Preprints
There are 2178 Preprints listed.
Reply to: Recognizing and marshalling the pre-publication error correction potential of open data for more reproducible science
Published: 2023-08-07
Subjects: Life Sciences
Assessing risk of ecosystem collapse in a changing climate
Published: 2023-08-07
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences
Climate change has pervasive impacts on Earth’s ecosystems, but the diversity and complexity of ecosystems makes estimating the severity of impacts and the resulting risk of collapse difficult. In this perspective, we conceptualise the challenge of understanding how climate change alters ecosystems, and how to reliably measure those changes in ecosystem risk assessments, focussing on the IUCN Red [...]
Abiotic environmental factors driving the biomass and community structure of soil bacteria in an arid region
Published: 2023-08-07
Subjects: Life Sciences
Microbial communities are important determinants of ecosystem functions in deserts. However, bacterial communities and their relationship with edaphic conditions are poorly investigated in these extreme ecosystems. Here we examined the community structure and biomass of bacteria, including/focusing on nitrogen-fixing bacteria, across different soil habitats in Qatar, using high-throughput [...]
Hypotheses on the evolutional process and meaningful function of organisms: mitochondria, plants, mammals
Published: 2023-07-29
Subjects: Life Sciences
Mitochondrial coexistence in eukaryotic cells is an important theme in biology, and its process and relationship with the subsequent evolutionary history of life continue to be studied. The roles and functions of plants remain unknown and continue to be studied. Mammals have complex organs and well-developed immune systems, and reproduce by a specialized method called embryogenesis. In this [...]
STRyper: a macOS application for microsatellite genotyping and chromatogram management
Published: 2023-07-29
Subjects: Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Molecular Genetics, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Microsatellite markers analyzed by capillary sequencing remain useful tools for rapid genotyping and low-cost studies. This contrasts with the lack of a free application to analyze chromatograms for microsatellite genotyping that is not restricted to human genotyping. To fill this gap, I have developed STRyper, a macOS application whose source code is published under the General Public License. [...]
The need of decoding life for taking care of biodiversity and the sustainable use of nature in the Anthropocene - a Faroese perspective
Published: 2023-07-29
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences
Biodiversity is under pressure, mainly due to human activities and climate change. At the international policy level, it is now recognised that genetic diversity is an important part of biodiversity. The availability of high-quality reference genomes gives the best basis for using genetics and genetic diversity towards the global aims of (i) protection of species, biodiversity, and nature, and [...]
A Comprehensive Assessment of Verticillium Wilt of Potato: Present Status and Future Prospective
Published: 2023-07-28
Subjects: Agricultural Science, Agriculture, Life Sciences, Plant Pathology, Plant Sciences
The fungal disease Verticillium wilt is a soil-borne pathogen that is caused by Verticillium dahliae. This disease affects a wide range of crops and can cause significant yield losses. Recent findings suggest that Verticillium wilt has been affecting potato crops in abundant demesne around the global world, including in North America, parts of Europe, and Asia. In some cases, the disease has been [...]
The untapped potential of phage model systems as therapeutic agents
Published: 2023-07-28
Subjects: Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Medical Microbiology, Microbiology
With the emergence of widespread antibiotic resistance, phages are an appealing alternative to antibiotics in the fight against multidrug-resistant bacteria. Over the past few years, many phages have been isolated from various environments to treat bacterial pathogens. While isolating novel phages for treatment has had some success for compassionate use, developing novel phages into a general [...]
Sources, effects and present perspectives of heavy metals contamination: soil, plants and human food chain
Published: 2023-07-26
Subjects: Life Sciences
Heavy metal (HM) poisoning of agricultural soils poses a serious risk to plant life, human health, and global food supply. When HM levels in agricultural soils get to dangerous levels, it harms crop health and yield. Chromium (Cr), arsenic (As), nickel (Ni), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), zinc (Zn), and copper (Cu) are the main heavy metals. The environment contains these metals in [...]
How does dispersal shape the genetic patterns of animal populations in European cities? A simulation approach
Published: 2023-07-25
Subjects: Biodiversity, Genetics, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Population Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Context and objectives Although urbanization is a major driver of biodiversity erosion, it does not affect all species equally. The neutral genetic structure of populations in a given species is affected by both genetic drift and gene flow processes. In cities, the size of animal populations determines drift and can depend on multiple processes whereas gene flow essentially depends on the [...]
Practical guidelines and the EMLN R package for handling ecological multilayer networks
Published: 2023-07-25
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Network analysis provides a powerful framework to study the complexity underlying the structure, dynamics, stability, and function of ecological systems. By now, analysing single-layered networks is a common practice with clear guidelines and well-established computational tools. Nevertheless, ecological communities are multilayered because they vary over space and time and contain multiple types [...]
Absence of the pace-of-life syndrome in a wild-living population of cooperatively-breeding passerine
Published: 2023-07-24
Subjects: Life Sciences
The pace-of-life syndrome hypothesis posits that consistent between-individual variation in behavioral traits (‘animal personalities’) mediates trade-offs in life-history. Individuals with risk-averse traits are expected to follow a relatively ‘slow’ pace-of-life (long lifespan, delayed reproduction), compared to their riskier, ‘fast’, counterparts. Despite a breadth of empirical research, [...]
Multimodel approaches are not the best way to understand multifactorial systems
Published: 2023-07-23
Subjects: Applied Statistics, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Information-theoretic (IT) and multi-model averaging (MMA) statistical approaches are widely used but suboptimal tools for pursuing a multifactorial approach (also known as the method of multiple working hypotheses) in ecology. (1) Conceptually, IT encourages ecologists to perform tests on sets of artificial models. (2) MMA improves on IT model selection by implementing a simple form of [...]
Building an Inclusive Botany: The “Radicle” Dream
Published: 2023-07-22
Subjects: Life Sciences
Driven by the national conversation on systemic racism, ongoing inequities, appeals to decolonize science, and the many recent calls for diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion, we use stories of plants to discuss the history of bias and exclusionary practices in scientific botany, particularly regarding access to scientific spaces, and the exploitation of marginalized peoples. We discuss [...]
Collating existing evidence on cumulative impacts of invasive plant species in riparian ecosystems of British Columbia, Canada: a systematic map protocol
Published: 2023-07-22
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Plant Sciences
Background Globally, the structure and functioning of foreshore and riparian ecosystems are being dramatically impacted by non-native invasive plant species. Invasive species can outcompete and replace native species, modify geochemical and hydraulic cycles, alter trophic processes, and change the composition and structure of communities above and below ground. However, these impacts are often [...]