Preprints
There are 2180 Preprints listed.
Amazonian and Andean tree communities are not tracking current climate warming
Published: 2024-12-18
Subjects: Life Sciences
Climate change is shifting species distributions, leading to changes in community composition and novel species assemblages worldwide. However, the responses of tropical forests to climate change across large-scale environmental gradients remain largely unexplored. Using long-term data over 66,000 trees of more than 2,500 species occurring over 3,500 m elevation along the hyperdiverse [...]
Wood density variation across an Andes-to-Amazon elevational gradient
Published: 2024-12-17
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences
1. Understanding how functional traits are related to species diversity and ecosystem properties is a central goal of ecology. Wood density is a trait that integrates many aspects of plant form and function and is highly variable among species. Previous studies of wood density across elevational gradients have been based on limited sampling and have reported declines with increasing elevation, [...]
Improving Aboveground Biomass Estimates with 3D Tree Crown Parameters from UAV-LS in Beech Forests
Published: 2024-12-17
Subjects: Forest Management, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences
Accurate estimates of aboveground biomass (AGB) are essential for forest policies to reduce carbon emissions. Unmanned aerial laser scanning (UAV-LS) offers unprecedented millimetric detail but is underutilized in monitoring broadleaf Mediterranean forests compared to coniferous ones. This study aims to design and evaluate a procedure for AGB estimates based on the predictive power of crown [...]
Antechodynamics and Antechokinetics: Dynamics and Kinetics of Antibiotic Resistance Molecules
Published: 2024-12-16
Subjects: Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences
Pharmacology of antimicrobial drugs comprises pharmacodynamics (PD) and pharmacokinetics (PK). PD refers to studying drugs' mode of action at different concentrations on their molecular targets and the resulting effect(s). PK refers to studying the way(s) by which drugs enter and are distributed to reach their targets in different compartments (such as tissues in the body) and how the local drug [...]
Simple maternal effect animal models provide biased estimates of additive genetic and maternal variation
Published: 2024-12-16
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Genetics, Zoology
Maternal effects (the consistent effect of a mother on her offspring) can inflate estimates of additive genetic variation (V_A) if not properly accounted for. As they are typically assumed to cause similarities only among maternal siblings, they are often accounted for by modelling maternal identity effects. However, if maternal effects have a genetic basis, they create additional similarities [...]
Unlocking the hidden dimensions of genomic diversity within species
Published: 2024-12-16
Subjects: Evolution, Genomics, Molecular Biology
The missing heritability problem, defined as the failure of genetic variants to explain variance in phenotypes, has been an unsolved issue in genetics for the past two decades. A potential solution to this problem stems from the idea that single nucleotide polymorphisms and copy-number variants, the most commonly studied forms of genomic diversity, do not represent the totality of the information [...]
Laguna Beach Nearshore Giant Kelp and Bryozoan
Published: 2024-12-14
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
This paper examines the scattered nearshore kelp beds in Laguna Beach subtidal shallow rock reef substrate between Brooks Street and Thalia Street, referred to as town. The nearshore kelp is approximately 200 meters from the shore. This area has been protected since 2012 when it was considered a California Marine Protected Area (MPA) and classified as Laguna Beach State Marine Reserve (LBSMR). [...]
Antlions (Myrmeleontidae) in the Doñana National Park
Published: 2024-12-14
Subjects: Life Sciences
This study represents the first comprehensive survey of antlions (Myrmeleontidae) in Doñana National Park, conducted across 58 sampling locations during two field seasons (April–June 2023 and March–July 2024). A total of 12 species from 9 genera were identified, with 406 larval-stage specimens collected, of which 295 successfully emerged as adults (201 females and 94 males, including 28 imagos [...]
Gut microbiome communities demonstrate fine-scale spatial variation in a closed, island bird population
Published: 2024-12-14
Subjects: Life Sciences
Environmental variation is a key factor shaping microbiome communities in wild animals. However, most studies have focussed on separate populations distributed over large spatial scales. How ecological factors shape inter-individual microbiome variation within a single landscape and host population remains poorly understood. Here, we use dense sampling of individuals in a natural, closed [...]
Pleistocene climatic changes drive expansion and fragmentation in a widespread arid zone specialist, Petrogale lateralis
Published: 2024-12-13
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Organisms living in arid biomes are predicted to be at threat of extinction associated with ongoing climatic and anthropogenic change. Our understanding of species responses to Pleistocene climatic changes within these environments is still limited, particularly in Australia. Here we evaluate the demographic and evolutionary history of a widespread Australian marsupial, the black-footed [...]
Foundations and future directions for causal inference in ecological research
Published: 2024-12-13
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Ecology often seeks to answer causal questions, and while ecologists have a rich history of experimental approaches, novel observational data streams and the need to apply insights across naturally occurring conditions pose opportunities and challenges. Other fields have developed causal inference approaches that can enhance and expand our ability to answer ecological causal questions using [...]
A bottom-up mammoth population model predicts moderate densities and high vulnerability to hunting
Published: 2024-12-13
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Paleobiology
During the last glacial, large grazers inhabited Eurasia’s mammoth steppe. This cold steppe was productive enough to sustain a diverse assemblage of large mammals, but it remains controversial which population densities it could support. In sufficient densities, large herbivores can act as ecosystem engineers: creating and maintaining grassland habitat by means of disturbance and accelerated [...]
Community herbivory in tropical montane rainforests is affected by phylogenetic plant diversity, specific leaf area, and leaf nutrient concentrations
Published: 2024-12-13
Subjects: Life Sciences
Arthropod herbivores modulate ecosystem structure, productivity, and nutrient cycling. While previous work has shown that plant-herbivore interactions for individual species are shaped by abiotic factors, traits, and the surrounding plant community, the relative contribution of abiotic and biotic factors for herbivory at the community level remains elusive. Here, we use a structural equation [...]
Global patterns of insect herbivory across forest canopies and understories: Insights from a tropical case study and a global comparison
Published: 2024-12-12
Subjects: Life Sciences
Several studies have examined global patterns of insect herbivory, revealing variations with latitude, elevation, and temperature. However, less attention has been given to herbivory patterns at smaller spatial scales, particularly the comparison between forest canopies and understories. Understanding these finer-scale patterns is crucial for predicting ecological responses to both natural and [...]
Greenspaces reduce the heat-related mortality: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Published: 2024-12-12
Subjects: Medicine and Health Sciences
Greenspace has been increasingly recognized for its role in mitigating heat-related mortality in the context of climate change. This systematic review and meta-analysis synthesized evidence from 43 studies covering over 160 million deaths. Using a random-effects meta-analysis, we found that high-greenness areas were associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality during heat (≥90th [...]