Preprints
There are 2395 Preprints listed.
Handle with care! Morphology of spines and milking practices in venomous fishes
Published: 2024-10-12
Subjects: Life Sciences
Venomous fish have independently evolved venom-delivery systems multiple times throughout their evolution. Despite the remarkable convergence of such structures, a large variety in venom-delivery structures morphology does occur across species. This review is aimed at delving into species’ peculiarities, exploring the diversity of venom glands and the potential ecological roles in relation to [...]
Background nutrient concentration determines phytoplankton bloom response to marine heatwaves
Published: 2024-10-12
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Ocean temperature extreme events such as marine heatwaves are expected to intensify in coming decades due to anthropogenic global warming. Reported ecological and economic impacts of marine heatwaves include coral bleaching, local extinction of mangrove and kelp forests, and elevated mortalities of invertebrates, fishes, seabirds, and marine mammals. In contrast, little is known about the impacts [...]
Offset or not: guidance on accounting for sampling effort in generalized linear models
Published: 2024-10-08
Subjects: Life Sciences
1. Observed data are often dependent on a measure of sampling effort, such as counts measured per unit area. A common tool to account for differences in effort is the ‘offset term’ in a generalized linear model, which allows for a fixed proportional relationship between effort and the response variable. However, there is limited detailed guidance on the application of offsets and transformations [...]
Local knowledge enhances the sustainability of interconnected fisheries
Published: 2024-10-08
Subjects: Agricultural and Resource Economics, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Studies, Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Global demand for natural resources challenges the sustainability of small-scale fisheries. Fisheries Co-Management (FCM), where management is shared between the government and locals, is crucial for maintaining viable fish populations while mitigating market pressures and illegal fishing. Using a data-informed model applied to a fish metapopulation network, we contrasted the effects of various [...]
Wildfire exposure and health outcomes: An umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses
Published: 2024-10-08
Subjects: Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Introduction: Wildfires are a growing concern due to their significant impact on wildlife, air quality, and health, and are increasing under climate change. Although several systematic reviews have explored the relationship between wildfire smoke and human health outcomes, a comprehensive overview of the overall epidemiological evidence remains needed. Thus, this umbrella review aimed to [...]
The Definition of Individual Biological Fitness
Published: 2024-10-08
Subjects: Life Sciences
Fitness is one of the central concepts in biology. Despite this, a precise definition of an individual's fitness remains elusive. Typically, 'biological fitness' is understood as the relative selective advantage of different genetic alleles. In this manuscript, we present a rigorous mathematical definition of individual fitness. This framework addresses an unjustifiable gap in evolutionary [...]
Coupled effects of forest growth and climate change on small mammal abundance and body weight: results of a 39-year field study
Published: 2024-10-08
Subjects: Life Sciences
In rapidly changing environments, the combined effects of climate change and forest stand changes—such as growth or regeneration—are altering the availability of resources, particularly in systems with pulsed resources like seed-masting. These environmental shifts can have cascading impacts on animal populations, ultimately reshaping ecosystem structure and function. However, relevant studies are [...]
Rotten to the core? How internal stem damage varies vertically in savanna trees and is influenced by tree species, traits, and external damage pressures
Published: 2024-10-04
Subjects: Life Sciences
1. Trees are important aboveground carbon sinks in savanna ecosystems, yet consumption of internal wood by decomposers (e.g., termites and microbes) creates uncertainties in tree biomass accounting. It remains unclear whether internal stem damage is constant or variable throughout the tree, making it uncertain if a lower stem sample reflects damage in the entire tree. Furthermore, total damage [...]
How does climate change impact the population of polar bears? Environmental threats, ecological dynamics and conservation efforts
Published: 2024-10-04
Subjects: Life Sciences
Climate change is one of the major drivers of recent biodiversity loss on a global scale. Some species try to adapt to such changes through shifting their range and behaviour due to their habitat being altered or damaged. Within the Arctic regions, temperature rise is three times higher than the global average, affecting various species at different rates in this ecosystem. Such a warming effect [...]
Leveraging ResNet-50 for Precision Toxicity Classification in Plants: A Vision-Based Approach to Safeguard Public Health
Published: 2024-10-04
Subjects: Environmental Engineering, Plant Sciences
The classification of toxic and non-toxic plants plays an important role in ensuring public safety, especially in agriculture, food safety, and health. Correct identification of these plants can prevent accidental poisoning and promote ecological protection. In this paper, we investigate the application of the ResNet-50 model for the classification of toxic and non-toxic plants. Leveraging the [...]
Phenology-informed decline risk of estuarine fishes and their prey suggests potential for future trophic mismatches
Published: 2024-10-03
Subjects: Life Sciences
Conservation scientists have long used population viability analysis (PVA) on species count data to quantify trends and critical decline risk, thereby informing conservation actions. These assessments typically focus on single species rather than assemblages and assume that risk is consistent within a given life stage (e.g., across the different seasons or months of a year). However, if risk is [...]
Comparing two ground-based seed count methods and their effect on masting metrics
Published: 2024-10-02
Subjects: Forest Biology, Forest Management, Forest Sciences, Plant Biology
Masting, i.e. interannually variable and synchronized seed production, plays a crucial role in forest ecosystems, influencing wildlife dynamics, pathogen prevalence, and forest regeneration. Accurately capturing masting variability is important for effective forest management, conservation efforts, and predicting ecosystem responses to environmental changes. The adoption of low-cost methods [...]
Pathways for transformative change in biodiversity politics: Examining the significance of the Global Biodiversity Framework’s ‘Considerations’
Published: 2024-10-01
Subjects: Biodiversity
This paper examines the ‘Considerations’ that are intended to underpin the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF). With so little time to meet the 2030 mission of transforming conservation approaches and curbing biodiversity decline, we reflect on the opportunities the Considerations present for transformative governance in biodiversity conservation. We [...]
European wild honeybee populations are endangered
Published: 2024-10-01
Subjects: Life Sciences
The population trends of wild western honeybees (Apis mellifera) have been neglected by conservationists because the species has been considered to consist of managed colonies only. New data suggest that wild honeybee colonies (still) make up one sixth to one fifth of the overall European honeybee population. The population trends of wild cohorts can be evaluated like those of any other native [...]
The best of both worlds: Why antipredator traits are lost in predator free havens and how to keep them
Published: 2024-10-01
Subjects: Life Sciences
As a response to the current biodiversity crisis, active management of threatened species has become more frequent, with predator-free havens an increasingly common conservation management strategy. In Australia, where introduced predators such as cats and foxes are one of the largest threats to native fauna, havens have played a key role in maintaining viable populations of endemic marsupials. [...]