Skip to main content

Preprints

There are 2373 Preprints listed.

Children adjust behavior in novel social environments to reflect local cooperative norms inferred from brief exposure

Kari Britt Schroeder, Peter R Blake, Laura Jean Nelson Darling

Published: 2024-03-29
Subjects: Anthropology, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Stark intergroup variation in prosocial behavior, as elicited with economic experiments, is evident even though humans are highly mobile. Conformity to local norms has been posited to play an integral role in the maintenance of this variation. Experiments suggest that adults indeed rapidly infer pro- and antisocial norms in a new or changed social environment and adjust their behavior to reflect [...]

Pollination across the diel cycle: a global meta-analysis

Liam Kendall, Charlie C Nicholson

Published: 2024-03-29
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences

The daily transition between day and night, known as the diel cycle, is characterised by significant shifts in environmental conditions and biological activity, both of which can affect crucial ecosystem functions like pollination. Yet, despite over six decades of research into whether plant reproductive success varies between day and night, consensus remains elusive. We compiled and analysed the [...]

Equivalence between short- and long-distance dispersal in individual animal movement

Danish Ali Ahmed, Naveed Ahmed, Sergei Petrovskii, et al.

Published: 2024-03-29
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Random walks (RW) provide a useful modelling framework for the movement of animals at an individual level. If the RW is uncorrelated and unbiased such that the direction of movement is completely random, the dispersal is characterised by the statistical properties of the probability distribution of step lengths, or the dispersal kernel. Whether an individual exhibits short-or long-distance [...]

Incomplete lineage sorting and hybridization underlie of tree discordance in Petunia and related genera (Petunieae, Solanaceae)

Pedro Henrique Pezzi, Lucas C Wheeler, Loreta Brandão Freitas, et al.

Published: 2024-03-29
Subjects: Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Botany, Genomics

Despite the overarching history of species divergence, phylogenetic studies often reveal distinct topologies across regions of the genome. The sources of these gene tree discordances are variable, but incomplete lineage sorting (ILS) and hybridization are among those with the most biological importance. Petunia serves as a classic system for studying hybridization in the wild. While field studies [...]

Lumpfish, Cyclopterus lumpus, distribution in the Gulf of Maine, USA: observations from fisheries independent and dependent catch data

Elizabeth A. Fairchild, Sophie Wulfing, Easton R White

Published: 2024-03-29
Subjects: Aquaculture and Fisheries Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Population Biology

The Gulf of Maine (GoM) is one of the fastest-warming parts of the world’s oceans. Some species’ distributional shifts have already been documented, especially for commercially-important species. Less is known about species that are not currently exploited but may become so in the future. As a case study into these issues, we focus on lumpfish (Cyclopterus lumpus) because of the recognized and [...]

Patterns in tern trophic diversity in a region experiencing rapid climate change

Natasha Jeanne Gownaris, Linda Welch, Jill Tengeres

Published: 2024-03-29
Subjects: Life Sciences

Foraging plasticity provides a mechanism for long-lived species to adapt to rapidly changing environments and, when individuals vary in their plasticity, can drive changes in trophic diversity. We use chick provisioning data and stable isotope values of blood cells and plasma to test for drivers of trophic diversity in the diet of common terns (Sterna hirundo) and Arctic terns (Sterna paradisaea) [...]

A framework for conducting research on consumer demand for high-value wildlife products in Asia

Hoai Nam Dang Vu

Published: 2024-03-29
Subjects: Social and Behavioral Sciences

Managing demand for wildlife products is essential to address the illegal and unsustainable wildlife trade. In certain Asian countries, traditions underpin demand, and the usage of exotic wildlife products, particularly among wealthy consumers, carries minimal societal stigma. To develop effective demand management strategies, research is required to generate insights into consumers and [...]

Predicting macroinvertebrate average score per taxon (ASPT) at water quality monitoring sites in Japanese rivers

Yuichi Iwasaki, Tomomi Suemori, Yuta Kobayashi

Published: 2024-03-29
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Studies, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology

Freshwater ecosystems provide essential services for human well-being but are impacted by multiple anthropogenic stressors. Biomonitoring with bioindicators such as river macroinvertebrates is fundamental for assessing the status of freshwater systems. In Japan, water quality and biomonitoring surveys are conducted separately, leading to a lack of nationwide information on the biological status [...]

Evaluating the net impacts of a naturalised non-native species and attempts to control its spread in the UK: Addressing the oyster in the room

Alexander W Shakspeare, Tom C Cameron, Michael Steinke

Published: 2024-03-29
Subjects: Life Sciences

The Pacific oyster (Magallana (Crassostrea) gigas) was introduced to UK waters in the mid-20th century and accounts for >95% of UK oyster production. Recently, its nonnative origin has led landowners and policymakers to consider limits on UK oyster aquaculture operations. M. gigas is ecologically naturalised in the UK, with multiple records of populations originating from wild sources, [...]

New directions for Indigenous and Local Knowledge research and application in fisheries science: Lessons from a Systematic Review

Benjamin Lawrence Hopper Jones, Rolando Santos, W. Ryan James, et al.

Published: 2024-03-29
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Social-ecological systems like fisheries provide food, livelihoods, and recreation. However, lack of data and its integration into governance hinders their conservation and management. Stakeholders possess site-specific knowledge crucial for confronting these challenges. There is increasing recognition that Indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) is valuable, but structural differences between ILK [...]

Blood lead increases and haemoglobin decreases in urban birds along a soil contamination gradient in a mining city

Max M Gillings, Riccardo Ton, Tiarne Harris, et al.

Published: 2024-03-29
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology

  Lead contaminated soil is a persistent global threat to the health of animal populations. Nevertheless, links between soil lead and its adverse effects on exposed wildlife remain poorly understood. Here, we explore local geographic patterns of exposure in urban birds along a gradient of lead contamination in Broken Hill, an Australian mining city. Soil lead concentrations are linked to [...]

Knowing why Tasmanian Eucalyptus obliqua tall forests are so sensitive to heatwaves informs management and policy for climate change adaptation

Tim Wardlaw

Published: 2024-03-29
Subjects: Life Sciences

Tasmania’s distinctive climate environment supports highly productive and carbon-dense tall eucalypt forests, but also a vulnerability to climate change. Measurements in Eucalyptus obliqua tall forest at the Warra SuperSite in southern Tasmania showed them to be very sensitive to warmer temperatures. Gross primary productivity (GPP) declines sharply when temperatures rise above the forest’s [...]

Zebra finch song parameters are affected by the breeding status of the male, but not temperature variability

Maëlle Lefeuvre, Joanna Rutkowska

Published: 2024-03-16
Subjects: Life Sciences

Bird song is a crucial feature for mate choice and reproduction. Song can potentially communicate information related to the quality of the mate, through song complexity, structure or finer changes in syllable characteristics. It has been shown in zebra finches that those characteristics can be affected by various factors including motivation, hormone levels or extreme temperature. However, [...]

Potter Cove’s Heavyweights: Estimation of species’ interaction strength of an Antarctic food web

Iara Diamela Rodriguez, Leonardo A Saravia

Published: 2024-03-16
Subjects: Life Sciences

Understanding the complex interplay between structure and stability of marine food webs is crucial for assessing ecosystem resilience, particularly in the context of ongoing environmental changes. In the West Antarctic Peninsula, global warming has led to severe alterations in community composition, species distribution, and abundance over the last decades. In this study, we estimate the [...]

Lianas, to cut or not to cut to conserve forest biodiversity?

Ricardo A. Moreno, Gabriel Ortega-Solis, Javier Godoy, et al.

Published: 2024-03-16
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences, Plant Sciences

Although lianas play an important role in forest composition, structure, and functions, they are considered structural parasites of trees. Both contrasting ideas on the role of lianas in forests challenge practitioners during restoration activities and management decisions might be taken without specific information. Here we evaluated the effects of lianas on their host-trees in a small [...]

search

You can search by:

  • Title
  • Keywords
  • Author Name
  • Author Affiliation