Preprints
There are 2536 Preprints listed.
Frequency-dependence favors social plasticity and facilitates socio-eco-evolutionary feedback in fluctuating environments
Published: 2024-11-12
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Integrative Biology
1. Increasing attention is being devoted to the study of phenotypic plasticity in social environments. However, much remains unknown about the selection pressures driving the evolution of social plasticity, as well as the pathways by which social plasticity may facilitate or constrain feedback between ecological and evolutionary dynamics. Here we explore these questions using quantitative genetic [...]
Charting uneven progress of sustainability: A multi-dimensional assessment of the SDGs in Northeast India
Published: 2024-11-12
Subjects: Life Sciences
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are used to assess progress in the fields of the environment, economy, and society. Although assessments conducted at national and international levels are popular, subnational research, especially on India, is less common. Using 84 accessible indicators (2021–2022), a comprehensive study of 15 SDGs was conducted across 103 districts in eight states in the [...]
Probable physical factors of anthropogenesis
Published: 2024-11-12
Subjects: Life Sciences
The increasing frequency of climate catastrophes worldwide against background of global warming and reduction of biodiversity in human ecosystem are typical signs of global extinction, the sixth in ~600 million years of Phanerozoic. The regularity of global extinctions of marine biota with a period of ~62 Myr in Phanerozoic correlates with cyclicity of tidal effects of stellar environment of [...]
Harbingers of change: towards a mechanistic understanding of anticipatory plasticity
Published: 2024-11-11
Subjects: Life Sciences
1. Phenotypic plasticity is a central avenue through which organisms cope with environmental heterogeneity by responding to cues of current environmental change to maximize fitness. If environmental change is impending and cues can reliably predict future conditions, organisms can also mount adaptive responses in anticipation of these changes if they possess the mechanistic architecture to do so [...]
¿Cretaceous Montiaceae? Reevaluation of the classification of Kuprianovaites deccanensis Nambudiri & Thomas (Caryophyllales)
Published: 2024-11-11
Subjects: Biodiversity
Kuprianovaites deccanensis Nambudiri & Thomas is a form species referring to fossil ovule/seed-bearing fructifications from the Cretaceous/Paleocene boundary of central India. It has been classified in Montiaceae based on similarities to fruits of Phemeranthus Raf. species, in particular a 3- valvate unilocular loculicidal capsule with free-central placentation and seeds with campylotropous [...]
Population genetics of rainforest mountain frogs (Anura: Limnodynastidae: Philoria) severely impacted by the Australian megafires
Published: 2024-11-11
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
The 2019/20 Australian megafires impacted numerous species, including six of the seven montane frog species in the genus Philoria, which are confined to isolated rainforest habitats across high-altitude areas in eastern Australian Gondwonan rainforest. Using single nucleotide polymorphisms, we examined the genetic structure and diversity of the six northern Philoria species to inform conservation [...]
Conformal Prediction quantifies the uncertainty of Species Distribution Models
Published: 2024-11-11
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Providing accurate estimates of uncertainty is key for the analysis, adoption, and interpretation of species distribution models. In this manuscript, through the analysis of data from an emblematic North American cryptid, I illustrate how Conformal Prediction allows fast and informative uncertainty quantification. I discuss how the conformal predictions can be used to gain more knowledge about [...]
Behavioral flexibility is related to exploration, but not boldness, persistence or motor diversity
Published: 2024-11-09
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Life Sciences
Behavioral flexibility, the ability to change behavior when circumstances change based on learning from previous experience, is thought to play an important role in a species' ability to successfully adapt to new environments and expand its geographic range. However, behavioral flexibility is rarely directly tested at the individual level. This limits our ability to determine how it relates to [...]
Reliability of meta-analyses in ecology and evolution: (mostly) good news from a case study on sexual signals
Published: 2024-11-09
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution
Meta-analyses are powerful synthesis tools that are popular in ecology and evolution owing to the rapidly growing literature of this field. Although the usefulness of meta-analyses depends on their reliability, such as the precision of individual and mean effect sizes, attempts to reproduce meta-analyses’ results remain rare in ecology and evolution. Here, we assess the reliability of 41 [...]
Evolutionarily Optimal Phage Life-History Traits
Published: 2024-11-09
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Microbiology, Population Biology
Optimal phage life-history traits are computed from data on phenotypic tradeoffs presented in De Paepe and Tadei (2006). A parameter is introduced, l_e, that describes the loss of virions in the environment. Hygienic interventions increase l_e. The optimal burst size decreases with l_e and the optimal capsid thickness increases with l_e. The optimal viral fitness also decreases with l_e. An [...]
IUCN Red List of Ecosystems, Mangroves of the Tropical Southwestern Atlantic
Published: 2024-11-08
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
The “Mangroves of the Tropical Southwestern Atlantic” (TSA) is a regional ecosystem subgroup (level 4 unit of the IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology). It includes the marine ecoregions of Eastern Brazil, Northeastern Brazil, including the Fernando de Noronha Archipelago and Rocas Atoll. The TSA mangroves had a mapped extent of 1719.7 km2 in 2020, representing 1.2% of the global mangrove area. The [...]
Earlier and increased growth of tundra willows after a decade of growth in a warmer common garden environment
Published: 2024-11-08
Subjects: Biology, Botany, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Plant Biology, Plant Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
1. The expansion of woody shrubs, known as shrubification, is one of the most widely observed patterns of vegetation change in the tundra. Yet, we do not know the relative importance of plant plasticity and genetic change in determining shrub responses to warming. Plastic responses to the environment can be rapid, while genetic differentiation is much slower. 2. We established a common garden [...]
A picky predator and its prey: how climate change may impact a ptarmigan specialist
Published: 2024-11-06
Subjects: Life Sciences
Species interactions can be altered by climate change but can also mediate its effects. A predator-prey couple reflecting the dynamics of boreal and alpine ecosystems is the gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus) and the ptarmigan (Lagopus spp.). To determine how climate change may impact the alpine food web, we investigated how ptarmigan abundance and local weather impacts gyrfalcon diet and feeding [...]
Altered phenotypic responses of asexual Arctic Daphnia after 10 years of rapid climate change
Published: 2024-11-05
Subjects: Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Understanding the fates of organisms and ecosystems under global change requires consideration of the organisms’ rapid adaptation potential. In the Arctic, the recent temperature increase strongly impacts freshwater ecosystems which are important sentinels for climate change. However, a mechanistic understanding on the adaptive capacity of their key zooplankton grazers, among them polyploid, [...]
Conservation translocations lead to reduced gut microbiome diversity, and compositional changes, in the Seychelles warbler
Published: 2024-11-05
Subjects: Life Sciences
Conservation translocations are an increasingly common tool used to help combat species extinction and global biodiversity loss. However, their success is dependent on a wide range of abiotic and biotic factors. To date, the potential role of host-associated microbiomes in translocation success has been overlooked despite their fundamental contribution to host health and fitness. Here, we use [...]