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.
Based on 33 years of data from white-faced capuchins, this study demonstrates that environmental fluctuations dynamically shift the competitive trade-offs between within-group foraging costs and between-group territorial advantages, driving larger groups to expand their ranges and encroach on neighbors in ways that depend on seasonal and climatic conditions.
This study analyzes data from 110 permanent sample plots in the Sundarbans to reveal how taxonomic, structural, functional, and phylogenetic biodiversity dimensions are interconnected and differentially driven by environmental stressors like salinity and siltation, highlighting the need for holistic conservation strategies that account for these distinct multidimensional responses.
Using the Carpenter model of lake eutrophication, this study demonstrates that standard ecological monitoring data often fail to distinguish bistable regimes from stable ones, revealing that accurate identification of tipping points and bistability is only practically achievable when data are collected very close to the critical threshold.
Through trans-solstice climate manipulation experiments on European beech, this study demonstrates that developmental constraints mediate a flexible phenological "switch" after the summer solstice, where the timing of spring leaf-out and specific diel temperature responses (particularly nighttime cooling) determine whether post-solstice warming delays or advances autumn phenology.
This study demonstrates that fine-scale temporal (diel cycles) and spatial factors, alongside genetic variation, are critical drivers of metagenomic community structure in coral reefs, often outweighing larger-scale environmental gradients.
This paper presents a reproducible, low-cost, ground-based photogrammetry workflow using chest-mounted action cameras to generate high-resolution 3D models and orthomosaics of forested streams, overcoming canopy limitations to enable frequent, fine-scale habitat assessments for ecological monitoring.
This study demonstrates that photodegradation significantly accelerates litter decomposition and alters physical traits in South American monsoonal mountain grasslands, proving that this process is not limited to arid ecosystems and can enhance subsequent biotic decomposition through photofacilitation.
This study demonstrates that while negative density-dependence and Allee effects individually have limited long-term impacts on malaria mosquito populations, their interaction—particularly when sustained vector control interventions reduce population sizes to trigger Allee effects—significantly accelerates extinction and offers a strategic pathway for eliminating disease vectors.
An analysis of 258 invasive plant species in North America reveals that the majority have not yet reached climatic stasis, challenging the common assumption of environmental equilibrium in species distribution models and highlighting the unrealized expansion potential of these invaders.
This study developed and validated random forest models using Sentinel-3, Landsat, and in situ data to accurately predict surface water temperatures across U.S. lakes, thereby providing a critical tool for improving cyanobacterial harmful algal bloom forecasting and water resource management.