Preprints
There are 3277 Preprints listed.
“Ecological and Conservation Governance Condition Analysis Using Ecological Diversity Indices: A Study of Bhawal National Park”
Published: 2026-05-25
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Education, Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Forest Biology, Forest Management, Other Forestry and Forest Sciences
Abstract: Once a historical biodiversity hotspot, the Bhawal National Park (BNP) in Bangladesh faces severe threats to its ecological integrity, despite its protected status. Located approximately 40 km north of Dhaka, the park’s original coppice Sal forest (Shorea robusta) ecosystem is now fragmented and degraded due to illegal deforestation and encroachment, leading to a drastic decline in [...]
Ecological and evolutionary dynamics of chlamydiae endosymbionts in social amoeba host communities
Published: 2026-05-25
Subjects: Life Sciences
Endosymbiotic interactions have played fundamental roles in shaping the evolution of complex eukaryotes. However, how ecological processes shape endosymbioses that are still segregating in host populations have been less described. Here, we characterize the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of chlamydiae bacterial endosymbionts in dictyostelid social amoeba host communities. Our survey of over [...]
Towards a standard model for teaching the process of biological evolution
Published: 2026-05-25
Subjects: Education, Life Sciences
Evolution is widely considered to be one of the cornerstones of the biological sciences. Despite this importance, the process of biological evolution remains widely misunderstood among students, illustrating that evolution education is in need of an educational synthesis. The current paradigm for teaching the evolutionary process revolves around using population genetics models to illustrate the [...]
Secondary pathways are an important, but neglected aspect of biological invasions
Published: 2026-05-25
Subjects: Life Sciences
The pathways through which non-native species are introduced and spread help shape the rate and geographic patterns of biological invasions. These pathways can be classified as primary, where non-native species cross jurisdictional or biogeographic boundaries, or secondary, where species move within these boundaries after introduction. Despite fundamental economic, political, social, and [...]
Biorestorer: A Framework for Synthetic Succession with a Qualitative System Level Illustration
Published: 2026-05-22
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Ecosystem restoration in severely degraded or soil-absent environments requires approaches that operate independently of natural soils and make effective use of locally available resources. The Biorestorer platform introduces synthetic succession as a systems-based eco-engineering framework structured in sequential functional phases and aligned with in situ resource utilization (ISRU) principles, [...]
A systematic review on the effectiveness of salmonid spawning habitat improvements, and recommendations to potentially increase productivity of depressed Newfoundland Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) populations
Published: 2026-05-22
Subjects: Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Population Biology
When dangerous predators are ignored: antipredator responses in temporary-pond amphibians
Published: 2026-05-22
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Antipredator behaviour is recognised as a key factor of reintroduction success, yet it remains poorly considered in conservation practice. Despite their conservation relevance, little is known about antipredator behaviour in Pelobatidae tadpoles, among which the endangered Italian lineage of common spadefoot toad Pelobates fuscus has been the target of several captive breeding and reintroduction [...]
Synthetic biology as an empirical tool for evolutionary theory
Published: 2026-05-22
Subjects: Life Sciences
Evolutionary biology has traditionally inferred process from patterns in extant organisms and the fossil record, leaving many foundational questions constrained by their historical nature. Over the past two decades, synthetic and high-throughput approaches — including deep mutational scanning, genome editing, ancestral sequence reconstruction, engineered mutators, and random-sequence assays — [...]
Towards Nature Positive supply chains: From biodiversity impacts to organisational action
Published: 2026-05-22
Subjects: Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Policy, Environmental Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Sustainability, Water Resource Management
Large organisations are critical to halting and reversing biodiversity loss, yet most of their impacts are hidden in complex supply chains. Robust strategies to fully identify, quantify, trace, and begin to mitigate these impacts remain rare. Here we present a generalisable workflow for assessing and addressing supply chain impacts on biodiversity and then apply it to the University of Oxford’s [...]
Threatscapes for the aeroconservation of birds
Published: 2026-05-22
Subjects: Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Zoology
The airspace is increasingly cluttered with threats to aerial organisms in the form of anthropogenic structures and vehicles, likely contributing to bird population declines through additive mortality mediated by collisions. In the United States alone, up to and likely exceeding one billion birds die annually due to collisions aloft, and most of these fatalities are related to six threat types: [...]
A fine-grained behavior-based approach to estimating the probability of collision between moving vehicles and birds
Published: 2026-05-22
Subjects: Life Sciences
1. Collisions between animals and vehicles contribute to biodiversity loss, threaten human safety, and have economic consequences. Escape responses of wildlife to vehicles are a critical factor in determining whether a collision occurs. However, presently species-specific vulnerability estimates do not consider the species escape behavior, potentially resulting in inaccurate mortality estimates. [...]
A Critical Year for Nature: Now is the time to accelerate action on the Global Biodiversity Framework
Published: 2026-05-20
Subjects: Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology, Biodiversity, Environmental Policy, Environmental Studies
In October 2026, Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will convene to review progress against the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) adopted in 2022. A global report will provide a summary of collective progress, primarily drawing from government self-reporting at the halfway mark to 2030, the target year for halting and reversing nature loss. [...]
Collembola eco-morphological indices (EMI) and Soil Biological Quality Index (QBS-c): a review and practical guidelines for soil health assessment
Published: 2026-05-20
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Soil health assessments remain dominated by physicochemical indicators, largely due to limited functional understanding and a lack of practical tools for quantifying soil biodiversity in applied contexts. However, many soil functions are fundamentally driven by biotic components, highlighting the need for robust biological indicators. The Soil Biological Quality indices, QBS-ar and QBS-c (Parisi, [...]
The holobiont is not a useful model for most host-microbiome interactions
Published: 2026-05-20
Subjects: Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences, Evolution, Life Sciences
The holobiont concept refers to a host and associated microbes. It has been critiqued over the last decade, primarily based on the argument that individual holobionts are not an appropriate level for analyzing multi-generation host dynamics, as most microbes are acquired from the environment. Several responses were given to this and other criticisms. The main response has been that the holobiont [...]
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 [...]