Preprints
There are 2238 Preprints listed.
Camtrap DP: An open standard for the FAIR exchange and archiving of camera trap data
Published: 2023-06-30
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Biodiversity, Population Biology
Camera trapping has revolutionized wildlife ecology and conservation by providing automated data acquisition, leading to the accumulation of massive amounts of camera trap data worldwide. Although management and processing of camera trap-derived Big Data are becoming increasingly solvable with the help of scalable cyber-infrastructures, harmonization and exchange of the data remain limited, [...]
Unleashing the Potential of Artificial Reefs Design: A Purpose-Driven Evaluation of Structural Complexity
Published: 2023-06-30
Subjects: Engineering
Artificial reefs (AR) must be built according to their objective and show high complexity to mimic the characteristic of natural habitats. To enhance the integration of artificial structures into ecosystems, a new quantitative method has been developed to evaluate their complexity, using 3D computer-aided design (CAD) models of ARs. The method utilizes six metrics: three related to geometric [...]
Evolutionary parsimony: an equilibrium refinement that sharply constrains the space of outcomes in games with multiple equilibria
Published: 2023-06-30
Subjects: Social and Behavioral Sciences
Evolutionary game theory loses much of its predictive power in games with multi- ple equilibria. For such games, this paper introduces a simple and general refinement principle, grounded in evolutionary dynamics, that sharply narrows the set of possi- ble outcomes. Rather than designing strategies from scratch, evolution shapes them gradually through the accumulation of adaptive mutations, the [...]
Seascape genomics: assisting marine biodiversity management by combining genetic knowledge with environmental and ecological information
Published: 2023-06-24
Subjects: Life Sciences
Biodiversity, including genetic diversity, is the foundation of ecosystems and the well-being of all organisms, including humans. Determining how the marine environment shapes genetic diversity and developing best practices to conserve it requires a multi-disciplinary approach incorporating genomic and environmental information. Seascape genetics and genomics combine spatially resolved [...]
Too simple, too complex, or just right? Advantages, challenges and resolutions for indicators of genetic diversity
Published: 2023-06-24
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Policy, Genetics, Life Sciences
Measuring genetic diversity of wild species using DNA-based data remains resource intensive and time-consuming for nearly all species. Yet, genetic assessments are needed for global conservation commitments including the Convention on Biological Diversity and for governments and managers to evaluate conservation progress and to prioritize species and populations to preserve and recover genetic [...]
Designing a collective prototype of future (sub)tropical science
Published: 2023-06-24
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Higher Education
Heterogeneous dispersal networks to improve biodiversity science
Published: 2023-06-22
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Population Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Dispersal plays a key role in shaping spatial patterns of biodiversity, yet its spatial heterogeneity is often overlooked in biodiversity analyses and management strategies. Properly parametrized heterogeneous dispersal networks capture the complex interplay between landscape structure and species-specific dispersal capacities. This heterogeneity, however, is recurrently neglected when studying [...]
Landscape changes in the “valli da pesca” of the Venice lagoon and possible effects on the Ecosystem Services supply
Published: 2023-06-22
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Natural Resources and Conservation, Nature and Society Relations, Other Environmental Sciences, Remote Sensing, Sustainability, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Coastal lagoons have long been subject to continuous changes caused by mutual interactions with human activities. Monitoring such changes becomes critical, particularly when modifications in landscape and land cover classes can affect their capacity to ensure Ecosystem Services (ESs). In the Venice lagoon, some confined areas called “valli da pesca” supply provisioning ESs, namely aquaculture and [...]
Community-based conservation and restoration in coastal wetlands: A review
Published: 2023-06-19
Subjects: Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy
Research has shown that conservation and restoration efforts that engage local communities are more successful at meeting stated goals than those that are externally controlled. Such participatory management approaches have been increasingly applied in coastal wetland ecosystems, yet our collective understanding of the scope of methods applied and outcomes observed in these efforts is limited. In [...]
Griffon Vultures restrict movements around roosts and supplementary feeding stations, even when carrion is available on the field: a call for wind energy zonation to avoid ecological traps on Mediterranean islands
Published: 2023-06-19
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Engineering
Wind energy is developing on Mediterranean islands, where endangered populations of Griffon Vulture (Gyps fulvus) occur. As griffons are subjected to collisions with wind turbines while foraging, it is necessary to understand which factors affect their movements, to minimize the potential impact of wind farms. We assessed habitat use by 37 griffons (n. GPS locations = 130,218) and its overlap [...]
Hypotheses on the extended phenotype of the mitochondrion: sex, mortality, and aging
Published: 2023-06-19
Subjects: Biology, Evolution
How did sex evolve, how is sex evolutionary stable, and why do eukaryotes appear mortal. This paper presents a mitochondrial perspective on the evolution of the eukaryotic cell that appears capable of answering these questions. Rather than viewing a mitochondrion as a passive entity taken up by an archaeal host that remains in the driving seat, mitochondria are viewed as the key force [...]
Plant diversity dynamics over space and time in a warming Arctic
Published: 2023-06-19
Subjects: Biodiversity, Plant Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
The Arctic is warming four times faster than the global average, and plant communities are responding through shifts in species abundance, composition and distribution. However, the direction and magnitude of local plant diversity changes have not been quantified thus far at sites across the Arctic. Using a compilation of 42,234 records of 490 vascular plant species from 2,174 plots at 45 study [...]
Salinity controls rocky intertidal community structure via suppression of herbivory
Published: 2023-06-19
Subjects: Life Sciences
Climate change impacts ecosystems directly through differences in species specific responses as well as indirectly through changes to the strength of species interactions. To predict how species will be impacted by ongoing environmental change, we need to better understand the relative roles of these direct and indirect effects. Salinity is a strong driver of ecological patterns and processes, [...]
Links between an insectivorous bird and moths disentangled through national scale monitoring data
Published: 2023-06-17
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Insects play important roles in food chains, but quantifying how insect abundance affects population dynamics in natural communities is challenging. National scale monitoring data provides opportunities to identify trophic relationships at broad spatial and temporal scales but requires careful approaches to link data from different schemes. Here, using two monitoring datasets from Great Britain, [...]
Essential Biodiversity Variables and Essential Ecosystem Services Variables for the Implementation of Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Development Goals
Published: 2023-06-11
Subjects: Life Sciences
As nations design a framework and a process for implementing the new goals and targets set by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the question on how to report on the successes and failures of policy implementation is becoming more salient. In this paper, we demonstrate the potential role of Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs), Essential Ecosystem Services Variables (EESV) and their [...]