🌿 Category

ecology

368 papers

Ecology explores the intricate relationships between living organisms and their environments, revealing how life adapts, interacts, and sustains itself across the planet. From microscopic soil communities to vast migratory patterns, this field examines the delicate balance that keeps ecosystems functioning and resilient. Understanding these connections is vital for addressing urgent challenges like climate change and biodiversity loss.

At Gist.Science, we make the latest research from bioRxiv accessible to everyone. We process every new preprint in this category as it appears, offering both clear plain-language explanations and detailed technical summaries to suit every reader. This approach ensures that groundbreaking findings in ecological science are not locked behind complex terminology but are available for immediate understanding and discussion.

Below are the latest papers in ecology, curated to help you stay informed about the evolving story of life on Earth.

🌿 ecology

Columbia Basin Pygmy Rabbit Recovery Planning through Structured Decision Making

Through a structured decision-making process involving a population model, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and US Fish and Wildlife Service identified a sustainable recovery strategy for the endangered Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit that prioritizes expanding conservation breeding, continuing annual RHDV2 vaccinations, and targeting translocations to establishing recovery areas while also emphasizing habitat protection and improved monitoring.

Mistry, K. R., Converse, S. J.2026-04-14
🌿 ecology

Divergent successional patterns and infection dynamics in virion and transcriptionally active soil viral communities following phosphorus amendment and wet-up

This study reveals that soil rewetting and phosphorus amendment drive divergent successional patterns in viral communities, where wet-up triggers a shift from persistent virions to active infections while phosphorus specifically enhances infection dynamics and host-virus coupling among transcriptionally active viruses.

Gogul, G., Allen, G. M., Leleiwi, I., Blazewicz, S. J., Pett-Ridge, J., Emerson, J. B., Trubl, G.2026-04-14
🌿 ecology

Benthic biodiversity hotspots in the Weddell Sea: Bridging geomorphology, biogeography, and oceanography across scales

By integrating seafloor imagery, bathymetry, and oceanographic modeling, this study identifies steep geomorphological features in the Weddell Sea's Powell Basin as critical biodiversity hotspots that concentrate vast benthic populations through specific interactions with cold bottom waters and ocean circulation, providing a scalable framework for conservation in a warming Antarctic environment.

Fan, M., Purser, A., Wei, B., Isler, T., Cornish, N., Dorschel, B., Wietz, M.2026-04-14
🌿 ecology

Invertebrate species produce taxon-specific acoustic profiles under controlled conditions

This proof-of-concept study demonstrates that distinct invertebrate species produce unique, taxon-specific acoustic signatures under controlled conditions, establishing the potential for non-destructive, scalable soil biodiversity monitoring through automated ecoacoustic classification.

Annells, A., Breed, M., Cavagnaro, T. R., Hodgson, R. J., Costin, S., Davies, T., Taylor, A. F., Robinson, J. M.2026-04-14
🌿 ecology

Revealing year-round activity of cave-dwelling insectivorous bats with a sonotype classifier in data-deficient areas.

This study demonstrates the first long-term acoustic monitoring of cave-dwelling insectivorous bats in the Republic of Congo by utilizing a novel sonotype classifier to reveal year-round activity patterns and reproductive phenology in a previously data-deficient region.

Labadie, M., Morand, S., Caron, A., De Nys, H. M., Niama, F. R., Nguilili, F., TOBI, N.-, Bourgarel, M., Bas, Y., Roemer (…)2026-04-13
🌿 ecology

Co-limitation by stable, dynamic and directional habitat features shapes climate vulnerability in an alpine specialist

This study demonstrates that the climate vulnerability of the alpine-obligate Gray crowned Rosy Finch is shaped by a three-timescale co-limitation framework involving static nesting cliffs, dynamic annual snowpack, and directional woody encroachment, which together drive significant population density fluctuations despite stable detection rates.

Brown, T. M., Goljani Amirkhiz, R., Albright, S., Arnold, A., Brown, E., Brown, C., Chevreuil, V., Cheung, R., Cortes, D (…)2026-04-11
🌿 ecology

WildAlert: A Real-Time, AI-Driven Early Warning System for Wildlife Health and Ecological Threat Detection

WildAlert is a scalable, AI-driven early warning system that integrates natural language processing and anomaly detection on real-time wildlife rehabilitation data to proactively identify diverse ecological and health threats, such as zoonotic diseases and environmental hazards, often before they are confirmed by traditional surveillance methods.

Pandit, P. S., Ranjan, S., dombrowski, D., Avilla, R., Ross, C., Clifford, D., Rogers, K., Riner, J., Perry, H., Gilardi (…)2026-04-10
🌿 ecology

Nitrogen fertilization outweighs plant species loss in shaping bacterial belowground diversity in an alpine meadow on the central Tibetan Plateau

A seven-year study on the Tibetan Plateau demonstrates that nitrogen fertilization-induced soil acidification exerts a stronger negative impact on alpine grassland bacterial diversity than plant species loss, primarily by suppressing oligotrophic taxa and stimulating copiotrophic ones.

Wu, D., Ciren, Q., Jia, Z., Schwalb, A., Guggenberger, G., Wang, S., Dorji, T., Pester, M.2026-04-10
🌿 ecology

Behavioural plasticity at the spatial-social interface: Predation risk modulates density-dependent breeding dispersion

This study demonstrates that the spatial breeding dispersion of northern lapwings is not driven by passive habitat filtering but is a highly plastic, context-dependent strategy where individuals dynamically switch between aggregation for communal defense and dispersion to avoid competition or detection, a flexibility modulated by predation risk and climate-induced habitat bottlenecks that critically influences population persistence.

Wawrzynowicz, M., Kuczynski, L.2026-04-10
🌿 ecology

Topography structures of arthropod communities revealed by leaf-derived environmental DNA on Oahu, Hawaii

By utilizing leaf-derived environmental DNA and the NIClassify tool to overcome taxonomic limitations, this study reveals that arthropod communities on Oahu are primarily structured by spatial location and elevation, with introduced taxa declining at higher elevations, while plant species effects remain context-dependent.

Weber, S., Hutchins, L., Banerjee, P., Callaghan, W., Farrow, A. A., Andersen, J., Gillespie, R., Roderick, G. K.2026-04-10