🌿 Category

ecology

429 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

Synchrony Genetics: Linking Ecological Mechanisms to Genetic Structure A framework for genetic inference in ecologically coupled systems

This paper introduces "Synchrony Genetics," a framework that reinterprets genetic structure as an emergent indicator of ecological coupling mechanisms—such as environmental correlation, dispersal, and species interactions—rather than a static equilibrium property, thereby enabling the inference of spatial population dynamics from genetic data in systems where demographic independence is violated.

Hagen, S. B.2026-04-04
🌿 ecology

Differing effects of parasite-parasite interaction types on the spatial epidemiology of co-circulating parasites

By combining spatially-explicit modeling with laboratory experiments on *Paramecium* and bacterial parasites, this study demonstrates that within-host interactions altering host susceptibility have the most significant impact on parasite spatial epidemiology, particularly by amplifying spatial priority effects during sequential invasions.

Zilio, G., Zabalegui Bayona, J., Rousseau, L., Raichle, J., Gougat-Barbera, C., Duncan, A. B., Dean, A. D., Kaltz, O., F (…)2026-04-04
🌿 ecology

Heatwave winners and losers: cryptic coral holobionts differ in thermal tolerance

This study reveals that during a heatwave at Heron Island, the survival of *Stylophora pistillata* corals is driven primarily by intrinsic biological differences among cryptic taxa and individual colonies rather than environmental exposure, with some locally common corals from historically warmer habitats surprisingly proving more susceptible to bleaching.

Meziere, Z., Byrne, I., Popovic, I., Khalil, A., Humanes, A., Guest, J., Chan, C. X., Riginos, C., McGuigan, K.2026-04-04
🌿 ecology

Survey of Climate-structured Mycobiomes in Staple Maize: Implications for Endemic Keshan and Kashin-Beck Diseases

This study reveals that climate-driven variations in maize-associated fungal communities and their predicted mycotoxin potential differ significantly across Keshan and Kashin-Beck disease endemic regions in China, suggesting that foodborne fungal exposomes, rather than selenium deficiency alone, may contribute to the geographic heterogeneity of these diseases.

Wang, Y., Zhang, K., Sun, Y., Yang, L., Yang, J., Wang, X., Wan, Y., Xi, G., Guo, L., Sun, S.2026-04-04
🌿 ecology

Ungulate conservation: Lessons from experimental white-lipped peccary management in agricultural-natural landscape mosaics of the Brazilian Cerrado

An eight-year study in the Brazilian Cerrado demonstrates that sustained, monitored non-lethal removals of white-lipped peccaries effectively reduce both their population size and associated corn crop damage, offering a viable strategy for wildlife-agriculture coexistence in tropical landscapes.

Painkow Neto, E., Silvius, K. M., Barquero, G., Neves, D. C., Fragoso, J. M. V.2026-04-04
🌿 ecology

Characterizing Industrial Pond Ecology Timeline in DISCOVR Cultivation Trials for Early Detection of Pond Crashes

This study introduces "PondSentry," a data-driven anomaly detection system utilizing tensor decomposition of next-generation sequencing time-series data to predict open raceway pond crashes up to three days in advance, thereby enabling timely interventions to improve the sustainability and productivity of industrial algal biomass cultivation.

Wilbourn, E. K., Curtis, D., Kolla, H., Rai, P., Lane, P., McGowen, J., Lane, T. W., Poorey, K.2026-04-03
🌿 ecology

Protist quantitative stable isotope probing identifies diverse active grazers in natural freshwater communities

This study pioneers the application of quantitative stable isotope probing (qSIP) coupled with 18S rRNA sequencing to identify a diverse array of active protist grazers, including rare and abundant taxa across various trophic strategies, that assimilate prey biomass in natural freshwater communities.

Papadopoulou, S., Florenza, J., Bergvall, C., Lindström, E. S., Orsi, W. D.2026-04-03
🌿 ecology

Carryover effects modulate spring phenological responses to temperature in a herbivorous insect

This study demonstrates that temperature conditions experienced during the autumn and winter pupal and egg stages of the winter moth induce carryover effects on spring phenology, which are only partially compensated for and decrease under warming conditions, highlighting the necessity of accounting for multi-stage thermal impacts to accurately predict phenological shifts and species interactions.

Rattigan, S. D., Beaupere, L. C., Sheldon, B. C., Learmonth, R.2026-04-03
🌿 ecology

Camera trap monitoring of unmarked animals: a map of the relationships between population size estimators

This paper clarifies the often-confusing landscape of camera trap density estimation methods for unmarked animals by developing a mathematical framework that maps the relationships between various estimators under specific simplifying assumptions, thereby providing a clearer conceptual foundation for researchers to select and implement appropriate monitoring strategies.

Calenge, C.2026-04-01