Preprints
There are 3902 Preprints listed.
Cave spider trophic dynamics, network structure and competition: cave zone, taxonomy and bat presence drive hypogean interactions
Published: 2026-11-03
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Zoology
Cave ecosystems are shaped by unique environmental constraints, influencing species distributions and trophic interactions. Spiders are often the dominant predators in caves, but their diet is restricted by local parameters that likely intensify competition and other intraguild interactions, including the confinement of energy flows to detrital and chemoautotrophic pathways. The hypogean [...]
Evaluating AI agents on the IUCN Red List assessor exam: Tradeoffs and opportunities for AI assistants in extinction risk assessments
Published: 2026-11-03
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Biodiversity, Computer Sciences
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is the world's most widely used system for assessing the global extinction risk of species, underpinning conservation policy and action worldwide. However, due to funding constraints and limited assessor capacity, the Red List faces significant gaps in species coverage (less than 20% of plant species have been assessed) and challenges in keeping assessments [...]
Bio-CPC: Collective Predictive Computation in Biological Organization
Published: 2026-11-02
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Biological organization is characterized by hierarchically nested levels in which relatively autonomous units become integrated into higher-order systems. Major evolutionary transitions such as multicellularity and eusociality therefore raise a common problem: how can locally informed, goal-directed units coordinate heterogeneous responses so that they collectively support a larger whole? Here, [...]
The Apparent Urban Advance in Juvenile Vulpes vulpes Observations Diminishes after Accounting for Switzerland's Elevational Structure
Published: 2026-11-02
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Urbanization can alter wildlife life cycles, but comparisons between more and less urbanized environments may be confounded by other environmental gradients. This study analyzed 4295 human-reported observations of \textit{Vulpes vulpes} from 496 generalized \(5 \times 5\ \mathrm{km}\) cells across Switzerland between 2018 and 2024 to estimate when the probability that a spring record contained [...]
Exploring exploration: A multidimensional analysis of exploration across standardised and semi-natural contexts in rats
Published: 2026-11-02
Subjects: Life Sciences
Exploration is a major personality trait in animals that reflects individual differences in gathering information about environmental features relevant to survival and reproduction. Yet, exploration is commonly assessed using brief standardised tests, which provide a convenient but artificial experimental setting. Whether such measures reflect how individuals explore complex and changing [...]
Who should still peer-review, for whom, and with what tools?
Published: 2026-11-02
Subjects: Arts and Humanities, Business, Education, Engineering, Law, Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences
In drafting On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin developed his thoughts through extensive correspondence with trusted colleagues, seeking feedback on ideas, manuscripts, and proofs. This informal peer-review process, like many others of its time, was based on personal trust, academic respect, and reputation rather than guided by any institution, and it helped pave the way for modern peer [...]
Recognising patterns of vulnerability in a seagrass-dependent social-ecological system to support place-based management
Published: 2026-11-02
Subjects: Biodiversity, Human Geography, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy
Seagrass social-ecological systems are increasingly demonstrated to contribute to the well-being, livelihood opportunities and local economies of millions of people across coastlines globally. Seagrasses are also recognised for supporting endangered, culturally significant biodiversity and fisheries species. In the Palk Bay, Tamil Nadu region of southern India, we use a vulnerability framework to [...]
Pedigree metrics: What are they good for?
Published: 2026-10-30
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Estimating additive genetic variance (V_A) is key to understanding evolutionary potential in wild populations. V_A is commonly estimated using relatedness data from pedigrees in so-called `animal models'. The accuracy of these estimates depends strongly on information in the pedigree. Typically metrics describing pedigree structure (such as the number of individuals, maternities, pedigree depth [...]
Ancient human occupation alters modern forest traits, structure and biomass in neotropical forests.
Published: 2026-10-30
Subjects: Life Sciences
There is considerable debate as to how extensively neotropical forests were shaped by ancient people. This uncertainty has implications for the global carbon cycle because forest plots may be disproportionately located in formerly occupied areas, potentially biasing estimates of tropical forest growth and carbon uptake. Ground measurements within the formerly occupied Maya city of Xmakabatun [...]
Researchers as predators: are field biologists altering traits of the populations that they study?
Published: 2026-10-30
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Field biologists rarely directly measure the long-term impact of their work on the populations they study. However, heavy or repeated sampling (with or without release) could potentially alter population traits and even bias study conclusions. Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata) are a frequently-studied species in evolutionary biology, particularly in the context of variation in predation. [...]
The spatial dynamics of nutrient limitation in communities of generalist predators of crop pests
Published: 2026-10-30
Subjects: Agriculture, Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Life Sciences, Nutrition, Zoology
Generalist arthropod predators vitally control crop pests, but their ability to perform this role relies on them obtaining sufficient nutrients within simplified crop environments. Field margins are thought to provide habitat and resources for predators, such as ground beetles, but how far into fields this provision extends is poorly understood. Since arthropod nutrient contents can vary [...]
Urban greenspace drivers of bird species richness differ between migratory and resident species across the full-annual cycle
Published: 2026-10-30
Subjects: Life Sciences
Urban greenspaces are increasingly under pressure from urbanization. Greenspaces provide some of the last remaining resources for biodiversity in cities, but their ecological value varies substantially among sites. Despite their importance, we still lack a comprehensive understanding of which urban greenspaces species use across the full-annual cycle and among migratory groupings. To investigate [...]
A targeted metacollection of Nordic gardens reveals horticultural endemism of threatened woody plants
Published: 2026-10-30
Subjects: Biodiversity, Botany
There is huge potential for bringing together international networks of Botanic Gardens and Arboreta and pooling their resources for coordinated action to conserve threatened species. Realising this potential requires effectively managing complex, largely independently acquired data for tens of thousands of species and many more individual plants with different wild or cultivated origins. Here we [...]
GPS telemetry reveals changes in the movement patterns of a cinereous vulture (Aegypius monachus) flying over an active war zone
Published: 2026-10-30
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Other Life Sciences
Armed conflicts have devastating effects over wildlife populations and ecosystems, yet their impacts on wildlife behavior remains understudied. In this study we summarized behavioral changes that occurred in a Cinereous Vulture (Aegypius monachus) which made three flights over active war zones in Northern and Eastern Ukraine during spring 2022. As the individual approached the frontline its [...]
Spontaneous native–non-native tree mixtures worldwide: a systematic map of research patterns, with knowledge gaps and management implications
Published: 2026-10-30
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Forest Sciences
Purpose of Review: Spontaneous mixtures of native and non-native tree species occur in forest landscapes affected by land-use change, species introductions and disturbances. However, research on these communities remains fragmented. Recent Findings: We identified 238 cases. Research was concentrated in high-income countries and studies included diverse combinations of native and non-native tree [...]