 2026-03-11
Subjects: Life Sciences
Insect scientists are starting to use causal diagrams to display assumptions about causal relationships between variables that exist before any data have been collected. The perception appears to be that these assumptions are sufficient to determine whether observed associations between variables can be interpreted causally. But an observed association implies an observation process (sampling and [...]
A Global Review of Wetland Biodiversity and Carbon Connections
Published: 2026-03-11
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy
As human actions have degraded global ecosystems over time, communities have often combated ecosystem function loss through restoration with a singular focus, falling on one side of the habitat and biodiversity protection or carbon sequestration dichotomy. Wetlands are no exception to this trend, and the large global push to protect and restore wetlands has widely ignored multiple-benefit [...]
Reconstructing the Holy Loch Food Web: A simple system for interpreting large numbers of Barcode of Life Database (BOLD) Biodiversity Index Numbers (BINs) for use in taxonomy, natural history and conservation, using Chironomoidea (Diptera) as a model taxon.
Published: 2026-03-11
Subjects: Life Sciences
Mass, low-cost-, non-destructive DNA sequencing/barcoding via UK BIOSCAN, based at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, is now creating hundreds of thousands of invertebrate Cytochrome c Oxidase sub unit 1 (COI) barcodes from specimens collected across the United Kingdom (UK). Holy Loch Nature Reserve (HLNR), in Argyll, Scotland, joined the project in 2024, and in the same year, our first 6350 DNA [...]
Evaluating the efficacy of window treatments to reduce bird–window collisions
Published: 2026-03-11
Subjects: Life Sciences
Collisions with glass are a leading anthropogenic driver of avian mortality. Window treatments can be highly effective at reducing collisions, however, treating windows remains uncommon and many treatments are applied that do not follow evidence-based standards or guidelines. To evaluate the efficacy of window treatments that meet versus do not meet guidelines, and the drivers influencing [...]
Separating good from bad – a methodological assessment of the critical temperature that separates stressful and permissive temperatures in ectotherms
Published: 2026-03-11
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Context and aim: Estimating the thermal limits of ectothermic organisms is critical for predicting their responses to climate change. A key physiological threshold in this context is the critical temperature (Tc), which separates the permissive temperature range, where organisms maintain homeostasis and complete their life cycle, from the stressful range, where thermal stress causes physiological [...]
Conserving Coherence Under Constraint
Published: 2026-03-10
Subjects: Life Sciences
Organisms often respond to energy constraints, time pressure, or imminent threat by limiting behavioral options, lowering metabolic demands, and increasing their level of coordinated action. Although these responses can be framed as impairment, we argue they can be adaptive responses that occur as the costs of coordinating complexity exceed an organism's capabilities. As such, selection favors [...]
Population genomics of Uperoleia daviesae (Anura: Myobatrachidae) highlights the vulnerability of naturally fragmented short-range endemics to urban development
Published: 2026-03-10
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Urbanisation and land use change threaten short-range endemic amphibians. Uperoleia daviesae, the Howard River toadlet, is a threatened frog species endemic to sandsheet heath, a unique, naturally patchy mosaic of habitats near Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory. We generated a chromosome-level genome assembly and performed genome-wide SNP analyses using data from 115 individuals across 15 [...]
IUCN Red List of Ecosystems, Mangroves of The Tropical Northwestern Pacific
Published: 2026-03-10
Subjects: Life Sciences
Mangroves of the Tropical Northwestern Pacific is a regional ecosystem subgroup (level 4 unit of the IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology). It includes the marine ecoregions of the East Caroline Islands, Mariana Islands and West Caroline Islands. The Tropical Northwestern Pacific mangrove province mapped extent in 2020 was 144.8 km2, representing 0.1% of the global mangrove area. The biota is [...]
Who leads diversity efforts in science? Evidence of minority tax in DEI committees of international learned societies in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Published: 2026-03-10
Subjects: Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Learned societies are key in shaping scientific communities, yet many face inequities rooted in their histories and governance. The inequities can be addressed by Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) committees or officers, but little is known about these organisational structures. We present the first analysis of 70 DEI structures across 50 international ecology and evolutionary biology [...]
Fear on the Landscape: How human activity shapes wildlife habitat use in protected areas in Tasmania
Published: 2026-03-10
Subjects: Life Sciences
The growing enthusiasm for outdoor recreation has prompted questions about the effects of different forms of human activity on the habitat use of both predators and prey. Here, we used time-to-event camera trap data from a large-scale survey in Tasmanian protected areas to investigate the influence of motorised (vehicles) and non-motorised (hikers, joggers, and cyclists) recreation on wildlife [...]
Long-lasting negative effects of poor early life conditions on cognitive performance in adulthood in a wild bird
Published: 2026-03-09
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Nutrition, Ornithology
Adverse conditions encountered during growth, such as stress or malnutrition, are known to affect cognitive development and functions in adulthood in humans and laboratory animals. However, how early life conditions can influence adult cognition in wild animals remains unclear. Yet cognitive abilities such as innovation can be crucial for animals to cope with rapidly changing environments. We [...]
Differential gene expression between urban and rural acorn ant populations
Published: 2026-03-08
Subjects: Life Sciences
The acorn ant, Temnothorax curvispinosus, is a model system for rapid evolution of physiological traits to urban environments. Here, we performed a transcriptome-wide comparison of changes in gene expression between urban and rural populations of acorn ants in the southeastern United States. Our analyses revealed 287 differentially expressed genes. Overrepresentation in gene ontology terms was [...]