Preprints
There are 2505 Preprints listed.
Predation impacts brain allometry and offspring production in female guppies (Poecilia reticulata)
Published: 2021-10-08
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Biology, Life Sciences, Zoology
Survivorship under predation exerts strong selection on reproductive traits as well as on brain anatomy of prey. However, how exactly predation and brain evolution are linked has not been resolved as current empirical evidence is inconclusive. This may be due to predation pressure having different effects across life stages and/or due to confounding factors in ecological comparisons of predation [...]
Acoustic signature reveals blue whales tune life history transitions to oceanographic conditions
Published: 2021-10-07
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
1. Matching the timing of life history transitions with ecosystem phenology is critical for the survival of many species, especially those undertaking long-distance migrations. As a result, whether and how migratory populations adjust timing of life history transitions in response to environmental variability are important questions in ecology and conservation. Yet the flexibility and drivers of [...]
Impacts of woodland planting on nature-based recreational tourism in upland England – a case study
Published: 2021-10-06
Subjects: Environmental Studies, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Upland landscapes provide important ecosystem services (ES) to society. One cultural ES - nature-based recreational tourism (NBR) - is a growing industry in upland regions that provides an important revenue to areas where other industries are often in decline. NBR tourism is a service that relies partly on the aesthetic appearance of the landscape. Changes in land management, such as increasing [...]
The importance of ecotype diversity on duckweed growth with and without salt stress
Published: 2021-10-05
Subjects: Biodiversity, Life Sciences
Aims The pollution of freshwater ecosystems is threatening freshwater plant species diversity worldwide. Freshwater plants, such as duckweed (Lemna minor), are potentially sensitive to novel stressful environments. To test if ecotype diversity could increase resistance to stressful environments, I used seven L. minor populations and measured their growth rates with and without moderate salt [...]
The contributions of Dr. Nettie Stevens to the field of sex chromosome biology
Published: 2021-10-05
Subjects: Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences
The early 1900s delivered many foundational discoveries in genetics, including re-discovery of Mendel’s research and the chromosomal theory of inheritance. Following these insights, many focused their research on whether the development of separate sexes had a chromosomal basis or if instead it was caused by environmental factors. It is Dr. Nettie M. Stevens’ Studies in Spermatogenesis (1905) [...]
Dactylogyridae 2022: a meta-analysis of phylogenetic studies and generic diagnoses of parasitic flatworms using published genetic and morphological data
Published: 2021-10-05
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Dactylogyridae is one of the most studied families of parasitic flatworms with more than 1000 species and 166 genera described to date including ecto-, meso-, and endoparasites. Dactylogyrid monogeneans have been used as model organisms for host-parasite macroevolutionary and biogeographical studies due to the scientific and economic importance of some of their host lineages. Consequently, an [...]
Mitigating climate-driven animal mass mortality events with resilient native scavenger guilds.
Published: 2021-10-04
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Climate-driven animal mass mortality events (MMEs) will increase as the magnitude and frequency of extreme weather and climate events worsens due to climate change. Besides resulting in demographic catastrophes for affected species, MMEs adds further pressure to vulnerable ecosystems in several ways. We suggest the protection and restoration of resilient native scavenging guilds are key [...]
Revticulate: An R framework for interaction with RevBayes
Published: 2021-10-02
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Population Biology
1: Phylogenetic methods are increasingly complex. Researchers need to make many choices about how to model different aspects of the data appropriately. It is increasingly common to deploy hierarchical Bayesian models in which different data types may be described by different processes. This necessitates tools to help users understand model assumptions more clearly. 2: We describe the package [...]
Indicators of Complexity and Over-complexification in Global Food Systems
Published: 2021-10-02
Subjects: Agricultural and Resource Economics, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Global food systems have increased in complexity significantly since the mid-20th century, through such innovations as mechanization, irrigation, genetic modification, and the globalization of supply chains. While complexification can be an effective problem-solving strategy, over-complexification can cause environmental degradation and lead systems to become increasingly dependent on external [...]
A practical conservation tool to combine diverse types of evidence for transparent evidence-based decision-making
Published: 2021-10-01
Subjects: Agriculture, Animal Sciences, Biodiversity, Life Sciences
Making the reasoning and evidence behind conservation decisions clear and transparent is a key challenge for the conservation community. Similarly, combining evidence from diverse sources (e.g., scientific vs non- scientific information) into decision-making is also difficult. Our group of conservation researchers and practitioners has co-produced an intuitive tool and template [...]
Misinterpretation of genomic data matters for endangered species listing: the subspecific status of the Peñasco least chipmunk (Neotamias minimus atristriatus)
Published: 2021-10-01
Subjects: Genetics and Genomics, Genomics, Life Sciences
Puckett et al. (2021. Ecology and Evolution, 11, 12114-12128) evaluated the subspecies status of the Peñasco least chipmunk (Neotamias minimus atristriatus) using genomic approaches and concluded that their results did not support the distinction of this taxon as a subspecies and recommended it be synonymized with N. m. operarius. We refute the interpretations, conclusions, and taxonomic [...]
Detecting (non)parallel evolution in multidimensional spaces: angles, correlations, and eigenanalysis
Published: 2021-09-30
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Parallelism between evolutionary trajectories in a trait space is often seen as evidence for repeatability of phenotypic evolution, and angles between trajectories play a pivotal role in the analysis of parallelism. However, many biologists have been ignorant on properties of angles in multidimensional spaces, and unsound uses of angles are common in the biological literature. To remedy this [...]
Anticipatory responses to drought by plants: What are the environmental cues?
Published: 2021-09-29
Subjects: Agriculture, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Other Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Plant Sciences, Water Resource Management
This study is an attempt to reconcile the physics-driven variation in reference evapotranspiration (ET0) and possible sensory-driven anticipatory acclimation that contributes to tolerance of dry weather spells and drought by plants growing in open fields. We use an original data set measured at high temporal resolution. These data include the standard meteorological observations plus detailed [...]
Emerging opportunities for wildlife with sustainable autonomous transportation
Published: 2021-09-29
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sustainability
Autonomous vehicles (AV) are expected to play a key role in the future of transportation, and to introduce a disruptive yet potentially beneficial change for wildlife-vehicle interactions. How-ever, this assumption has not been critically examined, and reducing the number of wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVCs) may be beyond current technological capabilities. Here, we introduce a new conceptual [...]
Niche evolution and phylogenetic community paleoecology of Late Ordovician crinoids
Published: 2021-09-27
Subjects: Biodiversity, Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Paleobiology, Paleontology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Fossil crinoids are exceptionally suited to deep-time studies of community paleoecology and niche partitioning. By merging ecomorphological trait and phylogenetic data, this study summarizes niche occupation and community paleoecology of crinoids from the Bromide fauna of Oklahoma (Sandbian, Upper Ordovician). Further, patterns of community structure and niche evolution are evaluated over a ~5 [...]