Preprints
There are 3306 Preprints listed.
Sexual dichromatism in agile frogs: sex-reversed males closely resemble typical male coloration
Published: 2026-05-28
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
In species with sexual dichromatism, colouration can play an important role in intraspecific communication and affect breeding success. Communication by visual signals during the breeding season has been increasingly recognized to occur in anuran amphibians. However, most studies of sexual dichromatism have focused on consistent differences between males and females, and species with varying [...]
Hidden role plasticity of the reproductive caste in a morphologically differentiated termite society
Published: 2026-05-28
Subjects: Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Reproductive division of labor is the defining characteristic of eusocial insects, separating germline-like reproductives from soma-like workers. While most studies have focused on worker sterility, it is generally assumed that developing reproductives invest only in maturation, not in colony labor. Here we show that nymphs (pre-alates) in a highly structured termite society can contribute to [...]
Identifying social learning through peering: predictions and recommendations
Published: 2026-05-28
Subjects: Life Sciences
Many species exhibit the capacity for social learning. However, the importance of social learning for wild individuals’ daily lives and its role in the emergence of animal culture remains to be uncovered. As observing conspecifics may provide a relatively safe and efficient means of learning, visual species may use observational learning to acquire various types of information from others. [...]
Canopy closure re-establishes ants in young tree plantations, while low soil pH limits ant diversity
Published: 2026-05-28
Subjects: Entomology, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
1. Tree species richness is known to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, but its effects across trophic levels during forest restoration remain insufficiently understood. In reforestation on complex terrain, habitat complexity may moderate the effect of canopy closure on animal community reassembly, a relationship further shaped by the abiotic environment. 2. Ants, as key functional [...]
China must revise its regulation for managing non-native invasive species
Published: 2026-05-28
Subjects: Political Science, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Biological invasions are a leading contributor to the global biodiversity crisis, yet existing regulatory frameworks are challenged by definitions of ‘non-native’ species that are based on geopolitical rather than ecological boundaries. This perspective highlights the critical disconnect between administrative jurisdictions and biogeographic units, with focus on China’s biosecurity laws. These [...]
Navigating Spatial Trade-offs in Restoration Planning: A Multi-Objective Optimization Framework Integrating Ecological Feasibility
Published: 2026-05-28
Subjects: Biodiversity, Life Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sustainability, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Ecosystem restoration requires decision-support tools capable of balancing ecological benefits under limited resources while explicitly accounting for the long-term likelihood of restoration success. Despite its recognized importance, ecological feasibility has rarely been formulated as an optimization objective in spatial planning, typically being treated only as a constraint or biophysical [...]
The effectiveness of overwintering Eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica) in cold-dry storage
Published: 2026-05-28
Subjects: Life Sciences
In the northernmost part of the Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) range, oyster farmers face challenges maintaining stock through freezing winters. To avoid leaving oysters exposed to variable field conditions, many farmers overwinter oysters outside of the water in cold-dry storage (CDS). Here, we sought to add to the limited but growing empirical research examining the effectiveness of CDS [...]
From Individuals to Networks: The Role of Variation in Plant-Pollinator Communities' Responses to Global Change
Published: 2026-05-28
Subjects: Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Integrative Biology, Life Sciences
1. Plant–pollinator communities are critical for biodiversity, ecosystem function, and human well-being. Yet our ability to predict divergent species responses to environmental change, the risk of abrupt collapse, or the potential for recovery in plant-pollinator systems remains limited. 2. Here, we argue that individual variation within species may play a critical but underappreciated role in [...]
Bayesian adaptive design for citizen science data collection: Exploring tensions between data and design
Published: 2026-05-28
Subjects: Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
1. Bayesian adaptive design can be applied in spatial settings where future survey locations need to be selected based on already available data. An important use case of adaptive design is the recommendation of locations for opportunistic, citizen science collection of species observation data, where some areas are already overrepresented and others are severely undersampled. 2. This work [...]
Inferring genomic landscapes with the integrative sequentially Markov coalescent (iSMC)
Published: 2026-05-28
Subjects: Bioinformatics, Biology, Computational Biology, Genetics and Genomics, Genomics, Life Sciences
The integrative Sequentially Markovian Coalescent (iSMC) is an extension of the sequentially Markovian Coalescent (SMC) model allowing for parameter heterogeneity along the genome, such as recombination and mutation rates. Heterogeneous parameters follow an autocorrelation process that modulates the genealogical process, extending the hidden state space and adding as few as two extra parameters [...]
A viral mimic increases body temperature but does not affect mass or inflammation in a wild frugivorous bat
Published: 2026-05-28
Subjects: Biology, Life Sciences
The acute phase response is a component of innate immunity that helps fight infections. Understanding variation in this response is particularly critical in bats, which can be asymptomatic hosts of pathogens that cause disease in other animals. Although bats are most famously tolerant of viruses, research on the bat acute phase response has focused predominantly on bacterial antigens. To improve [...]
Intra- and Interannual Dynamics of Remotely Sensed Functional Diversity in Temperate Forests from Sentinel-2 Time Series
Published: 2026-05-27
Subjects: Biodiversity, Forest Sciences, Geography, Remote Sensing
Monitoring biodiversity change requires approaches that capture ecological dynamics across space and time. Satellite remote sensing provides unique opportunities for such monitoring, but most studies of functional diversity rely on single-date imagery, typically at peak greenness, neglecting seasonal variability. Here, we used multi-year, dense Sentinel-2 time series (2017-2021) to assess [...]
Precision Microbiome Stewardship: Moving Aquaculture from Transient Supplementation to Systemic Resilience
Published: 2026-05-27
Subjects: Life Sciences
Toward a unified tolerance–resistance framework across biological stressors and scales
Published: 2026-05-27
Subjects: Medicine and Health Sciences
Ecotoxicology and immunology both explore how organisms cope with external stressors that disrupt homeostasis, yet these fields have developed largely in parallel. While immunology has formalized the distinction between resistance (i.e reducing stressor burden) and disease tolerance (i.e. mitigating damage without reducing burden), ecotoxicology has traditionally focussed on stressor fate, [...]
“Ecological and Conservation Governance Condition Analysis Using Ecological Diversity Indices: A Study of Bhawal National Park”
Published: 2026-05-25
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Education, Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Forest Biology, Forest Management, Other Forestry and Forest Sciences
Abstract: Once a historical biodiversity hotspot, the Bhawal National Park (BNP) in Bangladesh faces severe threats to its ecological integrity, despite its protected status. Located approximately 40 km north of Dhaka, the park’s original coppice Sal forest (Shorea robusta) ecosystem is now fragmented and degraded due to illegal deforestation and encroachment, leading to a drastic decline in [...]