Preprints
There are 2238 Preprints listed.
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 [...]
Beyond genes-for-behaviour: the potential for genomics to resolve questions in avian brood parasitism
Published: 2022-10-28
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences
Brood parasite-host interactions are among the most easily observable and amenable natural laboratories of antagonistic coevolution, and as such have intrigued evolutionary biologists for decades. It is therefore surprising they have not been at the forefront of genomic studies on evolutionary adaptation. Here we review state-of-the-art molecular methods in studying avian brood parasitism, a [...]
Deep reticulation: the long legacy of hybridization in vascular plant evolution
Published: 2022-10-26
Subjects: Biodiversity, Botany, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Plant Biology, Plant Sciences
Hybridization has long been recognized as a fundamental evolutionary process in plants, but our understanding of its phylogenetic distribution and biological significance across deep evolutionary scales has been largely obscure—until recently. Over the past decade, genomic and phylogenomic datasets have revealed, perhaps not surprisingly, that hybridization, often associated with polyploidy, has [...]
Discovering the rules of plant biogeography using a trait-based approach
Published: 2022-10-01
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Lineage-specific traits determine how plants interact with their surrounding environment. As different species may find similar phenotypic solutions through evolution to tolerate, persist in and invade environments with certain characteristics, some traits may become more common in certain types of habitats. These general patterns of geographical trait distribution point towards the existence of [...]
The March of the Human Footprint
Published: 2022-09-30
Subjects: Arts and Humanities, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Geography, Human Geography, Life Sciences, Nature and Society Relations, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Remote Sensing, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Spatial Science, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Human influence is driving planetary change, often in undesirable and unsustainable ways. Recent advances enabled us to measure changes in humanity’s footprint on Earth annually from 2000 – 2019 with a nine-fold improvement in spatial resolution over previous efforts. We found that earlier studies seriously under-estimated the magnitude, extent, and rate of change in the human footprint. [...]
Invasion dynamics of quagga mussels (Dreissena rostriformis bugensis) within a reservoir and its spatially intermittent watershed: Lake Piru and the Santa Clara River, California, USA
Published: 2022-09-30
Subjects: Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Since its discovery in Lake Mead in 2007, the invasive quagga mussel (Dreissena rostriformis bugensis) has rapidly spread throughout the lower Colorado River drainage. However, the invasion in California remained confined to the Colorado and water systems throughout southern California that receive water from the Colorado River until December 2013, when quagga mussels were first observed in Lake [...]
Distribution and Variability of Cistanthe philhershkovitziana Hershk. (Cistanthe sect. Cistanthe; Montiaceae)
Published: 2022-09-30
Subjects: Biodiversity, Life Sciences
The present work exploits internet resources to update previously reported data for the distributional range and ecology of Cistanthe philhershkovitziana Hershk. (Cistanthe Spach sect. Cistanthe; Montiaceae), a conspicuous and not uncommon species of central and north-central Chile. The latitudinal range documented here is at least 4.8° greater than previously reported, extending from ca. 29°S [...]
Best practices in designing, sequencing and identifying random DNA barcodes
Published: 2022-09-29
Subjects: Bioinformatics, Biotechnology, Cell and Developmental Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Random DNA barcodes are a versatile tool for tracking cell lineages, with applications ranging from development to cancer to evolution. Here we review and critically evaluate barcode designs as well as methods of barcode sequencing and initial processing of barcode data. We first demonstrate how various barcode design decisions affect data quality and propose a new optimal design that balances [...]
Individual-based eco-evolutionary framework: towards unifying ecology and evolution
Published: 2022-09-29
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Evolution is increasingly found to be rapid and entangled with ecological processes in complex eco-evolutionary dynamics, calling for a common conceptual framework. Yet, ecological and evolutionary theory remain largely separated, which constrains the development of integrative research. To overcome this separation, I argue for treating the entangled dynamics as a single eco-evolutionary process [...]