Preprints
There are 3763 Preprints listed.
Global Evidence for Biotic Differentiation Amid Contrasting Freshwater β-Diversity Responses to Human Impacts
Published: 2026-09-24
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Human pressures are reshaping freshwater biodiversity worldwide, yet the generality of biotic homogenization and the contexts in which differentiation instead emerges remain unresolved. These contrasting responses reflect decreases or increases in spatial β-diversity, respectively, as local assemblages within a region become more similar or more distinct in community composition. We conducted a [...]
Different Beta-Diversity Frameworks Reveal Contrasting Roles of Species Abundance Distributions and Spatial Aggregation
Published: 2026-09-24
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Aim Determining why community composition changes from place-to-place (spatial β-diversity) is central to advancing biodiversity theory and conservation of threatened species. Spatial β-diversity can occur most simply due to random sampling effects from the larger species-pool, such as the random placement and distribution of individuals and species. However, ecological processes can also [...]
Individual recognition and number prediction for Manx shearwater (Puffinus puffinus) by passive acoustic monitoring
Published: 2026-09-24
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Bioinformatics, Ornithology
Seabirds can be notoriously difficult to monitor using conventional methodology, as many breed on remote islands, are active nocturnally and many breed in underground burrows. Current census methods such as counting burrows and using playbacks are time-consuming and labour-intensive. One novel solution is to use passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) followed by individual recognition and number [...]
The marine annelid trait manifesto: A call to rethink functional traits for ecological and conservation research
Published: 2026-09-24
Subjects: Animal Experimentation and Research, Animal Sciences, Aquaculture and Fisheries Life Sciences, Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Zoology
The Raunkiæran shortfall, defined as the scarcity of knowledge regarding species' attributes, represents one of the major obstacles to developing sound biodiversity conservation strategies and understanding ecological processes. In this context, despite the importance of marine annelids as dominant components of benthic ecosystems and key agents of marine ecosystem functioning, no comprehensive [...]
INSTAR: reporting items for invertebrate welfare in research
Published: 2026-09-24
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Life Sciences
Concern for the welfare of research animals has expanded rapidly across taxa, with increasing focus on invertebrates. Recent evidence for affective experience in cephalopod, decapod and insect taxa, alongside shifts in public attitudes and regulation, has raised the stakes of how invertebrates are used and reported, yet no reporting standard adequately addresses them. Here we present INSTAR [...]
Which modelling choices are supported when marine survey data are limited? An evidence map of 95 studies and a benchmark on structured subsamples of a trawl survey
Published: 2026-09-23
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
1. Marine management decisions increasingly rest on species distribution models fitted to sparse, clustered survey records, while the guidance for fitting them comes from data-rich settings. We asked which modelling choices have been tested under the conditions marine practitioners face, and whether the ordering that guidance assumes, spatial structure before algorithm choice, holds at the [...]
Caenorhabditis elegans and Serratia marcescens host-parasite coevolution model strains derived through mutagenesis and experimental evolution
Published: 2026-09-23
Subjects: Life Sciences
Here we present a detailed description of the derivation of a collection of Caenorhabditis elegans and Serratia marcescens strains and populations that have been mutagenized and passaged in a series of experimental evolution projects over the past two decades. These experimental strains and populations provide a powerful resource for the study of host-parasite coevolution and have so far been [...]
A Geospatial informed Conservation Strategy for Sustainable Management of Dalbergia sissoo (Roxb.) Population in India amidst Climate Change and Pathogen Induced Mortality Stress
Published: 2026-09-23
Subjects: Life Sciences
The natural population of Dalbergia sissoo, is declining due to biotic and abiotic stressors. Existing studies focus on pathogen-induced mortality in D. sissoo, but the impact of climate on habitat loss and population decline is limited. This study fills this gap by integrating climate change impacts and pathogen outbreaks to assess their combined influence on the distribution and survival [...]
Coordinated interannual change in NEON soil bacterial communities across continental North America
Published: 2026-09-23
Subjects: Agriculture, Biodiversity, Microbiology
Soil bacterial communities change from year to year, but whether these changes are coordinated across distant ecosystems has not been well investigated. We leveraged publicly available soil data from the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), and applied statistical analyses to evaluate the temporal changes of soil bacterial communities across continental North America. Data were [...]
Global assemblage stability is driven by asynchrony shaped by environmental heterogeneity
Published: 2026-09-22
Subjects: Life Sciences
Evidence suggests the diversity-stability relationship relies on asynchrony among populations. Yet our limited understanding of how the mechanisms underlying stability and asynchrony manifest across ecological scales prevents reliable forecasts of ecological stability amid ongoing biodiversity change. Here, linking stability, asynchrony and species richness across plant, bird, mammal, amphibian, [...]
Regulation 1143/2014 has yet to curb the European Union’s invasive species crisis
Published: 2026-09-22
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
The European Union’s flagship legislation on invasive species, Regulation 1143/2014, was intended to deliver coordinated biosecurity across Member States. However, it continues to fall short of its ambitious goals as enforcement remains inconsistent, ecological priorities are often overridden by economic interests, taxonomic, geographic and ecosystem biases, and practical on-the-ground management [...]
Mining online behavioural data to measure zoonotic spillover risk
Published: 2026-09-22
Subjects: Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Efforts to predict zoonotic disease dynamics rarely directly quantify the fine-scale animal-human interactions that drive spillover. Public digital data (i.e., iEcology) could capture these behaviours at large scales, across time and space. Further, recent statistical advances allow us to semi-automate these processes, providing a framework for continuous exposure monitoring and risk prediction. [...]
Subsistence fisheries in Small Island Developing States: the case study of the goby-fry fishery in Guinea Gulf
Published: 2026-09-22
Subjects: Aquaculture and Fisheries Life Sciences, Community-based Research, Life Sciences, Marine Biology
1. Artisanal and subsistence fisheries are crucial for the livelihood and food security of local communities of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), yet they remain largely excluded from formal catch statistics and management frameworks. Using Ostrom’s Social-Ecological Systems (SES) diagnostic framework, this study characterizes the previously unreported goby-fry (“peixinho”) fishery across 14 [...]
When and how to integrate probability and nonprobability samples to monitor biodiversity
Published: 2026-09-22
Subjects: Life Sciences
1. Species occurrence and abundance data are generated by probability or nonprobability sampling. Under probability sampling, sites are selected according to a known design (e.g. stratified random sampling). Under nonprobability sampling—for example, the collection of data by citizen scientists at sites of their own choosing—they are not. Whereas probability samples tend to be relatively small [...]
AphidTraits: an open dataset of temperature-dependent trait responses in aphids (Hemiptera: Aphididae)
Published: 2026-09-22
Subjects: Life Sciences
Aphids are among the most destructive and economically impactful group of agricultural pests. Their successful management hinges on integrative and sustainable control practices. Given the global scope of aphid impacts, mathematical models are invaluable for developing informed control strategies, particularly in the context of changing climate. Such models typically require detailed empirical [...]