Preprints
There are 2380 Preprints listed.
See(d)ing the seeds - toward weather-based forecasting of annual seed production in six European forest tree species
Published: 2025-01-10
Subjects: Natural Resources and Conservation, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Other Forestry and Forest Sciences
1. Ecological forecasting is essential for addressing climate change adaptation and mitigation. In reforestation and habitat restoration, seed production forecasting will support planning and resource allocation, providing benefits for wildlife management and public health. 2. We hind- and forecast seed production using statistical models based on weekly weather and high-resolution seed data of [...]
Biocultural Families and Leaders: New Metaphors, Methods and Members for Environmental Connectivity in Unama'ki
Published: 2025-01-09
Subjects: Arts and Humanities, Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
In this community inquiry into the importance of connectivity to the newly established Kluskap Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA) in Unama'ki (Cape Breton), our team partnered with local knowledge-holders to develop locally appropriate definitions and metaphors for connectivity along with methodologies for understanding and visualizing its concrete manifestations, including by [...]
Biodiversity research requires more motors in the mud, air and water
Published: 2025-01-09
Subjects: Life Sciences
Human activities have accelerated species extinctions, causing a rapid biodiversity decline. Simultaneously, recent advancements in artificial intelligence and autonomous systems offer transformative potential for biodiversity research. Uncrewed vehicles—such as aerial drones, ground robots, and underwater vehicles—equipped with high-resolution sensors enhance ecosystem monitoring with [...]
Population structure plays a key role in community stability
Published: 2025-01-09
Subjects: Applied Mathematics, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The relationship between ecosystem complexity and stability remains unresolved and a mechanistic explanation for the stunning levels of biodiversity observed in communities and ecosystems is still lacking. Recent work has shown that differences in the foraging capacity and predation risk of juveniles versus adults within populations result in larger, more complex communities than predicted by [...]
Lights tuned to the avian eye result in early detection and escape from an approaching aircraft
Published: 2025-01-08
Subjects: Animal Experimentation and Research, Animal Sciences, Animal Studies, Behavioral Neurobiology, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Collisions between birds and aircraft are a global problem. We identified different behavioral parameters affecting the probability of escape to an approaching aircraft, which is a function of the probability that the animal initiates an escape response (probability of reaction) and the probability of having enough time to escape (probability of sufficient time). Lights of high chromatic contrast [...]
OSEA, a deep learning-based bird classification tool, with pre-trained model, mobile and command line applications
Published: 2025-01-07
Subjects: Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Life Sciences, Ornithology
In response to the challenges of traditional biodiversity monitoring methods, we introduce OSEA (Open Species Estimation for Avians), a multi-platform, offline tool for bird species identification. Designed to recognize over 10,000 bird species, OSEA includes both a mobile application and a command-line interface (CLI), facilitating efficient bird species identification. The mobile app, developed [...]
Phenological Plasticity and Its Thermal Determinants in Common Songbirds across Europe
Published: 2025-01-07
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Phenological plasticity—the ability of organisms to adjust breeding timing in response to environmental variability —is the primary mechanism for seasonal organisms as it enables to synchronize their life cycles with seasonal resource availability. Theory predicts that phenological plasticity should vary among populations because of environmental heterogeneity, and among species because of [...]
AI and Big Data for invasion biology: finding, modelling and forecasting the population dynamics of invaders
Published: 2025-01-07
Subjects: Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Life Sciences, Population Biology
Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the study and management of invasive species through analytical and predictive tools that optimize detection, monitoring, and automated eradication. In this work, we reviewed the fundamental principles of machine learning and deep learning, illustrated with recent case studies on invasive species. We also present the first systematic review of [...]
Improving our understanding of adaptive evolution by addressing multi-generational non-genetic responses
Published: 2025-01-06
Subjects: Life Sciences
Populations that face abrupt environmental change reducing their fitness can recover by adaptive genetic evolution over tens to hundreds of generations, but their immediate responses often involve non-genetic mechanisms. When such non-genetic responses span multiple generations, their dynamics may be difficult to distinguish from those of genetic evolution. We here argue that focusing research on [...]
No, ecosystems do not have intrinsic value! A response to the Conguillío Statement
Published: 2025-01-06
Subjects: Life Sciences
1. The Conguillío Statement on the alleged values and responsibilities of ecologists claims that ecosystems are intrinsically valuable. This is a common claim by ecologists and the authors of the Conguillío Statement probably view it as uncontroversial. 2. Ecologists want to invoke the concept of intrinsic value because it seems to cover more of nature than instrumental value. However, [...]
Impacts of plant invasions on tick-borne disease risk
Published: 2025-01-06
Subjects: Life Sciences
Under global change, plant invasions may alter tick-borne disease (TBD) transmission. The direction and magnitude of changes in TBD risk resulting from invasions remain poorly understood because research has often been species-specific or insufficient to quantify mechanisms. In this overview, we describe how invasive plant functional traits can mediate microclimates, how tick survival and [...]
Does post-natal parental care influence cognitive development in a social gecko?
Published: 2025-01-06
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
How cognition evolved remains a debated “hot-topic” in the field of animal cognition. Current hypotheses link variation in sociality, ecology, and more generally, environmental challenges to differences in cognitive development, both between as well as within species. Research supporting the Social Intelligence Hypothesis, which states that cognition evolved to deal with social challenges, is [...]
Communities and Ecosystems
Published: 2025-01-03
Subjects: Life Sciences
Communities and ecosystems are two related and contested concepts in ecology. Despite their longevity, three unanswered philosophical questions apply to both concepts. First, "what are they?" Both concepts have multiple definitions and little agreement among ecologists about which is correct or which is most useful. Second, "how are they individuated?" Working from any particular definition, how [...]
Phytoremediation of Heavy Metals: Techniques, Challenges, and Prospects
Published: 2025-01-02
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Plant Sciences
Heavy metals, characterized by their high atomic mass and density, can pose significant risks to soil, water, plants, and human health. Contamination sources include manufacturing activities, mining, farming practices, and improper waste management. Metals such as arsenic, mercury, lead, chromium, and cadmium are most toxic with health consequences that can result from organ dysfunction to [...]
Which phenotypic traits are under selection from warm, dry climates in black spruce?
Published: 2024-12-28
Subjects: Life Sciences
• Trees are increasingly at risk of maladaptation to their environment as climates change rapidly world-wide. Although adaptive evolution by natural selection is a key mechanism by which populations and species can avoid extinction in changing environments, we have limited information regarding the phenotypic traits under selection under warm and dry environments. We answer the following research [...]