Preprints
There are 2380 Preprints listed.
Parasite traits shape the association between forest loss and infection: A global meta-analysis
Published: 2024-12-18
Subjects: Life Sciences
Forest loss can affect host–parasite dynamics, posing risks to wildlife and human health. Most work has investigated how host traits moderate associations between forest loss and prevalence, but the role that parasite traits play is less understood. We synthesized parasite prevalence and parasite trait data from publicly available databases representing carnivores, ungulates, and primate host [...]
Construction costs and tradeoffs in carnivorous pitcher plant leaves: towards a pitcher leaf economic spectrum
Published: 2024-12-18
Subjects: Life Sciences
Abstract • Background Leaf economic theory holds that physiological constraints to photosynthesis have a role in the coordinated evolution of multiple leaf traits, an idea that can be extended to carnivorous plants occupying a particular trait space that is constrained by key costs and benefits. Pitcher traps are modified leaves that may face steep photosynthetic costs: a high-volume, [...]
From Vegetation to Vulnerability: Integrating Remote Sensing and AI to Combat Cheatgrass-Induced Wildfire Hazards in California
Published: 2024-12-18
Subjects: Computational Engineering, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment
Wildfire risk is on the rise around the world. In places like California, this risk is further instigated by the invasive species cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum). Cheatgrass is highly flammable and benefits from wildfires, allowing it to replace native plant communities. Through increasing both the intensity and the frequency of wildfires, it endangers not only its natural environment but also human [...]
Cryptic ontogenetic changes in the ventral coloration of a colour polymorphic wall lizard (Podarcis muralis)
Published: 2024-12-18
Subjects: Life Sciences
Many animals undergo irreversible ontogenetic colour changes (OCCs), yet these changes are often overlooked despite their potential ethological relevance. The problem is compounded when OCCs involve wavelengths invisible to humans. Wall lizards can perceive ultraviolet (UV) light, and their conspicuous ventral and ventrolateral coloration —including UV-reflecting patches— likely serves social [...]
Intraspecific variation and detectability of iridescence in the dorsal coloration of a wall lizard
Published: 2024-12-18
Subjects: Life Sciences
Iridescence refers to the optical property of surfaces for which reflected wavelengths depend on viewing geometry. Although iridescence underlies some of the most striking animal colours, the sensory stimulation elicited by iridescent spectral shifts in relevant observers has seldom been explored. Wall lizards often show substantial intraspecific colour variation, which may influence the [...]
Amazonian and Andean tree communities are not tracking current climate warming
Published: 2024-12-18
Subjects: Life Sciences
Climate change is shifting species distributions, leading to changes in community composition and novel species assemblages worldwide. However, the responses of tropical forests to climate change across large-scale environmental gradients remain largely unexplored. Using long-term data over 66,000 trees of more than 2,500 species occurring over 3,500 m elevation along the hyperdiverse [...]
Wood density variation across an Andes-to-Amazon elevational gradient
Published: 2024-12-18
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences
1. Understanding how functional traits are related to species diversity and ecosystem properties is a central goal of ecology. Wood density is a trait that integrates many aspects of plant form and function and is highly variable among species. Previous studies of wood density across elevational gradients have been based on limited sampling and have reported declines with increasing elevation, [...]
Improving Aboveground Biomass Estimates with 3D Tree Crown Parameters from UAV-LS in Beech Forests
Published: 2024-12-18
Subjects: Forest Management, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences
Accurate estimates of aboveground biomass (AGB) are essential for forest policies to reduce carbon emissions. Unmanned aerial laser scanning (UAV-LS) offers unprecedented millimetric detail but is underutilized in monitoring broadleaf Mediterranean forests compared to coniferous ones. This study aims to design and evaluate a procedure for AGB estimates based on the predictive power of crown [...]
Antechodynamics and Antechokinetics: Dynamics and Kinetics of Antibiotic Resistance Molecules
Published: 2024-12-16
Subjects: Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences
Pharmacology of antimicrobial drugs comprises pharmacodynamics (PD) and pharmacokinetics (PK). PD refers to studying drugs' mode of action at different concentrations on their molecular targets and the resulting effect(s). PK refers to studying the way(s) by which drugs enter and are distributed to reach their targets in different compartments (such as tissues in the body) and how the local drug [...]
Simple maternal effect animal models may provide biased estimates of additive genetic and maternal variation
Published: 2024-12-16
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Genetics, Zoology
Maternal effects (the consistent effect of a mother on her offspring) can inflate estimates of additive genetic variation (\Va) if not properly accounted for. As they are typically assumed to cause similarities only among maternal siblings, they are often accounted for by modelling maternal identity effects. However, if maternal effects have a genetic basis, they create additional similarities [...]
Unlocking the hidden dimensions of genomic diversity within species
Published: 2024-12-16
Subjects: Evolution, Genomics, Molecular Biology
The missing heritability problem, defined as the failure of genetic variants to explain variance in phenotypes, has been an unsolved issue in genetics for the past two decades. A potential solution to this problem stems from the idea that single nucleotide polymorphisms and copy-number variants, the most commonly studied forms of genomic diversity, do not represent the totality of the information [...]
Laguna Beach Nearshore Giant Kelp and Bryozoan
Published: 2024-12-14
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
This paper examines the scattered nearshore kelp beds in Laguna Beach subtidal shallow rock reef substrate between Brooks Street and Thalia Street, referred to as town. The nearshore kelp is approximately 200 meters from the shore. This area has been protected since 2012 when it was considered a California Marine Protected Area (MPA) and classified as Laguna Beach State Marine Reserve (LBSMR). [...]
Antlions (Myrmeleontidae) in the Doñana National Park
Published: 2024-12-14
Subjects: Life Sciences
This study represents the first comprehensive survey of antlions (Myrmeleontidae) in Doñana National Park, conducted across 58 sampling locations during two field seasons (April–June 2023 and March–July 2024). A total of 12 species from 9 genera were identified, with 406 larval-stage specimens collected, of which 295 successfully emerged as adults (201 females and 94 males, including 28 imagos [...]
Gut microbiome communities demonstrate fine-scale spatial variation in a closed, island bird population
Published: 2024-12-14
Subjects: Life Sciences
Environmental variation is a key factor shaping microbiome communities in wild animals. However, most studies have focussed on separate populations distributed over large spatial scales. How ecological factors shape inter-individual microbiome variation within a single landscape and host population remains poorly understood. Here, we use dense sampling of individuals in a natural, closed [...]
Pleistocene climatic changes drive expansion and fragmentation in a widespread arid zone specialist, Petrogale lateralis
Published: 2024-12-13
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Organisms living in arid biomes are predicted to be at threat of extinction associated with ongoing climatic and anthropogenic change. Our understanding of species responses to Pleistocene climatic changes within these environments is still limited, particularly in Australia. Here we evaluate the demographic and evolutionary history of a widespread Australian marsupial, the black-footed [...]