Preprints
There are 3443 Preprints listed.
Integrity Matters: Riparian Forest Preservation Influences Body Condition and Parasites of Amphibians
Published: 2026-07-15
Subjects: Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Riparian forests are essential for the structure and dynamics of head streams, performing an important role in maintaining biodiversity in fragmented forests. Integrity condition influences the stream quality and the distribution of amphibians and their responses to infections. To investigate this premise, we evaluated parasite infection parameters in amphibians through six riparian areas with [...]
Phantom decoys cause irrational choice in lizards
Published: 2026-07-14
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Choice theory generally predicts that individuals act to maximize their benefits and behave according to simple rationality assumptions. However, the predictions of choice theory are often violated when an additional option is added to a choice set leading to a shift in choice between the original options. While this “decoy effect” has been documented across several animal taxa, it has not been [...]
Heart Rate and R–R Interval Recording in a Bottlenose Dolphin: Toward a Keeper-Led Framework for HRV-Based Welfare Assessment
Published: 2026-07-14
Subjects: Life Sciences
Monitoring physiological states in managed animals is important for health management and welfare assessment. Heart rate variability (HRV) may provide welfare-relevant information on autonomic regulation, but practical keeper-led approaches for obtaining cardiac data during routine husbandry remain limited in zoos and aquariums. To address this gap, we propose a keeper-led framework in which [...]
Is Biology Necessary to Advance Biology?
Published: 2026-07-14
Subjects: Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology, Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Biology, Cell and Developmental Biology, Computational Biology, Philosophy, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Systems Biology
AI is transforming the workflow of biological science. But what role remains for human cognition when the priority is deep theory? We propose a division of labor based on a “coverage asymmetry” between artificial and biological agents. AI excels at extending the encounterable: scaling known mechanisms and exploring complex parameter regimes. However, AI cannot (yet) perform kind formation – the [...]
Charismatic microbes: adapting frameworks of non-human charisma to microorganisms
Published: 2026-07-14
Subjects: Anthropology, Geography, Nature and Society Relations
1. Microbes are important to life on the planet, and therefore of high interest to conservation. Public microbial literacy however is restricted. Non-human charisma, the ways in which humans recognise and relate to non-humans, has been identified as an important influence on scientific research and conservation outcomes. As interest in microbes both in research and in science communication is [...]
Within- and across-genus scaling of vessel diameter reveals consistent hydraulic responses to rainfall
Published: 2026-07-14
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Plant Biology, Plant Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
· Xylem vessel diameter and lumen fraction are expected to track water availability via the hydraulic safety–efficiency trade-off yet observed trait–rainfall relationships are weak and inconsistent. This discrepancy may partly reflect the conflation of within- and across-lineage effects in comparative datasets. · We tested this possibility by analysing hydraulically weighted vessel [...]
Why trait gradients across environments differ within species and across communities: Insights from a theoretical model
Published: 2026-07-14
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Trait-environment relationships within plant species are both flatter on average and more variable than community-mean trends, yet the mechanisms driving this variation remain poorly understood. Classic theory attributes this flattening to maladaptive gene flow, but the theory has been underused and its scope, in particular how multiple factors interact to shape trait slopes, remains largely [...]
Origin of Zygnematophyceae algae from mitotically dividing anydrophyte zygotes
Published: 2026-07-13
Subjects: Life Sciences
It is now generally accepted that Zygnematophyceae evolved from the multicellular common ancestor with Embryopyta - Anydrophyta - by reduction to unicellular state. Here we propose and discuss possible scenarios how this reduction might have proceeded - either via stepwise evolutionary reduction or via an abrupt life-cycle reduction, establishing a single cell lineage and rendering a number of [...]
Social complexity does not lead to more stable demographic histories across bird species
Published: 2026-07-13
Subjects: Life Sciences
Species’ responses to environmental variability can include evolutionary changes in social behaviours, leading to variation among species in characteristics including their mating systems, care systems (e.g., cooperative breeding), the rate of group formation, and the strength of interaction between individuals. These social traits can influence the physiology of individuals, potentially [...]
Food resources shape bird assemblages, rendering trophic structure globally convergent
Published: 2026-07-13
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Species persist only when energy resources are available and organisms have traits to exploit them. Because resources such as fruit or carrion differ in abundance and diversity, general principles of energy flow and niche theory should shape differences in species richness among trophic guilds within assemblages. Yet, this hypothesis remains empirically untested. Here, we analyze 31,251 local [...]
Lactate Dehydrogenase as a Candidate Genomic Marker of Climate Change in Mammals?
Published: 2026-07-13
Subjects: Bioinformatics, Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology, Evolution, Genetics, Genomics, Molecular Genetics, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Population Biology
Climate change imposes metabolic and thermal stress on mammals, yet genomic markers that track lineage specific adaptation remain limited. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), a central enzyme in lactate metabolism and anaerobic stress response, has not previously been evaluated for its evolutionary association with climate change induced selection. Here, comparative genomics across 14 mammalian species [...]
Decadal-scale climate cycles preserved in megaherbivore dental tissues in tropical Asia
Published: 2026-07-13
Subjects: Climate, Paleontology
Rainforests have emerged as key biomes for understanding the initial dispersal of modern humans from Africa. In Southeast Asia, the oldest dated records of humans are associated with rainforests, but recent fossil records suggest these biomes were structurally different from today. Climatic fluctuations associated with insolation changes brought about smooth transitions between rain, dry and [...]
Insect movement and spatial dynamics determine trap crop effectiveness
Published: 2026-07-13
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Trap cropping diverts pest pressure away from cash crops, yet its effectiveness depends on pest movement behaviour and the retention or removal processes that occur after insects reach trap plants. We develop a one-dimensional movement-based modelling framework in which pest trajectories follow a biased correlated random walk within a spatially structured field containing trap-crop interception [...]
Climate isolation and percolation as drivers of terrestrial vertebrate richness
Published: 2026-07-13
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Global biodiversity impact spillovers of national transportation systems
Published: 2026-07-13
Subjects: Biodiversity
Transportation systems cause well-documented local biodiversity impacts and substantial greenhouse gas emissions, yet the global biodiversity impacts embedded in their value chains remain poorly understood. Here, we quantify the life cycle biodiversity and carbon footprints of Finland’s national transportation system, covering traffic, transport infrastructure, and vehicle production and [...]