Preprints
There are 2721 Preprints listed.
Conceptualizing microbe-plasmid communities as complex adaptive systems
Published: 2023-02-20
Subjects: Life Sciences
Plasmids shape microbial communities' diversity, structure, and function. Nevertheless, we lack a mechanistic understanding of how community structure and dynamics emerge from local microbe-plasmid interactions and co-evolution. Addressing this gap is challenging because multiple processes operate simultaneously at multiple levels of organization. For example, immunity operates between a plasmid [...]
Extra-pair paternity, breeding density and synchrony in natural cavities versus nestboxes in two passerine birds
Published: 2023-02-17
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Ornithology
Most of what is known about extra-pair paternity in hole-nesting birds derives from studies using artificial nesting sites, such as nestboxes. However, it has rarely been investigated whether inference drawn from breeding events taking place in nestboxes matches what would be observed under natural conditions, i.e. in natural cavities. We here report on a variation in promiscuity in blue tits and [...]
Nature exposure and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: A Navigation Guide systematic review with meta-analysis
Published: 2023-02-17
Subjects: Medicine and Health Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Previous reviews concluded that nature contact was an important coping strategy against poor mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the quality of evidence in these reviews was not sufficiently documented in terms of the risk of bias in reviewed studies. We attempted to fill this gap with a Navigation Guide systematic review and meta-analyses on the associations between nature [...]
High Survival and Percentages of Giraffe Calves Signal Areas in Need of Protection
Published: 2023-02-16
Subjects: Life Sciences
We surveyed endangered Masai giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi) at Oloirien Group Ranch (OGR) and Oloisukut Conservancy (OC) in Kenya to determine their conservation potential. Here, Maasai settlements, livestock, and predator control result in lion densities less than half that of adjacent protected areas. Using surveys and photographic mark-recapture (PMR), we annually calculated [...]
Kinematics and behaviour in fish escape responses: guidelines for conducting, analysing, and reporting experiments
Published: 2023-02-16
Subjects: Biology, Integrative Biology, Life Sciences
Work carried out since the late 70s has provided key insights into the comparative biomechanics, kinematics, behaviour, and neurobiology of fish escape responses. With environmental change expected to affect the physiology and biomechanics of aquatic ectotherms, there is a growing interest in understanding how environmental stressors impact the swimming performance and behaviour of fishes during [...]
Prestige bias in cultural evolutionary dynamics
Published: 2023-02-16
Subjects: Evolution, Life Sciences, Social and Cultural Anthropology
If the traits of more successful individuals are more likely to be adopted, the resulting cultural transmission is described as being success-biased. Prestige may be used as a proxy for success. Here, we model prestige bias as a combination of indirect success bias and influence bias, the latter meaning that the choice of a role-model depends on the number of individuals that have already copied [...]
Two-step CRISPR-Cas9 protocol for transposable element deletion in D. melanogaster natural populations
Published: 2023-02-15
Subjects: Life Sciences
This protocol generates a precise deletion of a transposable element (TE) in a natural population of Drosophila melanogaster using two steps of CRISPR-Cas9 homology-directed repair. In the first step, the TE is replaced by a fluorescent marker, while in the second CRISPR-Cas9 step the fluorescence marker is removed to avoid any possible effect of the introduced marker sequence. This two-step [...]
Heritability and age-dependent changes in genetic variation of telomere length in a wild house sparrow population
Published: 2023-02-13
Subjects: Evolution
Telomeres are a popular biomarker of senescence, as telomere dynamics are linked with survival and lifespan. However, the evolutionary potential of telomere dynamics, and the selection pattern that gives rise to senescence, are not well known. To better understand this, it is necessary to quantify genetic variation in telomere length, and how such variation changes with age. Here, we analysed a [...]
USE it: uniformly sampling pseudo-absences within the environmental space for applications in habitat suitability models
Published: 2023-02-13
Subjects: Life Sciences
1. Habitat suitability models infer the geographical distribution of species using occurrence data and environmental variables. While data on species presence are increasingly accessible, the difficulty to confirm real absences in the field often forces researchers to generate them in silico. To this aim, pseudo-absences are commonly randomly sampled across the study area (i.e., the geographical [...]
Remarks on an approach to study flocking phenomenon in animals
Published: 2023-02-12
Subjects: Animal Studies, Neuroscience and Neurobiology
In theoretical discussions of the potential effects of collective interactions in such biological systems, statistical physics principles and methodologies have been applied. In order to enhance their capacity for collective computation, it has been suggested that such collective systems should function close to a phase transition, specifically a (pseudo-)critical point. This paper will [...]
Environmental insults and compensative responses: when microbiome meets cancer
Published: 2023-02-11
Subjects: Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences, Life Sciences, Organismal Biological Physiology, Other Microbiology, Pathogenic Microbiology
Tumor microenvironment has recently been ascribed a new hallmark – the polymorphic microbiome. Accumulating evidence regarding the tissue specific territories of tumor-microbiome have opened new and interesting avenues. A pertinent question is regarding the functional consequence of the meeting of the host-microbiome with cancer. Given microbial communities have predominantly been explored [...]
Disentangling human nature: Anthropological reflections on evolution, zoonoses and ethnographic investigations
Published: 2023-02-11
Subjects: Arts and Humanities, Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Human nature is a puzzling matter that must be analysed through a holistic lens. In this commentary, I foray into anthropology's biosocial dimensions to underscore that human relations span from microorganisms to global commodities. I argue that the future of social-cultural anthropology depends on the integration of evolutionary theory for its advancement. Ultimately, since the likelihood of [...]
Keep your cool: Overwintering physiology in response to urbanization in the acorn ant, Temnothorax curvispinosus
Published: 2023-02-10
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Winter presents a challenge for survival, yet temperate ectotherms have remarkable physiological adaptations to cope with low-temperature conditions. Under recent climate change, rather than strictly relaxing pressure on overwintering survival, warmer winters can instead disrupt these low-temperature trait-environment associations, with negative consequences for populations. While there is [...]
Statistical methods to identify mechanisms in studies of eco-evolutionary dynamics
Published: 2023-02-07
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
While the reciprocal effects of ecological and evolutionary dynamics are increasingly recognized as an important driver for biodiversity, detection of such eco-evolutionary feedbacks, their underlying mechanisms, and their consequences remains challenging. Eco-evolutionary dynamics occur at different spatial and temporal scales and can leave signatures at different levels of organization (e.g., [...]
A novel method for measuring acute thermal tolerance in fish embryos
Published: 2023-02-07
Subjects: Life Sciences
1. Aquatic ectotherms are particularly vulnerable to thermal stress, with certain life stages (embryos) predicted to be more sensitive than others (juveniles and adults). When examining the vulnerability of species and life stages to warming, it is particularly important to use appropriate and comparable methodology so that robust conclusions can be obtained. Critical thermal methodology (CTM) is [...]