Preprints
There are 2037 Preprints listed.
Gut microbiome communities demonstrate fine-scale spatial variation in a closed, island bird population
Published: 2024-12-14
Subjects: Life Sciences
Environmental variation is a key factor shaping microbiome communities in wild animals. However, most studies have focussed on separate populations distributed over large spatial scales. How ecological factors shape inter-individual microbiome variation within a single landscape and host population remains poorly understood. Here, we use dense sampling of individuals in a natural, closed [...]
Pleistocene climatic changes drive expansion and fragmentation in a widespread arid zone specialist, Petrogale lateralis
Published: 2024-12-13
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Organisms living in arid biomes are predicted to be at threat of extinction associated with ongoing climatic and anthropogenic change. Our understanding of species responses to Pleistocene climatic changes within these environments is still limited, particularly in Australia. Here we evaluate the demographic and evolutionary history of a widespread Australian marsupial, the black-footed [...]
Foundations and future directions for causal inference in ecological research
Published: 2024-12-13
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Ecology often seeks to answer causal questions, and while ecologists have a rich history of experimental approaches, novel observational data streams and the need to apply insights across naturally occurring conditions pose opportunities and challenges. Other fields have developed causal inference approaches that can enhance and expand our ability to answer ecological causal questions using [...]
A bottom-up mammoth population model predicts moderate densities and high vulnerability to hunting
Published: 2024-12-13
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Paleobiology
During the last glacial, large grazers inhabited Eurasia’s mammoth steppe. This cold steppe was productive enough to sustain a diverse assemblage of large mammals, but it remains controversial which population densities it could support. In sufficient densities, large herbivores can act as ecosystem engineers: creating and maintaining grassland habitat by means of disturbance and accelerated [...]
Community herbivory in tropical montane rainforests is affected by phylogenetic plant diversity, specific leaf area, and leaf nutrient concentrations
Published: 2024-12-13
Subjects: Life Sciences
Arthropod herbivores modulate ecosystem structure, productivity, and nutrient cycling. While previous work has shown that plant-herbivore interactions for individual species are shaped by abiotic factors, traits, and the surrounding plant community, the relative contribution of abiotic and biotic factors for herbivory at the community level remains elusive. Here, we use a structural equation [...]
Global patterns of insect herbivory across forest canopies and understories: Insights from a tropical case study and a global comparison
Published: 2024-12-12
Subjects: Life Sciences
Several studies have examined global patterns of insect herbivory, revealing variations with latitude, elevation, and temperature. However, less attention has been given to herbivory patterns at smaller spatial scales, particularly the comparison between forest canopies and understories. Understanding these finer-scale patterns is crucial for predicting ecological responses to both natural and [...]
Greenspaces reduce the heat-related mortality: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Published: 2024-12-12
Subjects: Medicine and Health Sciences
Greenspace has been increasingly recognized for its role in mitigating heat-related mortality in the context of climate change. This systematic review and meta-analysis synthesized evidence from 43 studies covering over 160 million deaths. Using a random-effects meta-analysis, we found that high-greenness areas were associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality during heat (≥90th [...]
The Development and Evolution of Arthropod Tagmata
Published: 2024-12-11
Subjects: Biology, Cell and Developmental Biology, Developmental Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Evolution, Integrative Biology, Life Sciences
The segmented body plan is a hallmark of the arthropod body plan. Morphological segments are formed during embryogenesis, through a complex procedure involving the activation of a series of gene regulatory networks. The segments of the arthropod body are organized into functional units known as tagmata, and these tagmata are different among the arthropod classes (e.g. head, thorax and abdomen in [...]
iNaturalist as a platform for documenting Chilean funga
Published: 2024-12-09
Subjects: Biodiversity, Environmental Policy, Life Sciences, Other Life Sciences
This study analyzes the impact of iNaturalist on the recording and documentation of fungi in Chile from 2008 to 2024, highlighting its role in integrating citizen science into biodiversity monitoring. This community effort—which currently totals more than 63,000 observations representing 1,245 species—is concentrated in the central and southern regions of the country, mainly in urban areas, where [...]
Microbes as conservation targets
Published: 2024-12-09
Subjects: Life Sciences
A world without microorganisms would lack essential processes that support life. The degradation or loss of microbiomes will lead to severe disruptions in ecosystems, nutrient cycling, and the climate; failures in food production; and crises in animal and human health. Yet, microbes remain largely excluded from nature conservation efforts. Current microbial management predominantly relies on the [...]
Phenological and life history/form idiosyncraticity of facultatively annual Cistanthe philhershkovitziana Hershk. (C. sect. Cistanthe; Montiaceae) in Chile’s southern Central Littoral Zone, with comments on the incidence of the facultative annual condition among “Portullugo” (Caryophyllales) and o
Published: 2024-12-09
Subjects: Biodiversity
Cistanthe philhershkovitziana Hershk. was described from the north-central Chilean coast in 2018. Based on the apparent absence of plants during drought years, it was described as the only species of C. sect. Cistanthe with a putatively annual life history (~therophytic life form). The species occurs primarily in coastal habitats, but also in some seasonally moist sites up to perhaps 50 km [...]
Shorebirds are shrinking and shape-shifting: declining body size and lengthening bills in the past half-century
Published: 2024-12-09
Subjects: Life Sciences
Animals are predicted to shrink and shape-shift as the climate warms; declining in size, while their appendages lengthen. Determining which types of species are undergoing these morphological changes, and why, is critical to understanding species responses to global change, including potential adaptation to climate warming. We examine body size and bill length changes in 25 shorebird species [...]
Don’t ask “when is it coevolution?” — ask “how?”
Published: 2024-12-09
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Coevolution is widely defined as specific, simultaneous, reciprocal adaptation by pairs of interacting species. This strict-sense definition arose from a desire for conceptual clarity, but it has never reflected the much wider diversity of ways in which interacting species may shape each other's evolution. As a result, much of the literature on the evolutionary consequences of species [...]
The feasibility principle in community ecology
Published: 2024-12-09
Subjects: Life Sciences
The structure and function of ecological communities are conceptualized as an emergent outcome derived from their corresponding set of interacting populations embedded in a given environmental context. However, it has remained unclear whether common principles can explain the biodiversity patterns that we observe across different contexts. Notably, finding general principles can successfully [...]
Code-sharing policies are associated with increased reproducibility potential of ecological findings
Published: 2024-12-09
Subjects: Life Sciences
Software code (e.g., analytical code) is increasingly recognised as an important research output, as it improves transparency, collaboration, and research credibility. Many scientific journals have introduced code-sharing policies; however, surveys show alarmingly low compliance with these policies. In this study, we expand on a recent survey of ecological journals with code-sharing policies by [...]