Preprints
There are 1649 Preprints listed.
Comparative analysis reveals assortative mate preferences in darters independent of sympatry and sex
Published: 2022-12-07
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution
A preference for mating with conspecifics over heterospecifics is fundamental to the maintenance of species diversity in sexually reproducing organisms. This type of positive assortative mating results in sexual isolation, a reduction in gene flow between species due to differences in mate choice. Sexual isolation is often stronger between closely related sympatric species as compared to [...]
Parasites during early life mediate the strength of phenotypic selection on sexual traits.
Published: 2022-12-07
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Sexually selected phenotypes are key to understanding population and eco-evolutionary dynamics since the expression of these traits is tightly linked to reproduction and population viability. Parasites are major agents of selection that alter both phenotypic expression and fitness. However, the carry-over effects of parasites in early life in selection on phenotypes expressed later in life are [...]
Boldness and physiological variation in round goby populations along their Baltic Sea invasion front
Published: 2022-12-07
Subjects: Life Sciences
The round goby (Neogobius melanostomus) is a fish native to the Ponto-Caspian region that is highly invasive through freshwater and brackish habitats in northern Europe and North America. Individual behavioural variation appears to be an important factor in their spread, for example a round goby’s personality traits can influence their dispersal tendency, which may also produce variation in the [...]
Quantifying between-individual variation using high-throughput phenotyping of behavioural traits in the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster)
Published: 2022-12-07
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Behavioural phenotyping is often time and labour-intensive, which can come at a cost to sample size and statistical precision. This is particularly a concern given that behaviours are often highly variable within and between individuals, so naturally requires a larger sample size. Drosophila melanogaster is a common model system in many research fields, and behavioural observations are frequently [...]
The Changing Dynamics of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5N1: Next Steps for Management & Science in North America
Published: 2022-12-06
Subjects: Life Sciences
Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) H5N1 was introduced in North America in late 2021 through trans-Atlantic pathways via migratory birds. These introductions have resulted in an unprecedented epizootic, a widespread disease event in animals, heavily affecting poultry, wild birds, and recently mammals. The North American incursions occurred during the largest epidemic season (2021 – [...]
Ecological Dynamics and Forecasting: A graduate course on the fundamentals of time series and forecasting in ecology
Published: 2022-12-06
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Ecological Dynamics and Forecasting is a semester-long course to introduce students to the fundamentals of ecological dynamics and forecasting. This course implements a combination of paper-based discussion to introduce students to concepts and ideas and R-based tutorials for hands-on application and training. The course material includes a reading list with prompting questions for discussions, [...]
Alternative reading frames are an underappreciated source of protein sequence novelty
Published: 2022-12-05
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Genetics and Genomics, Genomics, Life Sciences
Alternative reading frames of protein coding genes are a major contributor to the evolution of novel protein products. Recent studies demonstrating this include examples across the three domains of cellular life and in viruses. Alternative frame sequences both increase the number of trials available for the evolutionary invention of new genes and have unusual properties which may facilitate gene [...]
Experimental approaches to study evolutionary cell biology using yeasts
Published: 2022-12-05
Subjects: Life Sciences
The past century has witnessed tremendous advances in understanding how cells function. Nevertheless, how cellular processes have specifically evolved is still poorly understood. Many studies have highlighted surprising molecular diversity in how cells from various species execute the same processes, and advances in comparative genomics are likely to reveal much more molecular diversity than was [...]
Mutation bias and the predictability of evolution
Published: 2022-12-05
Subjects: Life Sciences
Predicting evolutionary outcomes is an important research goal in a diversity of contexts. The focus of evolutionary forecasting is usually on adaptive processes, and efforts to improve prediction typically focus on selection. However, adaptive processes often rely on new mutations, which can be strongly influenced by predictable biases in mutation. Here we provide an overview of existing theory [...]
Understanding local plant extinctions before it’s too late: bridging evolutionary genomics with global ecology.
Published: 2022-12-01
Subjects: Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences, Plant Sciences
Understanding evolutionary genomic and population processes within a species range is key to anticipating the extinction of plant species before it is too late. However, most models of biodiversity risk projections under global change do not account for the genetic variation and local adaptation of different populations. Population diversity is critical to understanding extinction because [...]
Plant traits poorly predict winner and loser shrub species in a warming tundra biome
Published: 2022-11-30
Subjects: Biodiversity, Plant Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Climate change is leading to a species redistributions. In the tundra biome, many shrub species are expanding into new areas, a process known as shrubification. However, not all tundra shrub species will benefit from warming. Winner and loser species (those projected to expand and contract their ranges, and/or those that have increased or decreased in cover over time), and the characteristics [...]
Describing posterior distributions of variance components: Problems and the use of null distributions to aid interpretation
Published: 2022-11-27
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
1. Assessing the biological relevance of variance components estimated using MCMC-based mixed-effects models is not straightforward. Variance estimates are constrained to be greater than zero and their posterior distributions are often asymmetric. Different measures of central tendency for these distributions can therefore vary widely, and credible intervals cannot overlap zero, making it [...]
Temperature change effects on marine fish range shifts: a meta-analysis of ecological and methodological predictors
Published: 2022-11-24
Subjects: Life Sciences
The current effects of global warming on marine ecosystems are predicted to increase, with species responding by changing their spatial distributions. Marine ectotherms such as fish experience elevated distribution shifts, as temperature plays a key role in physiological functions and delineating population ranges through thermal constraints. Distributional response predictions necessary for [...]
Amphibians' expansion to record elevations influences Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Batrachochytriaceae) infection dynamics
Published: 2022-11-24
Subjects: Genomics, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Other Immunology and Infectious Disease
Climate change impacts emerging infectious disease events through multiple mechanisms, but the influence it exerts through driving host range shifts has been little explored. Not only might we expect range shifts to affect pathogen transmission by altering the connectivity of host populations, but range expanding hosts and pathogens will have different physiological responses to the suites of [...]
Implications of microbial community assembly for ecosystem restoration: patterns, process, and potential
Published: 2022-11-24
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences, Life Sciences
While it is now widely accepted that microorganisms provide essential functions in restoration ecology, the nature of relationships between microbial community assembly and ecosystem recovery remain unclear. There has been a longstanding challenge to decipher whether microorganisms facilitate or simply follow ecosystem recovery, and evidence for each is mixed at best. We propose that [...]