Preprints
There are 1649 Preprints listed.
New horizons for comparative studies and meta-analyses
Published: 2023-09-25
Subjects: Life Sciences
Comparative analyses and meta-analyses are key tools to elucidate broad biological principles, yet the two approaches often appear different in purpose. We propose an integrated approach that can generate deeper insights into eco-evolutionary processes. Marrying comparative and meta-analytic approaches will allow for 1) a more accurate investigation of drivers of biological variation; 2) a [...]
Best practices for genetic and genomic data archiving
Published: 2023-09-25
Subjects: Bioinformatics, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences
Genetic and genomic data are collected for a vast array of scientific and applied purposes. Despite mandates for public archiving, data are typically used only by the generating authors. The reuse of genetic and genomic datasets remains uncommon because it is difficult, if not impossible, due to non-standard archiving practices and lack of contextual metadata. But as the new field of [...]
Uncovering global drivers threatening vegetation resilience
Published: 2023-09-25
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Forest Biology
1) Context: The resilience of the Earth's vegetation is changing heterogeneously, making it a challenge to unveil what causes these resilience changes. Understanding the driving forces of these changes can help us make informed management decisions to protect and restore ecosystems. Here, we address this gap by identifying the drivers that have caused the resilience of ecosystems to change during [...]
Cooler and drier conditions increase parasitism in subtropical damselfly populations
Published: 2023-09-22
Subjects: Life Sciences
Host-parasite interactions are impacted by climate, which may result variation of parasitism across landscapes and time. Understanding how parasitism varies across these spatio-temporal scales is crucial to predicting how organism will respond to and cope under a rapidly changing climate. Empirical work on how parasitism varies across climates is limited. Here, we examine the variation of [...]
Functional trait dataset of benthic macroinvertebrates in South Korean streams
Published: 2023-09-22
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Functional traits are the result of evolution and adaptation, providing important ecological insights into how organisms interact with their environment. Benthic macroinvertebrates, in particular, have garnered attention as biomonitoring indicators for freshwater ecosystems. This study presents a functional trait dataset for benthic macroinvertebrates, comprising 447 taxa (393 at genus level, 53 [...]
Metaweb and its applications in understanding ecological interactions
Published: 2023-09-22
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Understanding the dynamics of ecological interactions is an essential initial step in acquiring a comprehensive understanding of the ecosystem structure and functions. Such knowledge is pivotal in effective conservation planning, sustainable development, and ecosystem management. However, the limited availability of information on ecological interactions, commonly referred to as Eltonian [...]
KF-metaweb: A trophic metaweb of freshwater ecosystems of South Korea
Published: 2023-09-20
Subjects: Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Motivation: The metaweb is a dictionary of nodes and their potential interactions developed for a particular region, focusing on a particular type of ecosystem. Based on the local biodiversity information at different spatial and temporal scales, the regional metaweb can be easily decomposed into local webs. The generated local webs are useful for understanding spatiotemporal variations in [...]
Invasion trends: An interpretable measure of change is needed to support policy targets
Published: 2023-09-20
Subjects: Life Sciences
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) calls for a 50% reduction in rates of invasive alien species establishment by 2030. However, estimating changes in rates of introduction and establishment is far from straightforward, particularly on a national scale. Variation in survey effort over time, the absence of data on survey effort, and aspects of the invasion process itself [...]
Candy Darter: Background, Threats, and Conservation for an Endangered Fish
Published: 2023-09-20
Subjects: Environmental Policy, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Candy darters, once abundant in the West Virginia and Virginia water basins, now require substantial conservation efforts due to habitat destruction and hybridization with the variegate darter species. Direct human effects have also escalated the destruction of candy darter habitats, making the protection of this important species and what remains of their habitat of utmost importance. With the [...]
Sources of confusion in global biodiversity trends
Published: 2023-09-20
Subjects: Life Sciences
Populations and ecological communities are changing worldwide, and empirical studies exhibit a mixture of either declining or mixed trends. Confusion in global biodiversity trends thus remains while being of major social, political, and scientific importance. Part of this variability may arise from the difficulty to reliably assess global biodiversity trends. Here, we conducted a literature [...]
Time since first naturalization is key to explaining non-native plant invasions on islands
Published: 2023-09-20
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Aim Investigating the extent of insular invasions by non-native species (i.e. the number of islands they occupy) is central to island conservation. However, interrelationships among plant life history traits, naturalization histories, and island characteristics in determining island occupancy by non-native plant species are poorly understood. We investigated whether island occupancy by different [...]
Plant mutations, beyond the clichés
Published: 2023-09-18
Subjects: Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences, Plant Sciences
A global analysis reveals the dynamic relationship between sexual selection and population abundance in space and time
Published: 2023-09-17
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution
Sexual selection leads to the evolution of extravagant weaponry or ornamental displays, with the bearer of these traits gaining a reproductive advantage, potentially at a cost to the individual’s survival. The consequences of sexual selection can therefore impact species demographic processes and overall abundance. Currently, evidence connecting the effects of sexual selection to demography and [...]
Spatially explicit predictions of food web structure from regional level data
Published: 2023-09-16
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Knowledge about how ecological networks vary across global scales is currently limited given the complexity of acquiring repeated spatial data for species interactions. Yet, recent developments of metawebs highlight efficient ways to first document possible interactions within regional species pools. Downscaling metawebs towards local network predictions is a promising approach to use current [...]
Monitor indicators of genetic diversity from space using Earth Observation data
Published: 2023-09-15
Subjects: Biodiversity, Life Sciences
By providing images of the globe, measured frequently across several optical domains, in the form of public data, EO has high potential to facilitate and advance biodiversity monitoring. However, there is currently a consensus that EO cannot contribute to monitoring genetic diversity. Here, we challenge this consensus by explaining how EO can help to develop the headline and complementary [...]