Preprints
There are 3410 Preprints listed.
Historical and modern data sources reveal long-term declines in Caribbean coral reef water quality
Published: 2026-06-17
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Marine Biology
Although it is suspected that the widespread death of Caribbean corals is associated with declining reef water quality from land-based pollution, this link has been difficult to quantify due to a dearth of reef water quality data. To assess the role of land-based pollution in recent coral declines, we synthesized paleoecological, historical, and modern data on reef water quality across the [...]
Gastronomy meets nature positive through the conservation of invisible microbial terroir
Published: 2026-06-17
Subjects: Food Science, Life Sciences
Anthropogenic climate change and the expansion of mass-consumption societies pose existential threats to "microbial terroir", the cryptic microbiological assemblages that underpin the organoleptic identity and quality of traditional fermented foods. Here, we propose a framework that bridges microbial diversity, regional gastronomy, and "Microbial PES", an extension of Payments for Ecosystem [...]
Four decades of inland invasion by Formosan subterranean termite in Alabama: expansion associated with transportation infrastructure
Published: 2026-06-17
Subjects: Entomology
Invasive termites pose ecological and economic concerns as both cellulose-destroying pests and ecosystem engineers. The Formosan subterranean termite, Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki, is listed among the world's worst invasive species and has established invasive populations across continents. Most studies have emphasized their transoceanic international dispersal and establishment in the coastal [...]
Co-existence of large carnivores and Dhangar community in Maharashtra’s Western Ghats: is it close to the tipping point?
Published: 2026-06-17
Subjects: Life Sciences
Gavli Dhangar are semi-nomadic pastorals scattered in small hamlets along the western ghats and Konkan area who mainly keep cattle and buffalo. The Sahyadri Tiger Reserve was established in 2010 relocating some of the hamlets while others continued to occupy their traditional habitats overlapping with three species of large mammalian carnivores. While leopard presence continued over a long time, [...]
Resolving the Conservation Stewardship Paradox: A Dual-Pathway Architecture for Biodiversity Credits and Stewardship Certificates
Published: 2026-06-17
Subjects: Life Sciences
Voluntary biodiversity credit markets are expanding rapidly, but their credibility depends on demonstrating that claimed outcomes would not have occurred without intervention. This requirement, additionality, is essential for high-integrity conservation finance and is operationalized through dynamic baselines, ex post issuance, and independent monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) of [...]
Projecting the vertical disassembly of the bumble bee pollination network of the Southern Rocky Mountains
Published: 2026-06-17
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Climate warming and land-use change are reshuffling the distribution of life on Earth. This change is altering the structure of species interaction networks, which ultimately enable the persistence of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Forecasting change in species interactions is a central challenge for biodiversity conservation, but there are numerous methodological challenges associated with [...]
WildMAPS: A Global repository and visualisation tool for habitat suitability predictions
Published: 2026-06-17
Subjects: Life Sciences
The Global Biodiversity Framework outlines a consensus of global targets for reversing the decline of biodiversity. A core theme that underpins the framework is the identification of areas that hold the most potential for realising positive outcomes for biodiversity. Identifying these areas is a complex process involving large scientific datasets and stakeholders from a range of background and [...]
Choices that matter: the impact of substitution models on machine learning-based species delimitation inference
Published: 2026-06-17
Subjects: Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences, Molecular Genetics
The choice of nucleotide substitution models is a cornerstone of phylogenetic inference, influencing the accuracy of the estimated evolutionary parameters and, by extension, demographic and species delimitation model selection. With the growing adoption of machine learning methods trained on simulated data, it remains unclear how the substitution model used during simulation training influences [...]
Blitz the Gap: a nation-wide effort to guide citizen science toward the needs of biodiversity science
Published: 2026-06-17
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
To resolve persistent biases in conservation assessments and forecasting, we urgently need more systematic collection of biodiversity data. Citizen (or, community) science, despite its reputation for unstructured data, holds vast potential for data collection initiatives at scales and speeds unmatched by traditional monitoring. Here, we introduce Blitz the Gap, a pan-Canadian initiative to guide [...]
Are We Mapping Ecosystems or Models? Framework Choices Dominate Food Web Topology and Extinction Inferences
Published: 2026-06-17
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Aim Ecological networks are widely used to assess community structure, stability, and responses to disturbance. Such networks often require model-based reconstructions (e.g., based on traits or theoretical constraints); however, the extent to which these frameworks influence ecological inference remains unexplored. Here, we assess whether macroecological inference derived from ecological [...]
How cities lock in biodiversity persistence, recovery, and decline
Published: 2026-06-15
Subjects: Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Cities are expanding biodiversity plans, restoration projects, green infrastructure, corridors, and nature-based solutions. This Perspective defines biodiversity lock-ins as self-reinforcing urban pathways that make it difficult to reverse biodiversity persistence, recovery, or decline. It contributes a durability lens that links six urban mechanisms with biodiversity-specific features, including [...]
Connected but Misaligned: Rethinking Urban Nature for Biodiversity, Equity, and Resilience
Published: 2026-06-15
Subjects: Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Urban nature is often planned through partial forms of connectivity: habitat corridors for biodiversity, green infrastructure networks for ecosystem services, accessibility networks for public use, and governance networks for implementation. Yet connected urban nature can still fail. Connectivity misalignment occurs when connections in one domain coexist with disconnection, inequity, risk, weak [...]
A data-driven assessment of the global community structure of pelagic zooplankton biomass
Published: 2026-06-12
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Marine Biology, Statistical Models
Aim: Zooplankton often dominate pelagic metazoan biomass, making them a central component of marine ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles. In this study, we aimed to: (1) provide biomass distributions of zooplankton functional types to support marine ecosystem monitoring and biogeochemical model evaluation; and (2) investigate regional and seasonal patterns of biomass across marine zooplankton [...]
Hunting in a tough neighborhood: juvenile octopus interactions with territorial and follower fish
Published: 2026-06-12
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Octopuses are keystone species in shallow-water marine ecosystems. Although researchers mostly focus on predator-prey interactions, many non-lethal yet non-neutral interactions occur, particularly among fish. These range from possible cooperation through kleptoparasitism and scavenging to occasional octopus predation on an unwary fish. We evaluated some of these interactions using video [...]
Advancing public pro-environmental action for global seagrass conservation
Published: 2026-06-12
Subjects: Environmental Education, Environmental Studies, Marine Biology, Natural Resources and Conservation, Other Psychology, Other Social and Behavioral Sciences
Seagrass meadows support biodiversity, climate mitigation, and human well-being, yet remain threatened by interacting anthropogenic pressures. Public engagement is increasingly promoted in seagrass conservation, but the behaviours most relevant to reducing seagrass decline remain poorly defined. We surveyed 172 seagrass knowledge holders from 39 countries and territories, representing 1942 [...]