There are 1217 Preprints listed.
Published: 2023-09-28
Subjects: Life Sciences
Meiofauna—a collective term to define microscopic animals—represent a numerically important component of biodiversity in most of Earth’s ecosystems and play a crucial role in biogeochemical cycles. Meiofauna have also been used as models to understand fundamental adaptive processes, have contributed to a better understanding of the animal’s Tree of Life, and are believed to be a treasure trove [...]
Published: 2023-09-28
Subjects: Life Sciences
The R package popharvest was designed to help assess the sustainability of offtake in birds when only limited demographic information is available. In this article, we describe some basics of harvest theory and then discuss several considerations when using the different approaches in popharvest to assess whether observed harvests are unsustainable. Throughout, we emphasize the importance of [...]
Published: 2023-09-25
Subjects: Life Sciences
Comparative analyses and meta-analyses are key tools to elucidate broad biological principles, yet the two approaches often appear different in purpose. We propose an integrated approach that can generate deeper insights into eco-evolutionary processes. Marrying comparative and meta-analytic approaches will allow for 1) a more accurate investigation of drivers of biological variation; 2) a [...]
Published: 2023-09-25
Subjects: Bioinformatics, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences
In ecology and evolution, genetic and genomic data are commonly collected for a vast array of scientific and applied purposes. Despite mandates for public archiving, such data are typically used only once by the data-generating authors. The repurposing of genetic and genomic datasets remains uncommon because it is often difficult, if not impossible, due to non-standard archiving practices and [...]
Published: 2023-09-25
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Forest Biology
1) Context: The resilience of the Earth's vegetation is changing heterogeneously, making it a challenge to unveil what causes these resilience changes. Understanding the driving forces of these changes can help us make informed management decisions to protect and restore ecosystems. Here, we address this gap by identifying the drivers that have caused the resilience of ecosystems to change during [...]
Published: 2023-09-22
Subjects: Life Sciences
Host-parasite interactions are impacted by climate, which may result variation of parasitism across landscapes and time. Understanding how parasitism varies across these spatio-temporal scales is crucial to predicting how organism will respond to and cope under a rapidly changing climate. Empirical work on how parasitism varies across climates is limited. Here, we examine the variation of [...]
Published: 2023-09-22
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Functional traits are the result of evolution and adaptation, providing important ecological insights into how organisms interact with their environment. Benthic macroinvertebrates, in particular, have garnered attention as biomonitoring indicators for freshwater ecosystems. This study presents a functional trait dataset for benthic macroinvertebrates, comprising 447 taxa (393 at genus level, 53 [...]
Published: 2023-09-22
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Understanding the dynamics of ecological interactions is an essential initial step in acquiring a comprehensive understanding of the ecosystem structure and functions. Such knowledge is pivotal in effective conservation planning, sustainable development, and ecosystem management. However, the limited availability of information on ecological interactions, commonly referred to as Eltonian [...]
Published: 2023-09-20
Subjects: Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Motivation: The metaweb is a dictionary of nodes and their potential interactions developed for a particular region, focusing on a particular type of ecosystem. Based on the local biodiversity information at different spatial and temporal scales, the regional metaweb can be easily decomposed into local webs. The generated local webs are useful for understanding spatiotemporal variations in [...]
Published: 2023-09-20
Subjects: Life Sciences
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) calls for a 50% reduction in rates of invasive alien species establishment by 2030. However, estimating changes in rates of introduction and establishment is far from straightforward, particularly on a national scale. Variation in survey effort over time, the absence of data on survey effort, and aspects of the invasion process itself [...]
Published: 2023-09-20
Subjects: Environmental Policy, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Candy darters, once abundant in the West Virginia and Virginia water basins, now require substantial conservation efforts due to habitat destruction and hybridization with the variegate darter species. Direct human effects have also escalated the destruction of candy darter habitats, making the protection of this important species and what remains of their habitat of utmost importance. With the [...]
Published: 2023-09-19
Subjects: Life Sciences
Populations and ecological communities are changing worldwide, and empirical studies exhibit a mixture of either declining or mixed trends. Confusion in global biodiversity trends thus remains while being of major social, political, and scientific importance. Part of this variability may arise from the difficulty to reliably assess global biodiversity trends. Here, we conducted a literature [...]
Published: 2023-09-19
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Aim Relatively long periods of time can elapse between the naturalization and spread of non-native plant species. However, time lags on islands are poorly understood, especially if integrating plant life histories. We asked whether (1) there is a time lag in the invasion process, (2) there were distinct periods of naturalization in the non-native plants that invaded islands and (3) non-native [...]
Published: 2023-09-18
Subjects: Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences, Plant Sciences
Published: 2023-09-17
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution
Sexual selection leads to the evolution of extravagant weaponry or ornamental displays, with the bearer of these traits gaining a reproductive advantage, potentially at a cost to the individual’s survival. The consequences of sexual selection can therefore impact species demographic processes and overall abundance. Currently, evidence connecting the effects of sexual selection to demography and [...]