Preprints
There are 1961 Preprints listed.
Evolutionary origins of the Mesoamerican-eastern United States floristic disjunction: current status and future prospects
Published: 2022-11-07
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Botany, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Plant Sciences
Biogeographic disjunction patterns, where multiple taxonomic groups are shared between isolated geographic areas, represent excellent systems for investigating the historical assembly of modern biotas as well as fundamental biological processes such as speciation, diversification, niche evolution, and evolutionary responses to climate change. Studies on plant genera disjunct across the Northern [...]
The Fieldwork Wellness Framework: A new approach to field research in Ecology
Published: 2022-11-07
Subjects: Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Fieldwork is often an important aspect of research in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology (EECB), but individuals with marginalized identities are likely to experience compromised wellness. The responsibility for structurally changing fieldwork to improve experiences and outcomes falls on the entire EECB community. We propose a Fieldwork Wellness Framework to replace traditional [...]
The intersection between elected representatives and threatened species recovery
Published: 2022-11-05
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Geography, Political Science
A core objective of the conservation movement is to motivate government decision-makers into delivering critical policy changes to abate the global species extinction crisis. Using Australia as a case study, we showcase a way of highlighting the intersection between a nation’s elected representatives and extant threatened species. We analyse the relationship between Australia’s 151 Commonwealth [...]
CONFOUND IT! The taxonomy of plants mistaken for Cistanthe arenaria (Cham.) Carolin ex Hershk. [MONTIACEAE, Cistanthe sect. Rosulatae (Reiche) Hershk.]
Published: 2022-11-04
Subjects: Biodiversity, Life Sciences
Cistanthe arenaria (Cham.) Carolin ex Hershk. is a species of Montiaceae distributed from Chile’s Maule to Araucanía Regions. But the name historically and currently has been applied also to readily distinct species distributed from the Libertador Bernardo O’Higgins to Coquimbo Regions: C. chamissoi (Barnéoud) Carolin ex Hershk., C. trigona (Bertero ex Colla) Carolin ex Hershk, C. [...]
The consequences of synthetic auxin herbicide on plant-herbivore interactions
Published: 2022-11-03
Subjects: Life Sciences
Although herbicide drift is a common side effect of herbicide application in agroecosystems, its effects on the ecology and evolution of natural communities are rarely studied. A recent shift to dicamba, a synthetic auxin herbicide known for ‘drifting’ to nontarget areas necessitates the examination of drift effects on the plant-insect interactions that drive eco-evo dynamics in weed communities. [...]
Assessing the aesthetic attractivity of European butterflies: a web-based survey protocol
Published: 2022-11-03
Subjects: Biodiversity, Entomology, Life Sciences, Zoology
Aesthetic attractivity stands as an underestimated yet fundamental feature of species in conservation biology, significantly driving disproportionate protection efforts towards charismatic species. Despite the evidence, few attempts sought to precisely quantify the impact of aesthetic attractivity in defining priority of species for conservation actions (e.g. inclusion in International Union for [...]
Unstratified forests dominate the tropics especially in regions with lower fertility or higher temperatures
Published: 2022-11-02
Subjects: Biodiversity, Forest Biology, Plant Biology
The stratified nature of tropical forest structure had been noted by early explorers, but until recent use of satellite-based LiDAR (GEDI, or Global Ecosystems Dynamics Investigation LiDAR), there has been no way to quantify stratification across all tropical forests. Understanding stratification is important because by some estimates, a majority of the world’s species inhabit tropical forest [...]
Small is big: A new conservation paradigm for amphibians
Published: 2022-11-02
Subjects: Biodiversity, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Many countries have responded to the current global biodiversity crisis by committing to protect 30% of the Earth by 2030, a goal known as “30 x 30”. However, an excessive emphasis on megafauna to the exclusion of other species weakens our current protected area (PA) network. This limited perspective overvalues large, connected PAs, while disregarding the potential impacts of small PAs in [...]
Iterative species distribution modeling results in the discovery of novel populations of a rare cold desert perennial
Published: 2022-11-02
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Niche modeling for rare and range-restricted species can generate inaccurate predictions leading to an overestimation of a species geographic distribution. We used an iterative ensemble modeling approach and model-stratified field surveys to improve niche model formulation and better understand the ecological drivers of Ivesia webberi distribution. I. webberi is a U.S. federally threatened [...]
Incompatibility and interchangeability in molecular evolution
Published: 2022-11-02
Subjects: Evolution, Life Sciences, Molecular Genetics
There is remarkable variation in the rate at which genetic incompatibilities in molecular interactions accumulate. In some cases, minor changes – even single nucleotide substitutions – create major epistatic incompatibilities when hybridization forces new variants to function in a novel genetic background from an isolated population. In other cases, genes or even entire functional pathways can be [...]
Temperate-tropical transitions are linked with shifts in the structure of evolutionary integration in Vitaceae leaves
Published: 2022-11-01
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Understanding how the intrinsic ability of populations and species to meet shifting selective demands shapes evolutionary patterns over both short and long timescales is a major question in biology. One major axis of evolutionary flexibility can be measured by phenotypic integration and modularity. The strength, scale, and structure of integration may constrain or catalyze evolution in the face [...]
Rapid literature mapping on the recent use of machine learning for wildlife imagery
Published: 2022-10-31
Subjects: Life Sciences
1. Machine (especially deep) learning algorithms are changing the way wildlife imagery is processed. They dramatically speed up the time to detect, count, classify animals and their behaviours. Yet, we currently have a very few systematic literature surveys on its use in wildlife imagery. 2. Through a literature survey (a ‘rapid’ review) and bibliometric mapping, we explored its use across: 1) [...]
Mammalian resilience to megafire in western U.S. woodland savannas
Published: 2022-10-29
Subjects: Life Sciences, Zoology
Increasingly frequent megafires are dramatically altering landscapes and critical habitats around the world. Across the western United States, megafires have become an almost annual occurrence, but the implication of these fires for the conservation of native wildlife remains relatively unknown. Woodland savannas are among the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems and provide important food and [...]
Behavioral plasticity allows ungulates to balance risk and reward following megafire
Published: 2022-10-29
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Anthropogenic climate and land use change has accelerated the frequency of extreme climatic disturbances such as megafire. These megafires dramatically alter ecosystems and threaten the long-term conservation of economically and ecologically important species, including native ungulates. Recent work suggests that ungulate species may be able to adjust to the immediate effects of megafire by [...]
A globally integrated structure of taxonomy supporting biodiversity science and conservation
Published: 2022-10-28
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
All aspects of biodiversity research, from taxonomy to conservation, rely on data associated with species names. Effective integration of names across multiple fields is paramount and depends on coordination and organization of taxonomic data. We assess current efforts and find that even key applications for well-studied taxa still lack commonality in taxonomic information required for [...]