Preprints
There are 2389 Preprints listed.
Integrating ecological feedbacks across scales and levels of organization
Published: 2023-10-19
Subjects: Life Sciences
In ecosystems, species interact in various ways with other species, and with their local environment. In addition, ecosystems are coupled in space by diverse types of flows. From these links connecting different ecological entities can emerge circular pathways of indirect effects: feedback loops. This contributes to creating a nested set of ecological feedbacks operating at different [...]
Darwinian Pond System as a Model for the Establishment of Life on the Archaian Earth
Published: 2023-10-18
Subjects: Life Sciences
The main doubt that exists about the appearance and subsequent development of life on earth, regardless of whether its origin is due to panspermia or abiogenesis processes, is related to the necessary conditions so that, once implanted or synthesized, life can be established and prosper. Following the idea proposed by Darwin in 1873 that the origin of life took place in "warm shallow pools" [...]
Anisogamy does not always promote the evolution of mating competition traits in males
Published: 2023-10-18
Subjects: Life Sciences
Anisogamy has evolved in most sexually reproducing multicellular organisms allowing the definition of the male and female sexes, producing small and large gametes. Anisogamy, as the initial sexual dimorphism, is a good starting point to understand the evolution of further sexual dimorphisms. For instance, it is generally accepted that anisogamy sets the stage for more intense mating competition [...]
Fifteen years of elasmobranchs trade unveiled by DNA tools: Lessons for enhanced monitoring and conservation actions
Published: 2023-10-18
Subjects: Biodiversity, Life Sciences
The trade of elasmobranchs (sharks and rays) in Brazil threatens the country's rich endemic biodiversity. The present study explored the use of DNA-based tools to monitor the Brazilian elasmobranch trade, focusing on their role in identifying processed products and supporting conservation efforts. A systematic search of literature was conducted and included 35 peer-reviewed papers published [...]
Multinational evaluation of genetic diversity indicators for the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Monitoring framework
Published: 2023-10-16
Subjects: Biodiversity, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences
In December 2022, the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, in which 196 Parties, for the first time, committed to report on the status of genetic diversity for all species. To facilitate this reporting, three genetic diversity indicators were developed, two of which focus on the processes contributing to genetic [...]
Towards causal relationships for modelling species distribution
Published: 2023-10-14
Subjects: Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Life Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Statistical Models
1. Understanding the processes underlying the distribution of species through space and time is fundamental in several research fields spanning from ecology to spatial epidemiology. Correlative species distribution models (SDMs) involve popular statistical tools to infer species geographical distribution thanks to spatiotemporally explicit observations of species occurrences coupled with a set of [...]
Shedding light on nocturnal behavior: A cost-effective solution for remote, infrared video recording in the field
Published: 2023-10-14
Subjects: Life Sciences
For behavioral ecologists who study nocturnal animals, recording behavior at night is essential, but expensive. Infrared (IR) sensitive camcorders can easily cost over $1,000 USD, yet these pricey cameras rarely stand up to the elements in the field, and pose great financial risk if left unattended overnight. Here, I provide a field-tested method to record nocturnal behavior at a fraction of the [...]
Remote extracellular attacks on bacteriophage
Published: 2023-10-14
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Bacteriophages and their hosts co-evolve while exploiting and defending against the other, respectively. Anti-phage defences generally prevent attachment to cells or post-injection replication; variation in such defences shapes phage host range. While investigating the host range of the virulent myxophage Mx1 among natural-isolate strains of the social bacterium Myxococcus xanthus, we found that [...]
Dispersal and eco-evolutionary dynamics in antagonistic species interactions
Published: 2023-10-14
Subjects: Life Sciences
Dispersal fuels the interplay between ecology, evolution and adaptation across spatial and temporal scales. Dispersal also determines the encounter between natural enemies and can produce eco-evolutionary feedbacks with potentially profound consequences for the geographic distribution and genetic diversity of antagonistically interacting species. Although both dispersal and interaction traits, [...]
Inferring the evolutionary history of the Sino-Himalayan biodiversity hotspot using Bayesian phylodynamics
Published: 2023-10-14
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution
The current status of the Sino-Himalayan region as a biodiversity hotspot, particularly for flora, has often been linked to the uplift of the Sino-Tibetan Plateau and Himalayan and Hengduan Mountains. However, the relationship between the topological development of the region and the onset of diversification is yet to be confirmed. Here, we apply Bayesian phylodynamic methods to a large phylogeny [...]
Crop phenology reshapes the food-safety landscape for roe deer in an agroecosystem
Published: 2023-10-14
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Understanding the behavioural adjustments of wildlife in anthropized landscapes is key for promoting sustainable human-wildlife coexistence. Little is known, however, about how synanthropic species navigate spatio-temporal variation in the availability of food and cover that are shaped by human practices such as agriculture. Animal habitat use is predominantly driven by spatial and temporal [...]
Avian zoochory is a probable pathway of European perch colonization in artificial lakes: a reply to Vasemägi et al (2023)
Published: 2023-10-14
Subjects: Life Sciences, Population Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Applications of Machine Learning in Phylogenetics
Published: 2023-10-14
Subjects: Biology, Life Sciences
Machine learning has increasingly been applied to a wide range of questions in phylogenetic inference. Supervised machine learning approaches that rely on simulated training data have been used to infer tree topologies and branch lengths, to select substitution models, and to perform downstream inferences of introgression and diversification. Here, we review how researchers have used several [...]
Amount of carbon fixed, transit time and fate of harvested wood products define the climate change mitigation potential of boreal forest management - A model analysis
Published: 2023-10-14
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Forest Management, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences, Other Forestry and Forest Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Boreal forests are often managed to maximize wood production, but other goals, among which climate change mitigation, are increasingly important. Examining synergies and trade-offs between forest production and its potential for carbon sequestration and climate change mitigation in forest stands requires explicitly accounting for how long forest ecosystems and wood products retain carbon from [...]
A toolkit for the dynamic study of air sacs in siamang and other elastic circular structures
Published: 2023-10-14
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Biology, Neuroscience and Neurobiology
Biological structures are defined by rigid elements, such as bones, and elastic elements, like muscles and membranes. Computer vision advances have enabled automatic tracking of moving animal skeletal poses. Such developments provide insights into complex time-varying dynamics of biological motion. Conversely, the elastic soft-tissues of organisms, like the nose of elephant seals, or the buccal [...]