Preprints
There are 1954 Preprints listed.
A Practical Guide to Quantifying Ecological Coexistence
Published: 2024-09-12
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Coexistence is simultaneously one of the most fundamental concepts of ecology, and one of the most difficult to define and quantify. A particular challenge is that, despite a well-developed body of research on the subject, several different schools of thought have developed over the past century, leading to multiple independent, and largely isolated, branches of literature with distinct [...]
Urban refugia enhance persistence of an endemic keystone species facing a rapidly spreading invasive predator
Published: 2024-09-12
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Population Biology
Urbanization shapes global biodiversity, often driving biodiversity loss and biotic homogenization. However, urban areas could paradoxically enhance conservation by acting as refugia for declining populations due to other global change components, such as biological invasions. Despite growing interest in the potential of urban areas to promote biodiversity conservation, the lack of robust [...]
Mapeando Necessidades: Oportunidades para a Utilização de Ferramentas Genéticas e Genômicas na Conservação da Biodiversidade Brasileira
Published: 2024-09-12
Subjects: Biodiversity, Genetics and Genomics
Biodiversity conservation, especially in megadiverse regions like Brazil, faces challenges that demand the implementation of innovative approaches. In this context, a partnership agreement was signed between the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio) and the Vale Institute ofTechnology (ITV), named GBB (Genomics of the Brazilian Biodiversity), aiming to develop genetic and [...]
Masting ontogeny: the largest masting benefits accrue to the largest trees
Published: 2024-09-12
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Background and Aims. Both plants and animals display considerable variation in their phenotypic traits as they grow. This variation helps organisms to adapt to specific challenges at different stages of development. Masting, the variable and synchronized seed production across years by a population of plants, is a common reproductive strategy in perennial plants that can enhance reproductive [...]
The ecosystem-climate-human nexus in the Arctic
Published: 2024-09-11
Subjects: Environmental Studies
The Arctic has warmed at nearly four times the global average since 1979, which has intensified the disruption of its biotic and local human communities under ongoing environmental change. Here, we explore the ecosystem-climate-human nexus in the Arctic region. We summarize current knowledge of regional climate change and its impact on ecosystems and their functions, highlight gaps and [...]
The greatest extinction event in 66 million years?
Published: 2024-09-11
Subjects: Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Biological communities are changing rapidly in response to human activities, with the high rate of vertebrate species extinction leading many to propose that we are in the midst of a sixth mass extinction event. Five past mass extinction events have most commonly been emphasised across the Phanerozoic, with the last occurring at the end of the Cretaceous, 66 million years ago. Life on Earth has, [...]
Life history shapes variation in egg composition in the blue tit Cyanistes caeruleus
Published: 2024-09-11
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Maternal investment directly shapes early developmental conditions and therefore has long-term fitness consequences for the offspring. In oviparous species prenatal maternal investment is fixed at the time of laying. To ensure the best survival chances for most of their offspring, females must equip their eggs with the resources required to perform well under various circumstances, yet the actual [...]
Adaptive sampling for ecological monitoring using biased data: A stratum-based approach
Published: 2024-09-10
Subjects: Applied Statistics, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Indicators of biodiversity change across large extents of geographic, temporal and taxonomic space are frequent products of various types of ecological monitoring and other data collection efforts. Unfortunately, many such indicators are based on data that are highly unlikely to be representative of the intended statistical populations: they are biased with respect to their estimands. Where there [...]
Harnessing social media data to track species range shifts
Published: 2024-09-10
Subjects: Biodiversity, Life Sciences
Biodiversity monitoring programs and citizen science data remain heavily biased towards the Global North. Incorporating social media data can complement existing gaps, especially in megadiverse countries with limited records, but whether such data can significantly improve our understanding of range-shifting species is unknown. Here, we collated locality data from Flickr and Facebook, in addition [...]
The difficulty of inferring process from pattern - sex ratio adaptation with helpers at the nest
Published: 2024-09-09
Subjects: Life Sciences
The possibility that animals can adaptively adjust their offspring sex ratio has intrigued biologists since Darwin. While the population sex ratio is expected to be equal in many species, it was later also hypothesised that parents should adjust their offspring sex ratio based on their situation (e.g. parental condition, temperature, timing within the breeding season, territory quality, [...]
Bridging local and global knowledges to classify, describe and map ecosystems
Published: 2024-09-08
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Effective ecosystem management for biodiversity and human well-being relies on accurate information. Consistent approaches to classifying, describing, and assessing ecosystems can improve the understanding of the ecological processes, threats, and management. We explored how the Global Ecosystem Typology – a global classification framework based on ecosystem function – could support the [...]
Climate change amplifies extinction risk of a subshrub in anthropogenic landscapes
Published: 2024-09-06
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Population Biology
In most ecosystems, the increasingly strong effects of climate change on biodiversity co-occur with other anthropogenic pressures, most importantly land-use change. However, many long-term studies of population dynamics focus on populations monitored in protected areas, and our understanding of how climate change will affect population persistence under anthropogenic land use is still limited. To [...]
Gene-culture coevolution: A broader evolutionary perspective
Published: 2024-09-05
Subjects: Anthropology, Biological and Physical Anthropology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Genetics and Genomics, Genomics, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Gene-culture coevolution (GCC) stands out among approaches to human evolution for its ambitious synthesis of biological and social sciences. Combining insights from cultural evolution and human genetics, it has been invoked to explain the evolution of many "species-defining" human traits, from language to large-scale cooperation. However, despite its broad conceptual appeal, empirical evidence [...]
Collapse and recovery of livestock systems shape fire regimes on the Eurasian steppe: a review of ecosystem and biodiversity implications
Published: 2024-09-04
Subjects: Biodiversity, Botany, Natural Resources and Conservation, Plant Sciences, Sustainability
Shifts in fire regimes can trigger rapid changes in ecosystem functioning and biodiversity. We synthesize evidence for patterns, causes and consequences of recent change in fire regimes across the Eurasian steppes, a neglected global fire hotspot. Political and economic turmoil following the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991 triggered abrupt land abandonment over millions of hectares and a [...]
Molecular plasticity contributes to thermal resilience in two coastal fish species
Published: 2024-09-03
Subjects: Life Sciences, Zoology
Understanding species capacities to adjust to shifting thermal environments is crucial amidst current climate-mediated ocean warming. Fish populations displaying high thermal plasticity can undergo molecular, metabolic, and mitochondrial modifications in response to heat stress. Under the context of heat stress, such acclimation provides a means to maintain normal biological functions through [...]