Preprints
There are 3641 Preprints listed.
The reported decline in bird diversity tracks birdwatching effort, not birds
Published: 2026-09-07
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
A recent analysis in Science links a photovoltaic policy-stringency index to citizen-science bird records aggregated to county-months and concludes that China’s solar-expansion policy reduced Shannon diversity by 2.10% per standard deviation of stringency. Reproducing that estimate exactly from the replication package and checking its inputs against record-level data from the same platform, we [...]
Urban densification reduces food-web robustness despite partial gains through local habitat improvements
Published: 2026-09-07
Subjects: Biodiversity
Urban densification is widely promoted to curb sprawl, yet the replacement of existing green infrastructure threatens species across multiple trophic levels. Species are embedded in complex food webs, and understanding how densification restructures urban food webs is essential for predicting functional change and evaluating whether local habitat improvements (e.g. greater vegetation diversity) [...]
Evidence and Uncertainty in the Future Pathways of Insects Under Global Change
Published: 2026-09-07
Subjects: Biodiversity, Life Sciences
Insects are essential for life on Earth, yet anthropogenic environmental changes have led to declines in insect biomass, abundance, and species richness. Projecting future insect trajectories can inform conservation and policy but is complicated by variation in life histories and traits, nonlinear population dynamics, extreme population fluctuations, and interacting natural and anthropogenic [...]
Hive product metagenomics: a promising window into honey bee genomics and bee-associated ecosystems
Published: 2026-09-07
Subjects: Apiculture, Entomology, Genomics, Microbiology, Other Genetics and Genomics
Through their pollination services, bees are essential components of ecosystem functioning, supporting biodiversity and contributing to global food production. Among them, honey bees are particularly important, both for their ecological role and their widespread contribution to many agricultural systems and beekeeping. Honey, beeswax and propolis, among other beehive products, have played a [...]
The short-term effects of wildfire on heathland flowering plant communities as a resource for insect pollinators: a case study at Killarney National Park, Ireland
Published: 2026-09-07
Subjects: Life Sciences
Fire is a globally important driver of ecosystem diversity and functioning, yet the frequency and behaviour of wildfire has become increasingly unpredictable as a result of climate change, posing risks to ecosystems, societies, and economies. Post-fire plant and animal community dynamics are often shaped by ecological, landscape, and fire characteristics, but as risk factors change, understanding [...]
A harmonised dataset of adult Culex pipiens mosquitoes from 17 administrative Italian regions, 2008–2022
Published: 2026-09-07
Subjects: Biology, Entomology
Culex pipiens s.l. is the primary vector of West Nile Virus in Italy. Despite the availability of abundant long-term surveillance data on adult Cx. pipiens observations in Italy, historical records are often fragmented across regional repositories with heterogeneous formats and metadata. This work introduces a comprehensive, harmonised dataset of adult Cx. pipiens observations collected across 17 [...]
Towards ‘humane’ shrimp slaughter: A review of current knowledge gaps and methodological challenges for Penaeus vannamei
Published: 2026-09-07
Subjects: Life Sciences
Penaeus vannamei has become the most widely farmed aquatic species worldwide, yet the methods used for its stunning and slaughter remain poorly documented and largely unvalidated scientifically. Growing regulatory attention to decapod sentience calls for a critical assessment of current slaughter practices and of the indicators available to evaluate them. This review is based on a systematic [...]
Meta-analysts must lead by example and embrace all FAIR principles
Published: 2026-09-05
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Meta-analyses rely on comprehensive reporting of results and data in primary studies. They should therefore also strive for exemplary reporting and follow FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) for data sharing. Yet, despite growing calls for open, reliable, and transparent science, the quality, reporting and FAIRness of meta-analyses in ecology, evolution, and [...]
ENCORE: the global infrastructure for screening business risks, dependencies and impacts on nature
Published: 2026-09-05
Subjects: Biodiversity, Life Sciences
Biodiversity and ecosystem services provide the foundation on which the global economy, and by extension all businesses, depend. ENCORE (Exploring Natural Capital Opportunities, Risks and Exposure) has established itself as a key reference for business and financial institution assessment of exposure to risk stemming from nature degradation. It has over 18,000 users, has been used in over 15 [...]
Heat-driven declines in Scots pine cone and seed quality contrast with long-term climate adjustment
Published: 2026-09-05
Subjects: Life Sciences
Climate change can alter forest regeneration through effects on seed production, seed quality, and the structures that protect seeds, yet most evidence focuses on seed output alone. We used 15 years of cone and seed-quality data from 184 Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) populations to test whether climate effects extend beyond fecundity to reproductive traits that determine viable propagule supply. [...]
Assessing habitat associations of critically endangered big-headed turtles to support grassroots river conservation
Published: 2026-09-05
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Modern wildlife conservation relies primarily on state-run protected areas and hunting regulations, whereas grassroots initiatives to protect ecosystems from various threats such as large-scale infrastructure development are underrecognized and receive limited scientific support. We studied critically endangered big-headed turtles (Platysternon megacephalum) to support a grassroots river [...]
Modelling irruptive species with hybrid machine learning: A case study of crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks on the Great Barrier Reef
Published: 2026-09-05
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Irruptions consist of rapid and severe increases in abundance, which for some species can result in significant economic and environmental damage. Forecasting the timing and location of these irruptions is crucial for effective management, however is difficult due to the complexity of the ecosystems in which they occur and the conditions under which they arise. Hybrid machine learning (ML) [...]
Reproductive mode and the evolution of mutation rate
Published: 2026-09-05
Subjects: Life Sciences
The mutation rate is a fundamental force in evolution, modulating patterns of genetic variation, adaptation, and genome evolution throughout the tree of life. As such, many attempts have been made to explain its variation across species. Currently, the dominant theory of mutation rate evolution is the drift-barrier hypothesis. However, although this framework has received wide support across [...]
Earth observation and causal inference in assessing protected area effectiveness
Published: 2026-09-05
Subjects: Life Sciences, Remote Sensing, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Area-based conservation is a fundamental component of global conservation strategies, yet robust causal evidence on the long-term effectiveness of protected areas is still emerging. Alongside traditional field data collection methods, Earth observation offers cost-effective means of generating high-resolution, spatially extensive information, and its broader integration into conservation science [...]
From population trends to biodiversity changes: synthesizing multi-species signals of collapse
Published: 2026-09-05
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Taking the pulse of biodiversity is no small feat, and abundance time series are some of the most valuable data we have to measure change. Biodiversity changes are often complex, with some species declining while others grow, leading to a reorganisation of the network of interactions between species. The infamous decline of Atlantic cod in the Newfoundland shelf groundfish community between 1981 [...]