Preprints
There are 3057 Preprints listed.
A robust method for quantifying the contribution of transient dynamics to variation in population growth rate
Published: 2026-03-20
Subjects: Population Biology
Understanding why population growth rates vary through time is central to ecology, evolution, and conservation. In structured populations, such variation arises from both environmentally-driven fluctuations in vital rates and intrinsic transient dynamics generated by changes in population structure. Despite long-standing recognition of these processes, existing approaches do not provide an exact [...]
Missing the mammals for the trees: comparative biogeography of southern Appalachian sky island biodiversity
Published: 2026-03-20
Subjects: Life Sciences
Sky islands are patches of relic ecosystems on mountaintops, often forest types, that were previously connected in the geological past and are now patchily distributed. Whether a particular sky island forest serves as an umbrella for conserving sky island fauna with a similar patchy distribution is an open question. To address this, we systematically delineate sky islands and identify [...]
Insect oviposition site selection as a simple system to investigate the ecology and evolution of pathogen avoidance behaviour
Published: 2026-03-20
Subjects: Animal Experimentation and Research, Behavior and Ethology, Biology, Entomology, Evolution, Immunology and Infectious Disease, Integrative Biology, Laboratory and Basic Science Research Life Sciences, Research Methods in Life Sciences, Zoology
Pathogen avoidance is a form behavioural immunity and provides the first line of defence from infection. This article discusses insect oviposition as a tractable, mechanistically grounded model for behavioural immunity and sets a concrete research agenda linking individual egg-laying decisions to population level disease dynamics. Because egg laying decisions determine offspring exposure to [...]
Towards a better understanding of adaptation: Problem description, partial solutions, and recommendations
Published: 2026-03-20
Subjects: Animal Experimentation and Research, Animal Studies, Behavior and Ethology, Biodiversity, Developmental Biology, Evolution, Human Ecology, Integrative Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Other Genetics and Genomics, Other Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration, Population Biology, Science and Technology Studies
This paper is the product of an international workshop aiming to make progress in our general understanding of adaptation. We met from 5-7 February 2025 in Hannover (Germany), funded by the foundation “Volkswagen Stiftung”. For our group of theoretical and empirical biologists, social scientists, and philosophers of science we set up a program to facilitate communication and collaboration between [...]
(R)evolution Stings Back: Rethinking Strategies for Conserving Local Biodiversity of the Western Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)
Published: 2026-03-19
Subjects: Life Sciences
The western honey bee (Apis mellifera) occupies an unusual position between domesticated livestock and wild organisms, creating persistent ambiguity in conservation policy. Most current conservation programmes prioritise controlled breeding, phenotypic stability, and lineage integrity, implicitly treating honey bees as populations dependent on continuous human management. While effective at [...]
iDeer: A decision-support tool for managing deer alongside woodland creation
Published: 2026-03-19
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Forest Management, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Increasing deer (Cervidae) densities driven by land-use change and climate warming represent a growing challenge to the establishment and management of woodlands across temperate biomes. Targeting deer management is challenging without spatially explicit information on potential impact risks under alternative management scenarios. Here we present the iDeer Tool [...]
Permissible Spite: Kin Selection, Demography, and the Inverse Hamiltonian Equation
Published: 2026-03-19
Subjects: Biology, Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Systems Biology
This article revisits Hamilton’s rule by proposing an inverted formulation to evaluate the evolutionary permissibility of spiteful behavior within kin-based populations. We formalize a reverse Hamiltonian equation and apply replicator dynamics to investigate the demographic and genetic conditions under which within group aggression may become evolutionarily stable. The model shows that in [...]
Reintroducing a nationally extinct predator, the forest caterpillar hunter (Calosoma sycophanta), for biocontrol of the invasive oak processionary (Thaumetopoea processionea) in Britain: considerations, benefits and risks
Published: 2026-03-18
Subjects: Life Sciences
1. Controlling invasive species remains one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. Sustainably managing invasive pests like the oak processionary moth (Thaumetopoea processionea; OPM), which lacks natural enemies in Britain, may require the introduction, or reintroduction, of suitable biocontrol agents. 2. The forest caterpillar hunter (Calosoma sycophanta; FCH) is thought to have been [...]
Historical mating systems and the origin of sexual ornam
Published: 2026-03-18
Subjects: Life Sciences
Ornamental traits are commonly interpreted as products of runaway sexual selection or costly signals of male quality, but many ornamental traits appear to be functionally redundant, and, especially in birds, multiple ornaments coexist without clear links to condition or survival. This new proposal explains the evolution of ornament through sexual selection. based on looking for historic [...]
The Finite Element method to aid modelling of complex ecological systems
Published: 2026-03-18
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Predicting how biodiversity responds to environmental change and management interventions remains a major challenge in ecology. Ecological systems are shaped by the interplay of demographic processes, species interactions, dispersal, and spatial heterogeneity across landscapes. Yet, many existing modelling approaches face a trade-off between spatial and ecological complexity, which limits their [...]
The scent of survival in a warming world: how monoterpenes drive thermal adaptation in thyme
Published: 2026-03-18
Subjects: Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Other Plant Sciences, Physiology, Plant Biology, Plant Sciences, Population Biology
1 Monoterpenes are key plant secondary metabolites with well known defensive and ecological functions, yet their role in abiotic stress tolerance remains poorly understood. In many Mediterranean plants, monoterpene composition varies markedly within and among species and is associated with climatic gradients, suggesting that these compounds may mediate plant responses to extreme heat. 2 We [...]
Adaptive strategies for biodiversity monitoring integrating Indigenous ecological calendars and community science data
Published: 2026-03-18
Subjects: Life Sciences
Integrating Indigenous and Western ecological knowledge can strengthen understanding of phenological patterns, yet this integration is often constrained by epistemological differences, power asymmetries, and histories of exclusion. We evaluated the potential of the Two-Eye Seeing guiding principle, which integrates the strengths of both knowledge systems, in ongoing biocultural conservation [...]
Flexibility training does not increase behavioral flexibility of Florida scrub-jays
Published: 2026-03-18
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Human modifications of environments are expanding, causing global changes that other species must adjust to or suffer from. Behavioral flexibility (hereafter 'flexibility') could be key to coping with rapid change. Behavioral research can contribute to conservation by determining which behaviors can predict the ability to adjust to human modified environments and whether these can be manipulated. [...]
Habitat disturbance interacts with Bd infection to shape the skin bacterial communities of an Amazonian frog
Published: 2026-03-17
Subjects: Life Sciences
Amphibians are the most threatened vertebrate class globally, with habitat alteration and the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) representing two major and often co-occurring drivers of decline. However, how these stressors interact to shape host-microbiome-pathogen dynamics remains poorly understood. Here, we investigated whether variation in anthropogenic habitat disturbance, [...]
From Trading Genes to Crafting New Tricks: How Horizontal Gene Transfer Potentiates the Emergence of Novel Functions
Published: 2026-03-17
Subjects: Evolution, Genetics, Genomics, Microbiology
Horizontal gene transfer (HGT), the set of processes by which genetic information is transferred between individuals, has shaped life’s evolution. It is particularly frequent in microbial organisms, where it has driven numerous remarkable adaptations to extreme conditions, anti-microbial agents, or biotic interactions. Its role in spreading novel functions is now documented by countless examples [...]