Preprints
There are 3856 Preprints listed.
Rethinking success and quality in ecological forecasting
Published: 2026-10-28
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Ecological forecasts are increasingly required to inform science, policy and action in the face of rapid environmental and societal change. However, differences in how developers and end-users judge the value of ecological forecasts may limit their utility and uptake in real-world decision-making. Here, we use a participatory approach to propose a novel, holistic framework for the evaluation of [...]
Polar bear conflict risk behaviour is shaped by maternal, individual, and environmental effects, not heritability
Published: 2026-10-28
Subjects: Life Sciences
As ecosystems transform under the combined pressures of climate change and human activity, interactions between humans and wildlife are becoming increasingly common. Human-wildlife conflict is often managed by either targeting repeatedly involved individuals or modifying the conditions that make conflict more likely. Choosing which approach to emphasize depends partly on whether individual [...]
Spatial crime scripting and meso-level analyses of illegal pangolin trade
Published: 2026-10-28
Subjects: Biodiversity, Life Sciences
Human-related threats such as poaching and illegal trade remain the dominant risk to pangolin conservation. Using crime science focused on illegal pangolin hunting, we compare expert vs. community member’s spatio-temporal knowledge about the different stages of pangolin poaching and trade process at a national scale; explore spatial trajectories between stages; and explore spatial predictors of [...]
Phylogenetic, allometric, and functional group structure in chemical sensitivity across aquatic taxa
Published: 2026-10-28
Subjects: Toxicology
Chemical risk assessment across diverse communities remains challenging because most chemical-species pairs are empirically untested. Identifying phylogenetic, allometric, and functional group structure in chemical sensitivity may support cross-species extrapolation and community risk assessment, yet how these factors explain sensitivity across diverse taxa and chemicals remains poorly [...]
Considering more complex covariate responses improves predictive performance in dynamic occupancy models
Published: 2026-10-28
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Finding the right level of model complexity is a key challenge in most contexts, including ecology where data are often messy and underlying patterns complex. Dynamic occupancy models (DOMs) are increasingly used for modelling species distributions. DOMs have advantages over traditional species distribution models because their hierarchical structure allows them to explicitly model changes in [...]
Comparing covariate selection strategies for predictive dynamic occupancy models
Published: 2026-10-28
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Predicting how species will redistribute under global environmental change is a prerequisite for effective conservation. Dynamic occupancy models (DOMs) are increasingly popular tools for modelling range dynamics. DOMs estimate local colonisation and extinction probabilities while accounting for imperfect detection to capture the processes behind changing patterns of species occurrence. Covariate [...]
Nocturnal vocalizations in diurnal birds: a systematic review of current knowledge, research gaps and future directions
Published: 2026-10-27
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Ornithology
Nocturnal vocalisations by diurnal birds have been increasingly documented in recent decades, yet the functions and mechanisms underlying this behaviour remain poorly understood. Here, we conducted a systematic review to synthesize the current knowledge regarding nocturnal vocalisations in diurnal birds. The study is structured around 12 non-exclusive hypotheses proposed to explain why diurnal [...]
Globalizing recreational fisheries should not globalize non-native species
Published: 2026-10-27
Subjects: Aquaculture and Fisheries Life Sciences, Life Sciences
Recreational fishing continues to expand globally, generating substantial economic, cultural, and social benefits. Yet with this globalization in fishing opportunities comes more diverse pathways for biological invasions. Major concerns are surfacing that the intentional stocking of non-native fishes to initiate or enhance recreational fisheries may facilitate the unsanctioned spread of the [...]
Not All Shrubs are Equal: The Outsized Ecological Consequences of Ericaceous Shrub Encroachment on Communities and Ecosystem Processes
Published: 2026-10-27
Subjects: Life Sciences
Shrubs are functionally important and found across various ecosystems. Over the past few decades, shrubs have been expanding their ranges and encroaching within grassland, temperate, boreal, and tundra ecosystems. Because of this range expansion and their functional importance, shrubs are altering abiotic factors, biotic interactions, and ecosystem processes. However, shrubs of the Ericaceae [...]
CHIRAL FLEXIBILITY IN INSECT PHEROMONES: WHY DO SOME SPECIES TOLERATE THE WRONG STEREOISOMER?
Published: 2026-10-27
Subjects: Life Sciences
Many insect pheromones are chiral, and receivers respond to non-natural stereoisomers in strikingly different ways: some are completely inhibited by a few per cent of the antipode, some ignore it, some require both enantiomers, and at least one responds more strongly to stereoisomers it does not produce. These response types were catalogued two decades ago, and the most common of them, a [...]
Rethinking bias in biodiversity science: sources and solutions
Published: 2026-10-27
Subjects: Life Sciences
Bias is increasingly a central concern in biodiversity science, yet the term is used inconsistently. A key source of confusion is the failure to distinguish clearly between the dimension in which bias manifests (e.g. spatial or taxonomic) and/or the stage of the observation process that gives rise to it. This distinction matters because the appropriate method for mitigating bias depends primarily [...]
Rainfall increases similarity in plant species composition between grazed and ungrazed sites in a tropical semi-arid grassland
Published: 2026-10-27
Subjects: Life Sciences
1. In peninsular India, semi-arid grasslands support marginal farmers and rich endemic biodiversity, yet are commonly designated as wastelands, and fragmentation has caused heavy grazing by domestic and wild mammals. The impacts of unmanaged grazing and increasingly variable monsoon rainfall on the plant community are unknown. 2. We studied an ancient tropical semi-arid grassland in a drought [...]
Movement Ethology: Body Kinematics Meets Relocation Data
Published: 2026-10-27
Subjects: Life Sciences
Animal movement is studied by two different communities. Movement ecologists use GPS location point sequences to track where whole animals range over extended periods of time. Computational ethologists use video and machine learning to measure how body parts move over short periods of time, mostly in the laboratory. We propose Movement Ethology to link the study of body configurations and actions [...]
A field observation method to characterize site soundscape and improve detection probability estimation for eastern bat species in North America
Published: 2026-10-27
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation
Acoustic monitoring of bat activity has become increasingly prevalent in recent years. A major challenge is imperfect detection caused by bat behavior and the physical soundscape. Although environmental factors such as weather are commonly considered to account for imperfect detection, there is a lack of an easy-to-use, widely applicable protocol for characterizing soundscapes. We introduce a [...]
Rapid health assessment of coral reefs: a standardised, quick, and reliable tool developed and tested during the 2024/25 global bleaching event
Published: 2026-10-27
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Coral reefs worldwide are experiencing increasingly frequent and severe degradation events driven by rising sea surface temperatures, yet reliable and scientifically comparable data remain sparse for many coral reefs. Park managers, rangers, and community-led groups in areas lacking scientific studies could contribute to data records by collecting relevant data on coral reefs. However, these [...]