Preprints
There are 1649 Preprints listed.
Relative abundance distributions reveal constraints on tetrapod community diversity
Published: 2023-08-22
Subjects: Biodiversity, Evolution
Previous efforts to understand the pace of species diversification through time have disagreed over whether species diversity is unbounded or limited by a carrying capacity. Tetrapods (limbed vertebrates) have frequently been employed as a case-study in examinations of this issue, with studies of diversity being used to support both sides. Here, we examine the shape of relative abundance [...]
Additions and Corrections to the Taxonomy of “Cistanthe arenaria” (Montiaceae)
Published: 2023-08-21
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
This work provides corrections and additions to a previously published taxonomy of Chilean plants classified as Cistanthe arenaria (Cham.) Carolin ex Hershk. The identity of Calandrinia bracteosa Phil. is discussed. Errors and omissions involving a table, figures and figure captions, and measurement are reported.
DAISIEmainland: an R package for simulating an island-mainland system for macroevolution on islands
Published: 2023-08-21
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Speciation and extinction of species are two of the most fundamental processes that are investigated in the field of evolutionary biology. Ideally, one would like to study these processes in replicated isolated systems. Islands come close to this setting if colonisation is rare. However, often we cannot directly measure when an island was colonised, when a colonist species speciated, or when [...]
CasPEDIA Database: A Functional Classification System for Class 2 CRISPR-Cas Enzymes
Published: 2023-08-17
Subjects: Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology, Bioinformatics, Life Sciences
CRISPR-Cas enzymes enable RNA-guided bacterial immunity and are widely used for biotechnological applications including genome editing. In particular, the Class 2 CRISPR-associated enzymes (Cas9, Cas12 and Cas13 families), have been deployed for numerous research, clinical and agricultural applications. However, the immense genetic and biochemical diversity of these proteins in the public domain [...]
On the use of individual-based models in predictive plant ecology
Published: 2023-08-17
Subjects: Life Sciences
The use of IBM may be the only possible method for getting quantitative insights into some dynamical aspects of animal populations with complicated behavior, but this is surely not the case in plant ecology, where relevant plant population models have been formulated and used for decades. In my opinion, credible predictive plant ecological models is most effectively performed using population [...]
The feeding apparatus of ants: An overview of structure and function
Published: 2023-08-15
Subjects: Life Sciences
Ants are a dominant family of eusocial terrestrial insects with a diversity of ecologies, lifestyles and morphologies. Ant diet preferences range from strict carnivory through omnivory to almost complete herbivory in species feeding on seeds or exudates of plant sucking insects. While several studies have investigated ant feeding performance on different substrates, comparatively little is [...]
Feedback loops drive ecological succession; towards a unified conceptual framework
Published: 2023-08-15
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
The core principle shared by most theories and models of succession is that plant-environment (PE) feedback dynamics drive a directional change in the plant community, following a major disturbance. The most commonly studied feedback loops are those in which the regrowth of the plant community causes changes to the biotic (e.g., dispersers) or abiotic (e.g., soil nutrients) environment, which [...]
Botany and Geogenomics: constraining geological hypotheses in the Neotropics with large-scale genetic data derived from plants
Published: 2023-08-09
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Decades of empirical research have revealed how the geological history of our planet shaped plant evolution by establishing well-known patterns (e.g., how mountain uplift resulted in high rates of diversification and replicate radiations in montane plant taxa). Under this approach, information is passed from geology to botany by interpreting data in light of geological processes. Instead, in this [...]
Paws for thought: Impacts of animal husbandry on tundra greening in High Arctic Svalbard
Published: 2023-08-07
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Plant Sciences, Research Methods in Life Sciences
Dog sledding in High Arctic Svalbard is a key tourist attraction, and the keeping of animals and livestock has historically been in practice in the settlements of the archipelago. The resulting waste disposal practices - particularly those involving the disposal of animal faeces and fodder - hugely enrich soils with excess nutrients. Here, we explore how animal husbandry affected changes in [...]
The unfulfilled potential of dogs in studying behavioural evolution during the Anthropocene
Published: 2023-08-07
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Zoology
Dogs are an exceptional resource for studying ecological, behavioural and evolutionary processes. However, several widespread misconceptions limit our understanding of dog behaviour and inhibit the use of dogs as model study systems in diverse areas of biological science. These include extensive anthropomorphisation of dog behaviour, a profound bias towards almost exclusively studying pet dogs, a [...]
Leadership in Animal Groups: The Interplay between Individual Traits and Coordination Mechanisms
Published: 2023-08-07
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
In social systems, movement of individual group members scales up to spatiotemporal dynamics of the group. However, the level of influence on group movement dynamics can be variable among group members. The influence of an individual is often referred to as their leadership potential. However, despite the common occurrence of leader-follower patterns across various taxa, little is known whether [...]
Reply to: Recognizing and marshalling the pre-publication error correction potential of open data for more reproducible science
Published: 2023-08-07
Subjects: Life Sciences
Assessing risk of ecosystem collapse in a changing climate
Published: 2023-08-07
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences
Climate change has pervasive impacts on Earth’s ecosystems, but the diversity and complexity of ecosystems makes estimating the severity of impacts and the resulting risk of collapse difficult. In this perspective, we conceptualise the challenge of understanding how climate change alters ecosystems, and how to reliably measure those changes in ecosystem risk assessments, focussing on the IUCN Red [...]
Abiotic environmental factors driving the biomass and community structure of soil bacteria in an arid region
Published: 2023-08-07
Subjects: Life Sciences
Microbial communities are important determinants of ecosystem functions in deserts. However, bacterial communities and their relationship with edaphic conditions are poorly investigated in these extreme ecosystems. Here we examined the community structure and biomass of bacteria, including/focusing on nitrogen-fixing bacteria, across different soil habitats in Qatar, using high-throughput [...]
Hypotheses on the evolutional process and meaningful function of organisms: mitochondria, plants, mammals
Published: 2023-07-29
Subjects: Life Sciences
Mitochondrial coexistence in eukaryotic cells is an important theme in biology, and its process and relationship with the subsequent evolutionary history of life continue to be studied. The roles and functions of plants remain unknown and continue to be studied. Mammals have complex organs and well-developed immune systems, and reproduce by a specialized method called embryogenesis. In this [...]