Preprints
There are 2534 Preprints listed.
Acclimation to fluctuating hypoxia alters activity and escape performance, but not metabolism, in guppies
Published: 2025-05-02
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Zoology
Organisms living in fluctuating environments must cope with constantly changing conditions. Here we investigated how acclimation to either fluctuating or constant oxygen affects behavioural and physiological responses to hypoxia in guppies (Poecilia reticulata). Guppies were acclimated to either fluctuating hypoxia (100% of air saturation during day to 40% at night) or constant normoxia (100% of [...]
“A history of the world imperfectly kept”: Will we ever know how biodiversity has changed over deep time?
Published: 2025-05-02
Subjects: Biodiversity, Evolution, Paleobiology
The fossil record is our only direct source of evidence for how life on Earth has waxed and waned over its long history. However, the fossil record is also incomplete and biased in many ways, after passing through biological, geological, and socio-economic filters. This means that we only possess snapshots of information, relating to specific places and times in Earth history, from which to try [...]
Accounting for biodiversity impacts of consumption and production: current gaps and frontiers.
Published: 2025-05-02
Subjects: Biodiversity, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Sustainability
The way humans produce and consume material goods continues to be a primary driving force on biodiversity decline. Despite significant advances in quantifying biodiversity footprints, important differences exist across types of approaches and indicators. These include, what aspects of biodiversity are measured and how they are reported. In this scoping review, we provide an overview of [...]
Nature requires investment: applying Priority Threat Management to support biodiversity and climate targets
Published: 2025-05-01
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy
1. Stemming biodiversity loss requires greater investment in conservation and more efficient use of available resources. Prioritizing conservation actions that yield the most biodiversity benefit for the least cost can help maximize return on investment. Actions that have co-benefits for other objectives, such as climate change mitigation, can also help mobilize additional funds for [...]
Slithering Sentinels: assessing the relevance of sea snakes as bioindicators for monitoring New Caledonia's Lagoon
Published: 2025-05-01
Subjects: Biology, Marine Biology
Coral reefs are vital ecosystems, rich in biodiversity and economically significant. However, they face severe threats from human activities such as climate change, pollution, and overfishing. Large-scale monitoring is crucial for their conservation. Integrative bioindicators are needed to better assess their health. Marine snakes, as high-level predators with strong site fidelity, are excellent [...]
Creating woodland through natural processes: Current understanding and knowledge gaps in Great Britain
Published: 2025-04-30
Subjects: Agriculture, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Forest Management, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
1. Creating new woodlands through natural processes, as opposed to traditional tree planting, is expected to result in more structurally diverse, locally-adapted woodlands that enhance the resilience of existing treescapes. However, the outcomes of natural colonisation can be variable, and there is still considerable uncertainty around the ecological processes involved. 2. To address knowledge [...]
Sex-Specific Control and Incomplete Matings: Sperm Removal Behaviour in a Bush Cricket Species
Published: 2025-04-30
Subjects: Life Sciences
In sexually promiscuous species, sperm removal behaviour (SRB) is a male strategy to increase reproductive success by displacing rival sperm prior to insemination. This behaviour may, however, impose costs on both sexes, generating sexual conflict. We investigated the sex-specific control over SRB in Metaplastes ornatus, a bush cricket species exhibiting this behaviour. We used a double mating [...]
The wind of change: mapping wind energy growth and multi-species vulnerability in the Mediterranean
Published: 2025-04-29
Subjects: Life Sciences
The rapid expansion of wind energy across the Mediterranean region calls for more advanced tools to assess and mitigate its impacts on biodiversity. In this study, we propose an innovative approach that integrates historical satellite imagery and ecological modelling to assess the spatiotemporal overlap between wind energy development and habitat suitability for multiple vulnerable raptor [...]
Plant pathogen profiling with the EpiPv package
Published: 2025-04-29
Subjects: Life Sciences
This study introduces a flexible framework for epidemiological profiling of insect-borne plant pathogens (IBPPs), utilizing readily available experimental data. The framework is applicable to most IBPPs transmitted by insects feeding on plant veins, with particular relevance to whitefly-borne viruses that impact cassava production in sub-Saharan Africa. The goal of the study is to provide an [...]
Bengal Basin in the Midst of the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean Littoral: A Study of the Earliest Trading Centre and the Nautical Network of Inland and Oceanic Trade originating from Ancient Bengal
Published: 2025-04-29
Subjects: Arts and Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences
This study explores the pivotal role of the Bengal Basin in shaping ancient maritime and inland trade networks in South Asia. Centered on the region’s complex deltaic system and strategic coastal position, the research investigates how natural features such as the expansive Gangetic delta and extensive river networks fostered both local commerce and long-distance trade across the Indian Ocean. [...]
Seasonal upwelling and depth-driven gradients foster functional overdispersion in Southwestern Atlantic annelid assemblages
Published: 2025-04-28
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Marine Biology
Marine communities on continental shelves form through a combination of environmental filtering, biotic interaction, and dispersal-based processes. These shelves present depth-related environmental gradients from nearshore and seasonal upwelling systems, which periodically supply cold, dispersalenhancing, nutrient-rich waters, providing an ideal setting to explore spatiotemporal [...]
Facing the heat: behavioral and molecular underpinnings of heat stress in bumblebees
Published: 2025-04-25
Subjects: Animal Studies, Behavior and Ethology, Behavioral Neurobiology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Environmental Studies, Life Sciences, Neuroscience and Neurobiology, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Climate change heralds an era of increased heat waves. Insects, due to their short generation times and their sensitive ecological requirements, offer a powerful model for studying rapid physiological and behavioral responses to high temperatures. Solitary insects primarily respond to temperature extremes by moving in space or time to remain in a constant environment, or by exploiting phenotypic [...]
Seeking to quantify contributions that fisheries operations can make to a global Nature Positive goal
Published: 2025-04-25
Subjects: Biodiversity, Marine Biology
Amidst global efforts to address biodiversity loss, the concept of ‘Nature Positive’ has gained traction as a societal goal aligned with the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). While the goal is increasingly being embraced by businesses and governments, there has been little investigation into how fisheries, a key sector in the global economy and a major driver of marine biodiversity loss, could [...]
Decline of the globally rare old-growth specklebelly lichen, Pseudocyphellaria rainierensis, and its implications for temperate rainforest conservation
Published: 2025-04-25
Subjects: Biodiversity, Botany, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Forest Biology, Forest Management, Natural Resources and Conservation, Population Biology
Epiphytic lichens are key components of temperate rainforests, where they contribute to forest hydrology, nutrient cycles, food webs, and overall biomass and biodiversity. Despite their ecological importance and sensitivity to environmental change few protections exist for lichen conservation and management. Pseudocyphellaria rainierensis, or old-growth specklebelly lichen, is considered an [...]
Code review in practice: A checklist for computational reproducibility and collaborative research in ecology and evolution
Published: 2025-04-24
Subjects: Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Ensuring that research, along with its data and code, is credible and remains accessible is crucial for advancing scientific knowledge—especially in ecology and evolutionary biology, where the climate crisis and biodiversity loss accelerate and demand urgent, transparent science. Yet, code is rarely shared alongside scientific publications, and when it is, unclear implementation and insufficient [...]