Preprints
There are 2684 Preprints listed.
The impact of the rhizocephalan parasitic barnacle on its host crab through non-consumptive effects
Published: 2025-04-21
Subjects: Marine Biology
Parasites can significantly influence ecological communities by altering host traits. Rhizocephalans, a group closely related to thoracican barnacles within Cirripedia, are common in marine ecosystems and profoundly impact their hosts, most notably by inducing reproductive castration. However, their influence on other host traits, particularly those related to predator defense, remains [...]
BOLDistilled: Comprehensive but compact DNA barcode reference libraries
Published: 2025-04-21
Subjects: Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Advances in DNA sequencing technology have stimulated the rapid uptake of protocols—such as eDNA analysis and metabarcoding—that infer the species composition of environmental samples from DNA sequences. DNA barcode reference libraries play a critical role in the interpretation of sequences gathered through such protocols, but many lack adequate taxonomic curation, include redundant records, do [...]
A user’s guide for understanding reptile and amphibian hydroregulation and climate change impacts
Published: 2025-04-19
Subjects: Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Human impacts on ecosystems have intensified variation in water variability for terrestrial life, thus challenging the maintenance of water balance, or hydroregulation. The accelerated development and accessibility of technologies and computational models over the past decade have enabled researchers to predict changes in animal hydroregulation and environmental water with greater spatial and [...]
Long-term monitoring strategies for ecological reclamation programmes using spatially balanced rotating panel designs
Published: 2025-04-19
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
1. Environmental monitoring programmes associated with ecological reclamation are critical to various stakeholder groups and important for regulatory compliance, to assess site performance, and to inform decision management. As logistical constraints are common, strategies for sampling multiple locations or large areas over time are likely to improve monitoring programmes. Rotating panel designs [...]
Low levels of extrapair paternity in the long-lived colonial Alpine swift (Tachymarptis melba)
Published: 2025-04-18
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
It has been suggested that a high aerial lifestyle makes it difficult for males to limit mating opportunities for their partners. This would explain the particularly high levels of extra-pair paternity (EPP) observed in swallows and swifts (Hirundinidae, Passeriformes). Here, we investigated EPP in the Alpine swift (Tachymarptis melba), whose aerial lifestyle is similar to that of the [...]
Re-revisiting the Niche Concept
Published: 2025-04-16
Subjects: Life Sciences
The adaptive maintenance of phenotypic polymorphism
Published: 2025-04-16
Subjects: Life Sciences
Phenotypic polymorphisms have fascinated evolutionary biologists since the field’s inception, providing easily observable and quantifiable variation amenable to both empirical and theoretical study. However, a clear method for developing alternative hypotheses for the adaptive processes by which multiple morphs are maintained remains elusive. Here we review hypotheses for the maintenance of [...]
The Subtlety of Lake Superior Ciscoe Recruitment Dynamics
Published: 2025-04-15
Subjects: Life Sciences
Objective: Lake Superior whitefish [Salmonidae: Coregoninae] have undergone high annual variability in survival to age-1 over the last 50-years, particularly within the dominant ciscoe flock of Bloater Coregonus hoyi, Cisco C. artedi, and Kiyi C. Kiyi. This work sought to determine if this variance was associated with hydrometeorological attributes that have also varied considerably over the same [...]
Disentangling Landscape Heterogeneity: Compositional, Configurational, Vertical, and Temporal Heterogeneity
Published: 2025-04-15
Subjects: Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Aim Landscape heterogeneity is a key driver of biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and resilience. However, the complex relationships among different components of heterogeneity—compositional, configurational, vertical, and temporal—remain underexplored for large areas such as at the national scale. This study examines the associations among multiple landscape heterogeneity components across [...]
Proximate and Ultimate Causes of Pregnancy Sickness
Published: 2025-04-15
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology, Endocrinology, Evolution, Maternal and Child Health
Evolutionary biologists have long been fascinated by the peculiar trait of pregnancy sickness, the syndrome experienced by two-thirds of pregnant individuals which includes nausea and vomiting of pregnancy and, in 2% of cases, progresses to a pathological extreme known as hyperemesis gravidarum. With the recent discovery of the placental hormone GDF15 as the main causal factor in pregnancy [...]
Delineating freshwater fish biogeographic regions in the Philippine archipelago
Published: 2025-04-15
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
The Philippines, a biodiversity hotspot with a complex geological history, presents an ideal setting to study freshwater fish biogeography in archipelagos. Despite its ecological significance, analyses of freshwater fish distribution patterns across the archipelago remain lacking. This study addresses this knowledge gap by delineating native freshwater fish biogeographic regions in the [...]
Function of duet coordination in a territorial socially monogamous bird
Published: 2025-04-15
Subjects: Life Sciences
Duetting, a cooperative vocal behaviour performed by mated pairs, is a distinctive vocal behaviour among many species in specifically primates and birds. The exact features of duets that may make them a stronger territorial signal is still inconclusive. One hypothesis is that the precision of duet coordination can indicate the quality or dedication of a pair, and thus the degree of threat posed [...]
High spatial pair cohesion during and after breeding in a socially monogamous territorial passerine
Published: 2025-04-15
Subjects: Life Sciences
Long-term social monogamy, a prevalent mating system in avian species, is often associated with increased cooperation and coordination as well as reduced sexual conflict. Although many studies have highlighted the benefits of long-term partnerships for individuals, there remains a lack of insight into how closely partners associate with one another behaviourally. To date, studies investigating [...]
Quantifying the correlation between variance components: an extension to the double-hierarchical generalised linear model
Published: 2025-04-14
Subjects: Life Sciences
1. The variational properties of biological systems are an increasing focus of current research, and statistical methods are required for drawing inferences about the processes that determine them. 2. Double-hierarchical generalised linear models (DHGLM) are ideally suited for studying variational properties since they provide a direct way of modelling the distribution of variances. 3. Although [...]
Spatial and seasonal variation in avian dietary strategies
Published: 2025-04-14
Subjects: Life Sciences
Diet is a fundamental aspect of vertebrate life history, shaping survival, recruitment, and ultimately fitness. While spatial variation in avian dietary traits has been extensively studied, seasonal dynamics at both species and assemblage levels remain largely unexplored, hindering our ability to uncover the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms underlying biodiversity patterns. Here, we present [...]