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Preprints

There are 2301 Preprints listed.

Reply to: Maximising time-series inclusion reduces geographic and taxonomic biases in the Living Planet Index

David Storch, Jan Smyčka, Anna Tószögyová

Published: 2025-05-16
Subjects: Biodiversity

In their recent communication, "Maximising time-series inclusion reduces geographic and taxonomic biases in the Living Planet Index" (https://doi.org/10.32942/X2M33C), McRae et al. have raised objections to our study, "Mathematical biases in the calculation of the Living Planet Index lead to overestimation of vertebrate population decline" (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-49070-x). In this [...]

State-space models and inference approaches for aquatic animal tracking with passive acoustic telemetry and biologging sensors

Edward Lavender, Andreas Scheidegger, Helen Moor, et al.

Published: 2025-05-15
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology

1. Passive acoustic telemetry systems are widely deployed to track animals in aquatic environments. However, investments in integrative methods of data analysis have remained comparatively limited, with current workflows typically considering individual movements separately from space use, home ranges and residency. 2. This review presents a unifying perspective that bridges this divide. We [...]

Disordered and Partially Structured Models in Community Ecology: What are they? And how do we use them?

Mathew Leibold, Matthieu Barbier

Published: 2025-05-15
Subjects: Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Community ecology describes how species interact with each other and with their environment. In nature, processes can be very complex because they involve hundreds to thousands of species interacting with each other in complex environmental landscapes. Classical approaches that have provided key insights have largely focused on the study of tractable subsets of species and patches, but these do [...]

Global population delineations and conservation status for marine turtles: tools, methods, and guidance

Bryan P Wallace, Federico Alberto Abreu-Grobois, Peter H Dutton, et al.

Published: 2025-05-15
Subjects: Marine Biology, Other Life Sciences, Population Biology

The burden of a failed error culture in biologging

Brendan James Barrett, Wolfgang Fielder, Francesca Frisoni, et al.

Published: 2025-05-15
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences

Driven by technological advancements and reduced costs, biologging has seen a rapid growth transforming the study of animal behaviour and ecology. This ``golden era'' of animal tracking provides unprecedented insights into wildlife, aiding conservation efforts and ecological research. However, in the wake of the rapid growth loom pressing ethical and methodological challenges, including a lack of [...]

Transgenerational plasticity to warming decreases nutrient release by a keystone grazer

Sarah Hasnain, Valerie McCarthy, Cihelio Alves Amorim, et al.

Published: 2025-05-15
Subjects: Life Sciences

Increasing temperatures as a result of global climate change can alter the physiology of organisms via selection for tolerant genotypes and individual-level plasticity. Organisms experiencing thermal stress can not only modify their own physiological expression, but also those of future generations; i.e. transgenerational plasticity (TGP). While warming triggered TGP is well documented, its [...]

A geographical database of Iberian peatland and swob records

Raquel Fernandes, Miguel Geraldes, Guaduneth Chico, et al.

Published: 2025-05-15
Subjects: Physical and Environmental Geography

Recent efforts have compiled distribution data on Iberian Peninsula peatlands, however, the criteria used to characterise these ecosystems have often been derived from regions where peatlands are more extensive and typically occur under wetter climatic conditions. As a result, many peat-accumulating wetlands in this region were overlooked. Identifying and improving the distribution mapping of [...]

Invisible but Identifiable: p-Chips as a Reliable Marking Method for Amazonian Bats

Juan Jesus Pellón, Naija Cuzmar, Jorge Luis Mendoza, et al.

Published: 2025-05-14
Subjects: Life Sciences

Marking techniques are essential for studying bat ecology and informing conservation efforts, yet many existing methods present challenges related to size, tag detectability, and long-term retention. P-Chips, ultra-miniaturized transponders detectable via red laser light, offer a promising alternative to traditional banding or passive integrated transponer (PIT) tags. While their use has been [...]

Insights from the initial stage of a nation-wide environmental relicensing of hydropower facilities: a biologists’ perspective on court verdicts

Josefin Sundin, Joacim Näslund, Philip Jacobson, et al.

Published: 2025-05-14
Subjects: Other Life Sciences

Hydropower, utilized for centuries, is promoted globally as renewable energy. The perceived socio-economic benefits have often outweighed environmental concerns, as reflected in operational permits. In 2022, Sweden began re-licensing approximately 2000 hydroelectric facilities under the National Plan for Modern Environmental Conditions. We extracted data from 33 completed court cases, all [...]

Interrogating metabolic plasticity in marine organisms: A framework for best practices using metabolomic and lipidomic approaches

Yaamini R Venkataraman, Ariana S Huffmyer

Published: 2025-05-14
Subjects: Integrative Biology, Life Sciences, Molecular Biology

Understanding the mechanisms that underlie resilience in marine invertebrates is critical as climate change and human impacts transform coastal ecosystems. Metabolic plasticity, or an organism’s capacity to modulate energy production, allocation, and use, plays a central role in mediating resilience under environmental stress. While research on marine invertebrate stress responses has grown, [...]

Pervasive Negative Effects of Leucaena leucocephala (White-Popinac) Invasion on Regenerating Areas of the Atlantic Forest

Juliano Zardetto, Willian Simioni, Tadeu Siqueira

Published: 2025-05-13
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

The use of invasive species in ecological restoration is controversial and has raised recent concerns. In Brazil, some ecosystem restoration and agroforestry projects have proposed that white-popinac (Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit), a broadly distributed invasive species, is a promisor species to be used when the soil is severely altered, based on the premise that it might not necessarily [...]

The Hunt for Ancient DNA – Natural & Artificial

David R. Wood

Published: 2025-05-13
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Abstract: The recently released documentary titled “The Hunt for the Oldest DNA” was the inspiration for the writing of this paper. It is because Professor Eske Willerslev and I, David R. Wood, are both peers in two mirror fields of evolutionary science achieving similar breakthrough results using similar techniques to unconceal ancient DNA – natural and artificial. This paper goes through the [...]

Is there a relationship between distance to natural habitat and pollination services in tropical smallholder farms? A systematic review and meta-analysis

Ennia Bosshard, Mark E Harrison, Frank J. F. van Veen, et al.

Published: 2025-05-13
Subjects: Agriculture, Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology

Proximity to natural habitat is known to enhance pollination services in agricultural landscapes, particularly in large-scale industrialised farms. However, it remains unclear whether these patterns hold in tropical smallholder farms – ecologically complex landscapes that sustain millions of the world’s most food-insecure communities and depend heavily on biodiversity-derived ecosystem services. [...]

Ecological traits explain wild felid responses to human-modified landscapes in Brazil: an open-data approach for conservation

Vanesa Bejarano Alegre, Raissa Sepulvida, Júlia Emi de Faria Oshima, et al.

Published: 2025-05-13
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences

Understanding how wild felids respond to human-modified landscapes is critical for designing effective conservation strategies, yet comparative assessments across species remain scarce in tropical regions. Here, we assess the habitat selection and road sensitivity of nine wild felid species in Brazil using an integrative and scalable framework based entirely on open-access data. We compiled over [...]

Correcting Mesoudi’s Failed Concept of Societal Culture

David R. Wood

Published: 2025-05-13
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Abstract: The natural species homo sapiens are not a cultural species. Homo sapiens instead artificially segregates itself into many artificial species (i.e., cultures) for competitive advantage in natural intraspecies competition – warfare, economics, etc. These artificial species are defined and categorized based on the distinct combination of artificial genomes, artificial structural [...]

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