Preprints
There are 2948 Preprints listed.
Continental scale light-temperature extremes reveal key behavioural trade-offs
Published: 2026-02-16
Subjects: Life Sciences
Daily rhythms determine ecological interactions, but we rarely know how animals convert activity schedules into movement and space use across extreme light–temperature regimes. Using multi-annual GPS data from 76 Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) tracked across Scandinavia and Iberia (spanning 35° latitude), we quantified diel activity and displacement to test how photoperiod and temperature [...]
Making movement ecology into a predictive science
Published: 2026-02-16
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
1. Movement allows animals to change their environmental surroundings and remain in suitable conditions. As environments shift, e.g. through predictable seasonal progression, individuals can adapt their movement strategies accordingly. However, novel climate change introduces unpredictable, atypical conditions (e.g. droughts, floods), which may drive distinct movement responses. Predicting how [...]
Temporal and Spatial Variation in Temperature and Oxygen at the Microscale: Key Niche Axes for Aquatic Life
Published: 2026-02-16
Subjects: Life Sciences
To understand animal adaptations we need accurate estimates of the ecological factors impacting on organisms in nature. Whilst temperature is a well-established driver of physiological performance, its effects in aquatic systems are closely linked to water oxygenation. Oxygen levels are expected to differ spatially and fluctuate temporally much more strongly in water than on land, but our [...]
Cities alter the latitudinal diversity gradient of birds in North America
Published: 2026-02-16
Subjects: Life Sciences
The latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG) is a widely recognized biogeographic pattern, yet its persistence under increasing human impacts remains unclear. Leveraging 17 million eBird records, we investigated how urbanization alters LDGs in North America. We quantified LDGs across 662 cities and their surroundings, and found that LDGs vary by season and native status: non-native species exhibited [...]
A macroevolutionary gene network reveals diapause evolutionary dynamics beyond the circadian clock and predicts microevolution
Published: 2026-02-16
Subjects: Computational Biology, Evolution, Genomics, Other Genetics and Genomics, Population Biology
Diapause is an alternative developmental pathway evolved independently in many insects to synchronize life cycles with resource abundance. While subsets of this essential phenotype have long been studied at a single species level, the genomic basis of the full diapause syndrome remains poorly understood. Remaining unknown is whether convergent diapause syndromes employ shared mechanisms. This [...]
No seed size–number trade-off in European beech: climate governs investment per seed
Published: 2026-02-13
Subjects: Life Sciences
Mast-seeding trees can vary seed output by orders of magnitude among years, but it remains unclear whether high seed production comes at the cost of reduced per-seed investment, as predicted by fixed-budget allocation models. We quantified individual seed production with seed mass in European beech across 2,792 trees and 123 populations spanning the species’ European range and quantified seed [...]
Unstructured community science data reveal constriction of breeding distribution for a common montane bird across the Fennoscandian peninsula
Published: 2026-02-13
Subjects: Life Sciences
The threat of climate change is particularly acute for species in arctic and montane habitats, where changes are happening the most rapidly. Species are generally expected to shift their ranges northward and upslope in response to changing climates, but actual measured shifts in species distributions have been nuanced and large quantities of data are needed to accurately assess shifts. The [...]
Insect monitoring without pitfalls: seven steps for robust insect sensing systems
Published: 2026-02-13
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Biodiversity, Computer Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Life Sciences
Data shortages fuel controversy about an ongoing insect biodiversity crisis. Insects are immensely diverse and functionally critical for ecosystems, yet data on insect trends remain patchy and biased. Sensors, ranging from camera-equipped light traps to weather radar stations, are set to transform entomological data collection. Meanwhile, AI models that extract biological information from sensors [...]
Assessing how far a ‘Net Zero’ strategy moves an organisation towards ‘Nature Positive’ contributions
Published: 2026-02-13
Subjects: Biodiversity
‘Net Zero’ and ‘Nature Positive’ frameworks can guide organisations to contribute towards climate and biodiversity goals, but are often implemented separately. It remains unclear whether achieving Net Zero strategies can aid progress towards Nature Positive goals. We apply footprinting methods to a case study (Wadham College, Oxford) to quantitatively assess whether an organisational Net Zero [...]
A systematic map and comprehensive database of animal organ sizes
Published: 2026-02-12
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Biodiversity, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Pharmacology, Toxicology and Environmental Health
The relationship between individual organ size and overall body size in animals is a fundamental biological phenomenon that spans multiple disciplines. However, a comprehensive synthesis of the sources of variation in organ-specific scaling remains lacking, even among mammals, the most extensively studied vertebrate group. We developed a systematic map and compiled a large database of paired [...]
The incredible vulnerability that reproduction poses for plant species in a warming world
Published: 2026-02-12
Subjects: Life Sciences
Temperatures are rising globally and threatening the persistence of natural plant populations. Elevated temperatures disrupt gametogenesis, fertilization, and seed filling, often at lower thresholds than those affecting photosynthesis, growth, or survival. While crop scientists have found that key reproductive stages are particularly vulnerable to heat stress across plant systems, ecological and [...]
Oxygen limitation is not a major physiological mechanism restricting early life development in zebrafish
Published: 2026-02-12
Subjects: Life Sciences
Early life stages are considered particularly vulnerable to warming because tissue oxygen supply is thought to become limiting, given their underdeveloped gill function and reliance on passive oxygen diffusion. Here, we tested whether oxygen availability constrains early development under warming in zebrafish (Danio rerio). We exposed embryos and early-stage larvae to a high-resolution factorial [...]
Comments on “Mateus-Aguilar, B., Díaz-Salazar, A. F., Andrade-Rivas, F., Batista, N. M., Cárdenas-Navarrete, A., Arenas, A. D., ... & Echeverri, A. (2025). Assessing Biocultural Diversity Across Scales Using Ecological Indicators. Ecological Indicators, 176, 113616.”
Published: 2026-02-11
Subjects: Anthropology, Biodiversity, Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Interplay of diet, heat stress, and the microbiome shapes health and escape behavior in amphibian larvae
Published: 2026-02-11
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Microbiology, Organismal Biological Physiology
What animals eat modulates their microbiome and is fundamental to their health. Microbiomes can improve hosts’ ability to cope with environmental stressors, including increased temperatures and altered food quantity and quality associated with climate change. Using a multifactorial experimental design, we tested whether three diets with increasing amounts of protein, fat, and components of animal [...]
Towards an integrated understanding of animal weapons
Published: 2026-02-11
Subjects: Life Sciences
Animals resolve conflict using an astonishing array of weapons – from electric fields and sonic shockwaves to deadly venom and high-impact strikes. Most weapon research has typically considered only a single weapon modality at a time with a focus separately on weapons under sexual selection or natural selection. Further, few studies have examined how weapons are integrated into the larger [...]