Preprints
There are 1954 Preprints listed.
Creating a Dataset for the Detection of Flying Birds
Published: 2024-09-20
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Ornithology
We present a pipeline for collecting a dataset for the detection of flying birds in videos. We treat the creation of a dataset as an iterative task, which allows to train an inference system periodically, and to improve gradually its performance. We follow a three stage pipeline, that includes repetitive video recording, video annotation and frame sampling for training a Deep Learning detector. [...]
Reassessing a Holocene extinction: multiple lines of evidence do not support the historical presence and recent extirpation of a protected anole on the island of Anguilla
Published: 2024-09-20
Subjects: Biodiversity, Genomics, Integrative Biology, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Zoology
Accurate assessment of historical species ranges is important for conservation science and management. Inaccurate historical species ranges can lead to incorrect assumptions about local extinctions, population trends, and potential sites for reintroductions. Yet, historical knowledge is often lacking for many species. Here, we examine the case of the bearded anole, Anolis pogus, which has long [...]
Making sense of the virome in light of evolution and ecology
Published: 2024-09-20
Subjects: Life Sciences
Understanding the patterns and drivers of viral prevalence is of key importance for understanding pathogen emergence. Over the last decade, metagenomic sequencing has exponentially expanded our knowledge of the diversity and evolution of viruses associated with all domains of life. However, as most of these ‘virome’ studies are primarily descriptive, our understanding of the predictors of virus [...]
Spatial connectivity through mountains and deserts drove South American scorpion's dispersal
Published: 2024-09-20
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
We inferred the geographic dispersal routes and the environmental conditions that shaped the ~30-million-years historical biogeography of Brachistosternus scorpions in South America. We evaluated the role that altitude and aridity had on the geographic distance that each species dispersed from the location of the genus common ancestor. Based on previous studies, we evaluated the hypothesis [...]
Demographic expansion and panmixia in a St. Martin endemic, Anolis pogus, coincides with the decline of a competitor
Published: 2024-09-19
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Genomics, Population Biology, Zoology
Understanding patterns of differentiation at microgeographic scales can enhance our understanding of evolutionary dynamics and lead to the development of effective conservation strategies. In particular, high levels of landscape heterogeneity can strongly influence species abundances, genetic structure, and demographic trends. The bearded anole, Anolis pogus, is endemic to the topographically [...]
Does heat tolerance vary with rates of oxygen production in photosymbiotic cnidarians?
Published: 2024-09-19
Subjects: Life Sciences
Oxygen acquisition and delivery to tissues is believed to be a key factor in heat tolerance, but testing this link has been challenging due to methodological limitations in separating processes related to oxygen acquisition and oxygen delivery. In this study, we altered tissue oxygenation by manipulating light intensity using cnidarians that host endosymbiotic algae as a model. We first verified [...]
Growth decline in European beech associated with temperature-driven increase in reproductive allocation
Published: 2024-09-18
Subjects: Life Sciences
Climate change is impacting forests in complex ways, with indirect effects arising from interactions between tree growth and reproduction often overlooked. Our 43-year study of European beech (Fagus sylvatica), showed that rising summer temperatures since 2005 have led to more frequent seed production events. This shift increases reproductive effort but depletes the trees' stored resources due to [...]
An introduction to generative network models and how they may be used to study animal sociality
Published: 2024-09-18
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Social networks constitute an important approach in the study of animal social behaviour. So far, focus has been on statistical analysis of animal social network structures. However, social networks can also be studied by generative network models - procedures that create simulated network structures. These models play a key role in wider network science, but despite occasional use, have not yet [...]
Intraspecific competition along different life stages can stabilize coexistence among dragonflies and damselflies
Published: 2024-09-18
Subjects: Life Sciences
Biodiversity is sustained by stabilizing mechanisms of coexistence that inhibit species of competitive exclusion. Yet, in organisms with complex life cycles competitive dynamics may vary according to the life stage. Dragonflies are optimal organisms to test these ideas, as aquatic larvae are generalists in their feeding behavior, but adults have a wide variety of sexual behaviors. In this way, we [...]
Widespread decline of ground beetles in Germany
Published: 2024-09-18
Subjects: Biodiversity, Life Sciences
Many insect species are facing existential crises, primarily due to diverse human-induced activities. Most insect assessments, however, are based on short-term data or some iconic species. Here, in close collaboration with taxonomic experts from natural history societies, we compiled the best available occurrence data for ground beetles in Germany, estimated the changes in species occupancy over [...]
How might turbulence affect animal flight in a changing world?
Published: 2024-09-18
Subjects: Life Sciences
Scaling in Nervous Systems
Published: 2024-09-13
Subjects: Life Sciences
On the Origin of Nightjars (Caprimulgidae): Perspectives from the Fossil Record
Published: 2024-09-12
Subjects: Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Paleobiology, Paleontology
Fossils represent the only direct evidence for the ancestral morphologies, antiquity, and historical geographic distributions of life on Earth. The fossil record of the avian clade Strisores (which includes nightjars, oilbirds, potoos, frogmouths, owlet-nightjars, treeswifts, swifts, and hummingbirds) has been richly documented by avian standards, with well-corroborated stem-group representatives [...]
The radiation and geographic expansion of euprimates through diverse climates
Published: 2024-09-12
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
The most influential hypothesis about euprimate evolution postulates that their origin, radiation, and major dispersals, were associated with the exceptional warmer conditions of the planet in the tropical forests of higher latitudes. However, this notion has proven difficult to test given the overall uncertainty about the geographic locations and palaeoclimates of ancestral species. By the [...]
Reconsidering cytonuclear discordance in the genomic age
Published: 2024-09-12
Subjects: Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Historically, phylogenetic datasets had very few loci, but were overrepresented for cytoplasmic sequences (mitochondria and chloroplast) because of their ease of amplification and large numbers of informative sites. Under those circumstances it made sense to contrast individual gene tree topologies obtained from cytoplasmic loci and nuclear loci, with the goal of detecting differences between [...]