Preprints
There are 1957 Preprints listed.
Inferring the seasonal dynamics and abundance of an invasive species using a spatio-temporal stacked machine learning model
Published: 2023-12-23
Subjects: Biology, Entomology, Life Sciences, Population Biology, Public Health, Virus Diseases
Various modelling techniques are available to understand the temporal and spatial variations of the phenology of species. Scientists often rely on correlative models, which establish a statistical relationship between a response variable (such as species abundance or presence-absence) and a set of predominantly abiotic covariates. The modelling approach choice, i.e. the algorithm, is a crucial [...]
VectAbundance: a spatio-temporal database of vector observations
Published: 2023-12-22
Subjects: Entomology, Environmental Public Health, Epidemiology, Life Sciences, Zoology
Modelling approaches play a crucial role in supporting local public health agencies by estimating and forecasting vector abundance and seasonality. However, the reliability of these models is contingent on the availability of standardized, high-quality data. Addressing this need, our study focuses on collecting and harmonizing egg count observations of Aedes albopictus, obtained through ovitraps [...]
Child and Adolescent Foraging: New Directions in Evolutionary Research
Published: 2023-12-22
Subjects: Social and Behavioral Sciences
Young children and adolescents in subsistence societies forage for a wide range of resources. They often target child-specific foods, they can be very successful foragers, and they share their produce widely within and outside of their nuclear family. At the same time, while foraging they face risky situations and are exposed to diseases that can influence their immune development. However, [...]
A structured approach for building multi-community state-and-transition models to support conservation planning
Published: 2023-12-20
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Global declines in ecosystem extent and condition mean there is an increasing demand for recovery and conservation plans. Conservation plans for ecological communities require a management framework with measurable, time-bound objectives. Efficient and structured processes that facilitate timely and comparable conservation plans are essential, especially where resources are constrained. We [...]
Ecosystem functions and services provided by dung beetles: a global meta-analysis
Published: 2023-12-20
Subjects: Agriculture, Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Life Sciences
Dung beetles are known to carry out a range of ecosystem functions such as secondary seed dispersal, bioturbation, nutrient cycling, plant growth, pest and parasite control, and trophic regulation, many of which support key ecosystem services. Despite the globally purported significance of this group of insects for ecosystem functioning, there has been no quantitative synthesis to establish the [...]
The trade-offs of honest and dishonest signals
Published: 2023-12-19
Subjects: Life Sciences
Explaining the evolution of honest versus dishonest signals under conflicts of interest has long posed a major challenge, but several recent developments should spur renewed interest in this problem. First, the Handicap Principle, which maintains that signals must be costly to be honest, has been refuted and the model that claimed to validate this idea has been shown to have been misinterpreted. [...]
Evolutionary Immunology to Explore Original Antiviral Strategies
Published: 2023-12-18
Subjects: Life Sciences
Over the past 25 years, the field of evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo) has used genomics and genetics to gain insight on the developmental mechanisms underlying the evolution of morphological diversity of animals. Evo-devo exploits the key insight that conserved toolkits of development (e.g., Hox genes) are used in animals to produce genetic novelties that provide adaptation to a new [...]
Developmental axioms in life history evolution
Published: 2023-12-15
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution
Life history theory is often invoked to make universal predictions about phenotypic evolution. For example, it is conventional wisdom that organisms should evolve older ages at first reproduction if they have longer lifespans. We clarify that life history theory does not currently provide such universal predictions about phenotypic diversity. Using the classic Euler-Lotka model of adaptive life [...]
The genetic basis for social network traits in the wild.
Published: 2023-12-14
Subjects: Life Sciences
Sociality is fundamental for many species, linked to an individual’s survival and reproductive success. The evolution of social behaviours has been studied, especially in complex social animals such as birds. However, discerning the genetic basis of these behaviours has been difficult due to the lack of ecological validity and life-history in controlled environments. In wild populations, however, [...]
Shrinking body size may not provide meaningful thermoregulatory benefits in a warmer world
Published: 2023-12-14
Subjects: Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Ornithology, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Physiology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Zoology
In a recent and impressive analysis of avian morphological data (covering >250 000 male birds from 105 species), Youngflesh et al.1 report that birds breeding in North America have become significantly lighter over the last three decades, coincident with rising breeding season temperatures. Because these observations recapitulate predictions under Bergmann’s Rule (i.e., that the body size of [...]
Complementando inventarios biológicos con datos abiertos a través de un método semiautomatizado
Published: 2023-12-14
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Introducción: Los muestreos directos constituyen la mejor manera de documentar la riqueza biológica de un lugar, pero pueden verse limitados por diversas circunstancias. Nos preguntamos si la riqueza de especies documentada en campo puede ser complementada con datos de plataformas digitales de biodiversidad. Objetivo: Analizar si los datos de ocurrencia de especies disponibles en la Global [...]
Effects of dissolved organic matter and ecocorona formation on the toxicity of micro- and nanoplastic particles to Daphnia - A meta-analysis
Published: 2023-12-13
Subjects: Life Sciences
Significant quantities of micro- and nanoplastic particles (MNP) end up in the environment, either due to larger plastic debris breaking down or by entering directly as MNPs. Effects of MNPs on organisms have been increasingly reported in recent years, with a large number of studies conducted on water fleas of the genus Daphnia. Most of the available studies used pristine particles that have [...]
Population density affects whole brain and brain region volumes in a wrasse species Coris batuensis
Published: 2023-12-13
Subjects: Life Sciences
The factors shaping brain evolution and cognition are broadly categorized as being either social or environmental. However, the relative importance of these factors is heavily debated, partly due to the limitations from the standard interspecific evolutionary comparative approach. Here, we adopt a complementary strategy leveraging the high degree of brain plasticity that evolved in fishes to ask [...]
Divergent responses between lineages of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi to soil phosphorus and nitrogen availability
Published: 2023-12-13
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences, Life Sciences, Soil Science
Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) associations are multifunctional. Two important functions they perform are facilitating nutrient uptake in host plants and protecting plants from biotic stress, among other functions. AM fungal taxa vary in how capably they perform these functions and can also respond differently to environmental selection. Therefore, there is a need to better understand how particular [...]
Elevated CO2 enhances decomposition and modifies litter-associated fungal assemblages in a natural Eucalyptus woodland
Published: 2023-12-13
Subjects: Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Litter decomposition is a key process governing carbon and nutrient cycles in forest ecosystems that is expected to be impacted by increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations. We conducted two complementary field studies to assess the effects of elevated CO2 on Eucalyptus tereticornis litter decomposition processes. First, we used bags of two different mesh sizes to assess the [...]