Preprints
There are 2238 Preprints listed.
Temperature-dependant, developmental plasticity and its effects on Allen’s and James’ rule in endotherms
Published: 2023-03-08
Subjects: Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology, Integrative Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Ecogeographical rules, describing common trends in animal form across space and time, have provided key insights into the primary factors driving species diversity on our planet. Among the most well-known ecogeographical rules are Bergmann’s Rule and Allen’s rule, with each correlating ambient temperature to the size and shape of endotherms within a species. These two rules have recently [...]
Telomere length vary with sex, hatching rank and year of birth in little owls, Athene noctua
Published: 2023-03-07
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Telomeres are non-coding DNA sequences located at the end of linear chromosomes, protecting genome integrity. In numerous taxa, telomeres shorten with age and telomere length (TL) is positively correlated with longevity. Moreover, TL is also affected by environmental stressors and/or resource-demanding situations particularly during early-life. Thus, TL has been used as a physiological marker of [...]
A diversity of fungal pathways contribute to improved soil carbon stability and storage
Published: 2023-03-04
Subjects: Agricultural Science, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
While various fungi could facilitate soil C storage and climate change mitigation via carbon (C) cycling, standard soil C tests that measure only bulk soil C cannot disentangle mechanisms underpinning fungal influences and so far research has largely focused on mycorrhizal fungi. Here, we assessed the soil C storage potential of 12 non-mycorrhizal fungi, selected from a wide pool based on traits [...]
Experimental evidence of litter quality and soil moisture rather than temperature as the key driver of litter decomposition along a high-latitude elevational gradient
Published: 2023-03-04
Subjects: Life Sciences
High-latitude soils contain up to 60% of the world’s carbon stocks, but are vulnerable to carbon loss as climate change alters temperature and precipitation, litter quality, and soil biota. Tundra soils are thought to be particularly sensitive to warming due to accelerated permafrost thaw, but quantifying the response of decomposition to changing soil moisture remains a challenge. Understanding [...]
Larval cannibalism in Phyllobates poison frogs
Published: 2023-03-02
Subjects: Biology, Integrative Biology, Life Sciences
Cannibalistic behaviour between tadpoles of dendrobatoid poison frogs has been observed in several species with complex parental care dynamics, leading to the idea that it may have played a role in the evolution of parental care. However, the existence or characteristics of this behaviour remain largely unknown beyond a handful of well-studied species. I report direct and indirect observations of [...]
Lipid Metabolism in Response to Cold
Published: 2023-03-01
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology
Temperature directly shapes insect physiology and has a preponderant effect on life history traits. Winter conditions in temperate and polar regions are especially challenging for insects. Extremely low temperatures can indeed compromise insect survival by promoting freezing of body fluids, but mild cold temperatures above 0 °C (i.e. chilling) can also lead to complex and severe physiological [...]
The effects of preformed vitamin A and provitamin A carotenoid supplementation on tadpoles of the poison frog Phyllobates vittatus
Published: 2023-02-28
Subjects: Biology, Life Sciences, Veterinary Medicine, Zoology
Understanding the nutritional requirements of captive animals is necessary for proper animal husbandry, however, the specific dietary requirements for many amphibian species commonly kept in captivity are unknown. Like most vertebrates, frogs cannot synthesize carotenoids and must therefore obtain these essential nutrients through diet. It is unclear if amphibians can cleave provitamin A [...]
How do microbes grow in nature? The role of population dynamics in microbial ecology and evolution
Published: 2023-02-26
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences, Evolution, Life Sciences, Microbiology, Systems Biology
The growth of microbial populations in nature is dynamic, as the cellular physiology and environment of these populations change. Population dynamics have wide-ranging consequences for ecology and evolution, determining how species interact and which mutations fix. Understanding these dynamics is also critical for clinical and environmental applications in which we need to promote or inhibit [...]
A probabilistic approach to estimating timber harvest location
Published: 2023-02-23
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biostatistics, Forest Management, Other Forestry and Forest Sciences, Statistical Methodology, Statistical Models
Determining the harvest location of timber is crucial to enforcing international regulations designed to protect natural resources and to tackle illegal logging and associated trade in forest products. Stable Isotope Ratio Analysis (SIRA) can be used to verify claims of timber harvest location by matching levels of naturally-occurring stable isotopes within wood tissue to location-specific ratios [...]
Symbiotic status alters fungal eco-evolutionary offspring trajectories
Published: 2023-02-23
Subjects: Life Sciences
Across free-living organisms, the ecology and evolution of offspring morphology is shaped by interactions with biotic and abiotic environments during dispersal and early establishment in new habitats. However, the ecology and evolution of offspring morphology for symbiotic species has been largely ignored despite host-symbiont interactions being ubiquitous in all ecosystems and across all [...]
How to do biodiversity-related science communication
Published: 2023-02-21
Subjects: Biodiversity, Communication, International and Intercultural Communication
Biodiversity is the foundation of our lives. Yet we destroy ecosystems and drive species to extinction. Human-induced biodiversity loss does not yet receive sufficient public attention, although biodiversity is fundamental for dealing with global environmental crises. Effective communication of biodiversity-related knowledge is challenging but crucial and should contribute to evidence-based [...]
Solar radiation drives potential demographic collapse in a perennial bunchgrass via dramatically reduced seedling establishment
Published: 2023-02-20
Subjects: Biology, Desert Ecology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Other Plant Sciences, Plant Sciences, Population Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Many perennial plants in semi-arid rangelands have experienced population declines, and understanding the ecological and demographic processes behind these declines is important to slowing or reversing them. Although anthropogenic disturbances drive many declines, other sorts of environmental variability, such as the differences in solar radiation with aspect, may impact population success [...]
Conceptualizing microbe-plasmid communities as complex adaptive systems
Published: 2023-02-20
Subjects: Life Sciences
Plasmids shape microbial communities' diversity, structure, and function. Nevertheless, we lack a mechanistic understanding of how community structure and dynamics emerge from local microbe-plasmid interactions and co-evolution. Addressing this gap is challenging because multiple processes operate simultaneously at multiple levels of organization. For example, immunity operates between a plasmid [...]
Extra-pair paternity, breeding density and synchrony in natural cavities versus nestboxes in two passerine birds
Published: 2023-02-18
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Ornithology
Most of what is known about extra-pair paternity in hole-nesting birds derives from studies using artificial nesting sites, such as nestboxes. However, it has rarely been investigated whether inference drawn from breeding events taking place in nestboxes matches what would be observed under natural conditions, i.e. in natural cavities. We here report on a variation in promiscuity in blue tits and [...]
Nature exposure and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: A Navigation Guide systematic review with meta-analysis
Published: 2023-02-18
Subjects: Medicine and Health Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Previous reviews concluded that nature contact was an important coping strategy against poor mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the quality of evidence in these reviews was not sufficiently documented in terms of the risk of bias in reviewed studies. We attempted to fill this gap with a Navigation Guide systematic review and meta-analyses on the associations between nature [...]