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Preprints

There are 2569 Preprints listed.

Evolutionary principles shape the health of humanity as a planetary-scale organism

Michael Jacob, Parham Pourdavood

Published: 2024-12-02
Subjects: Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences

A study of human social systems at planetary scale examines whether our technology, economy, culture, and flows of information are component-processes in a unified, living system. Through a biological lens of structure, function, and geographic mapping of social systems, we consider this total human ecosystem from evolutionary and developmental principles. The health of this system depends on its [...]

Withdrawn: Temperature-related developmental plasticity, not selection, affects offspring body size and shape in a bird of prey

Alejandro Corregidor-Castro, Andrea Romano, Michael Butler, et al.

Published: 2024-11-30
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Recent climate warming has led to a reduction in bird body size and a relative elongation of their appendages, consistent with Bergmann’s and Allen’s ecogeographical rules. These changes are generally interpreted as thermoregulatory adaptations for more efficient passive heat dissipation; however, direct evidence supporting this assumption is currently missing, and laboratory studies failed to [...]

Home of the brave: is similarity of defensive behavior of Neotropical snakes (Dipsadidae: Pseudoboini) predicted by sympatry?

Filipe C Serrano, Juan Diaz-Ricaurte, Cristopher Antúnez-Fonseca, et al.

Published: 2024-11-30
Subjects: Life Sciences

Predation is a strong driver of prey behavior and sympatric species are exposed to similar selective predatory pressures.We test the hypothesis that this leads to similar anti-predator behaviors using the widespread Neotropical snake tribe Pseudoboini. We reviewed and compiled documented defensive behaviors for all species, adding new unreported behaviors for three species. We used a cluster [...]

Stronger together? A framework for studying population resilience to climate change impacts via social shielding

Miyako H Warrington, David N. Fisher, Jan Komdeur, et al.

Published: 2024-11-29
Subjects: Life Sciences

1. Climate change is driving a rapid increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme climatic events, leading to substantial alterations in climate patterns and other environmental conditions. These changes are often degrading habitats and increasing thermal, water, and nutritional stress for animals, thereby elevating general stress levels and imposing energetic costs. 2. Social behaviours [...]

Enhancing Canopy Research in Africa: Insights from Tree Climbing Workshop in Ghana

Bismark Ofosu-Bamfo, Steven Pearce, Victoria Tough, et al.

Published: 2024-11-29
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology

The report shares the background and experience executing a tree climbing workshop in Ghana. In most cases, canopy research in Africa is conducted under the umbrella of parachute science, leaving local scientists deprived of canopy access skills and equipment. Consequently, tropical Africa experiences a closed canopy so far as canopy ecology is concerned. In May 2024, ten (10) early career [...]

IUCN Red List of Ecosystems, Mangroves of the Galapagos

Nicolas Moity, Ilka C. Feller, Ena Suarez

Published: 2024-11-28
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences

Mangroves of the Galapagos is a regional ecosystem subgroup (level 4 unit of the IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology). It includes the marine ecoregions of Eastern Galapagos Islands, Northern Galapagos Islands, and Western Galapagos Islands. The Galapagos province mapped extent in 2014 was 36.6 km2, representing 0.03% of the global mangrove area. The biota is characterized by four species of true [...]

Overcoming the disconnect between species interaction networks and biodiversity conservation

Gabriel Dansereau, João Braga, Gentile Francesco Ficetola, et al.

Published: 2024-11-28
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Decision-makers need to act now to halt biodiversity loss, and ecologists must provide them with relevant species interaction indicators to inform about community- and ecosystem-level changes. Yet, the integration of ecological networks into conservation is still virtually non-existent. Here, we argue that existing data and methodologies are sufficient to generate network information usable for [...]

Individual foraging specialization and success change with experience in a virtual predator-prey system

Maxime Fraser Franco, Francesca Francesca Santostefano, Julien G. A. Martin, et al.

Published: 2024-11-28
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

The capacity of predators to match their tactic to their prey and to optimize their skills at implementing a given tactic are expected to drive the outcome of predator-prey interactions. Hence, successive interactions of predators with their prey may result in increased flexibility in tactic use or in individual foraging specialization. Yet, there are limited empirical assessments showing links [...]

Stability in the Face of Global Decline: A 20-Year Study of Arthropods in an Oceanic Archipelago

Gabor Pozsgai, Pedro Cardoso, Simone Fattorini, et al.

Published: 2024-11-28
Subjects: Life Sciences

Insect declines have been reported globally but whilst island ecosystems are potentially facing exacerbated challenges, no long-term studies (LTER) have confirmed this trend. This study utilises the first available LTER data on island invertebrates, targeting epigeal and canopy arthropods from the Azores, and covering over 20 years in three distinct sampling events from 30 standard sites. We [...]

Applying Evolutionary Theory to Understand Host-Microbiome Evolution: New Tricks for Old Dogs

Bob Week, Shelbi L. Russel, Hinrich Schulenburg, et al.

Published: 2024-11-27
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Microbiology

All plants and animals are host to a community of microorganisms, their microbiomes, that have crucial influences on the life history and performance of their hosts. Despite the importance of such host-microbiome relationships, relatively little is known about the role microbiomes play in mediating evolution of the host as well as entire host-microbe assemblages. This knowledge gap is partly due [...]

Fine-tuning mast seeding: as resources accumulate, plants become more sensitive to weather cues

Dave Kelly, Jakub Szymkowiak, Andrew Hacket-Pain, et al.

Published: 2024-11-27
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences

Interannual variability of seed production, known as masting, has far-reaching ecological impacts including effects on forest regeneration and the population dynamics of seed consumers. It is important to understand the mechanisms driving masting to predict how plant populations and ecosystem dynamics may change into the future, and for short-term forecasting of seed production to aid management. [...]

Traditional water structures in villages support amphibian populations within a protected landscape

Jose W. Valdez, Jeremy Dertien, Haruna Fimmel, et al.

Published: 2024-11-26
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Population Biology

Amphibians are among the most globally threatened vertebrates, with habitat loss and degradation being the primary drivers of their decline. While natural wetlands are essential for amphibian survival, artificial habitats can also play a significant role as refuges, especially in human-altered landscapes. This study examines the role of artificial waterbodies in supporting amphibian populations [...]

Monitor Social-Ecological Systems to Achieve Global Goals for Biodiversity and Nature’s Contributions to People

Agnes Vari, Andrew Gonzalez, Elena M. Bennett

Published: 2024-11-26
Subjects: Life Sciences

Life, Death and Energy: Nature Selects No Free Lunch

Indrė Žliobaitė

Published: 2024-11-26
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Brown et al. (2024) highlight that organisms invest a constant amount of energy into the production of viable offspring per unit of body mass per generation. This explains how diversity in life can exist. We interpret their result in relation to balancing offspring costs in real vs. physiological time.

Integrating macroecology with temporal and trait-based perspectives : toward better attribution of human drivers to diversity changes

Pierre Gauzere, Cyrille Violle, Franziska Schrodt, et al.

Published: 2024-11-26
Subjects: Life Sciences

The ongoing biodiversity crisis presents a complex challenge for ecological science. Despite a consensus on general biodiversity decline, identifying clear trends remains difficult due to variability in data, methodologies, and scales of analysis. To enhance our understanding of ongoing biodiversity changes and address discrepancies in biodiversity trend detection, we propose integrating [...]

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