Preprints
There are 3176 Preprints listed.
Mitigating the Pollinator-Prey Conflict in Drosera capillaris: A Study on Physiological Plasticity and Phylogenetic Conservatism within Drosera
Published: 2026-04-01
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Premise: Carnivorous plants face a dilemma: acquiring nutrients from insect prey while simultaneously relying on insect pollinators for reproduction. Thus, carnivorous plants have evolved mechanisms to avoid/reduce pollinator-prey conflict. This study aims to understand how carnivorous plants deal with this conflict through: macroevolutionary adaptations (floral stalk length) or short-term [...]
Sex differences in avian plumage evolution: stronger effects of natural selection and social competition on females
Published: 2026-04-01
Subjects: Life Sciences
Sexual dichromatism in birds may evolve via sexual selection for increased elaboration in male plumage (Darwin hypothesis) or, alternatively, by natural selection for increased crypsis in female plumage (Wallace hypothesis). Both these effects may be counteracted by social competition promoting ornamentation in females. However, the relative roles of sexual, natural, and social selection in [...]
Long-term community management of agrobiodiversity zones reduces agricultural expansion and natural cover loss.
Published: 2026-04-01
Subjects: Life Sciences
Global food system resilience is weakened by over reliance on a narrow range of crops and the erosion of traditional farming knowledge. Agrobiodiversity Zones (ABDZs) in Peru represent a novel and globally unique, community-led legal instrument for in situ agrobiodiversity conservation. However, the long-term impact of community-led stewardship and associated traditional farming practices on [...]
Range-wide pangenomics reveals vulnerability and adaptation in a sedentary bird
Published: 2026-03-31
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Genetics and Genomics
Structural genetic variants are known to underlie evolutionary adaptations, but have never been evaluated across the entire geographic range of a species. We constructed the first range-wide pangenome to evaluate how such variants may influence conservation efforts of the Montezuma quail (Cyrtonyx montezumae). Profiles of local adaptation, population structure, and genomic diversity all support a [...]
Climate warming reduces seed mass in European beech through altered resource dynamics and drought
Published: 2026-03-31
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Seed mass is a key life-history trait that influences dispersal, seedling establishment, and plant fitness, yet its long-term response to climate change remains poorly understood. We used two long-term datasets of European beech (\textit{Fagus sylvatica}) from the United Kingdom and the Netherlands (1976-2024) to test whether seed mass has changed over time and whether any decline can be [...]
Replicards: Teaching and simulating evolution with a card-based experiment
Published: 2026-03-31
Subjects: Education, Life Sciences
The teaching of biological evolution in high schools is often reduced to an account of the history of evolutionary thought. As a result, students assimilate evolutionism more as a philosophical current of thought led by distinguished thinkers than as a fruitful area of scientific research. Often, mere verbal exposition is not enough for students to truly understand evolutionary phenomena, such as [...]
Will Climate Change Affect the Sustainability of Krill Fishing? A Simulation Study.
Published: 2026-03-31
Subjects: Marine Biology, Population Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
In the Southern Ocean, Antarctic krill form the base of the food web, and are the primary food source for a wide range of species, including whales, penguins and fish. Krill also comprises the largest fishery resource in Antarctica, but are increasingly thought to be impacted by changing environmental conditions associated with climate change. In order to explore potential synergistic impacts of [...]
A framework for predicting the effects of climate warming on arthropod disease vectors
Published: 2026-03-31
Subjects: Life Sciences
Predicting the effects of climate warming on vector-borne disease transmission is a crucial research priority. Predictions that can reliably inform policy need to be based on vector biology, but models that incorporate biological realism are often difficult to test with the limited amount of information available for most disease vectors. Here we present a framework for predicting warming effects [...]
Trophic niche structure of invertebrate-eating bats and birds in West African rice agroecosystems revealed by DNA metabarcoding
Published: 2026-03-30
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Life Sciences
Knowledge of animal community diets is essential for understanding ecosystem functioning. Bats and birds are important groups of invertebrate predators, managing their populations. However, the diets of West African species and the mechanisms shaping them remain poorly understood. In this study, we investigated these mechanisms in agricultural landscapes of Guinea-Bissau using metabarcoding and [...]
Archilestes californicus McLachlan: a new damselfly for coastal British Columbia (Odonata: Lestidae) with notes on the species’ expansion in the Pacific Northwest
Published: 2026-03-30
Subjects: Entomology
We observed Archilestes californicus McLachlan (California Spreadwing), a damselfly in the family Lestidae, for the first time in south coastal British Columbia. Other records of the species in the Pacific Northwest document a gradual northward range expansion over the last twenty years. In light of this history, Archilestes californicus is expected to spread more widely in southern British [...]
Open Code in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology: An Evidence-Based Appraisal by SORTEE
Published: 2026-03-30
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
1. Open Code is the practice of publicly archiving analysis or software code in a manner that follows FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) guiding principles. This allows for increased transparency of data processing and analysis, and facilitates computational reproducibility of research results. 2. The empirical evidence for the general benefits of Open Code mostly focuses on [...]
Pre-registration and Registered Reports in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology: An Evidence-Based Appraisal by SORTEE
Published: 2026-03-30
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
1. A pre-registration is a time-stamped, read-only research plan that is written prior to data collection and analysis. This practice aims to increase transparency and reduce questionable research practices (QRPs) such as p-hacking and HARKing. Registered Reports are an article format with two stage peer review, that integrates Pre-registration and peer review and aims to additionally reduce [...]
Deep learning scans for selective sweeps using RAiSD-AI
Published: 2026-03-30
Subjects: Life Sciences
Recent advances in method and software development for selective sweep detection focus on using deep learning to improve detection performance. However, the adoption of deep learning in real-world analyses is slow, hindered by the lack of reusable tools that alleviate the interdisciplinary friction of integrating such methods for practical deployment. This chapter walks the reader through the [...]
Northern Sierra Historical Range of Variability and Current Landscape Departure
Published: 2026-03-30
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Forest Biology, Forest Management, Forest Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
This report describes modeling historical range of variability (HRV) and current departure for landscapes within the Northern Sierra ecoregion in California and Nevada. We discuss the need for this study with respect to the historical and contemporary context of the ecoregion, including background on the natural range of variability concept and the use of simulation modeling to quantify it. For [...]
Standardizing turn-taking metrics: A methodological toolkit for data annotation across species and taxa
Published: 2026-03-27
Subjects: Animal Studies, Communication, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Conversational turn-taking, the cooperative reciprocal exchange of short and flexible turns, is fundamental for communication and social coordination. Initially thought to be uniquely human, recent research showed some evidence of cooperative turn-taking also in other animal species. However, systematic evaluations and comparisons of turn-taking skills within and across species pose considerable [...]