🌿 Category

ecology

369 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

Directional variation and method-specific detection patterns in offshore bat migration: implications for wind farm mitigation

This study demonstrates that acoustic monitoring and individual tracking provide complementary, rather than contradictory, insights into offshore Nathusius pipistrelle migration patterns by detecting different subsets of the population based on wind conditions and flight capabilities, highlighting the need to integrate both methods for effective wind farm mitigation.

Lagerveld, S., de Vries, P., Rakhimberdiev, E., Harris, J., Noort, B. C. A., Geelhoed, S. C. V., Van Langevelde, F., Mat (…)2026-02-07
🌿 ecology

Rapid diversification of a natural Heterosigma akashiwo virus population during a host bloom

By integrating high-frequency multi-omics sampling during a host bloom in Japan, this study reveals that the *Heterosigma akashiwo* virus population undergoes rapid diversification driven by host-driven selection acting on standing genetic variation, characterized by fluctuating microdiversity and high expression of accessory genes involved in host interaction.

Xia, J., Meng, L., Fang, Y., Ban, H., Okazaki, Y., Yoshida, T., Endo, H., Nagasaki, K., Ogata, H.2026-02-07
🌿 ecology

Intra-annual precipitation variability mutes or magnifies the impact of wet and dry years on plant biomass.

This study demonstrates that the impact of annual precipitation anomalies on plant biomass is significantly modulated by intra-annual precipitation evenness, with evenly distributed rainfall amplifying growth responses while infrequent large events mute them across diverse global grasslands.

Terry, T., Higgins, S., Hammer, A., Adler, P., Brudvig, L., Bakker, J., Borer, E., Bugalho, M., Caldeira, M., Catford, J (…)2026-02-06
🌿 ecology

From theory to application: Elasticity-consistent aggregation of Leslie matrix population models for comparative demography

This paper introduces and validates an elasticity-consistent aggregation method for Leslie matrix population models that overcomes the limitations of standard aggregators by preserving key demographic properties and enabling more accurate, fair comparisons across diverse life cycles in the era of big data ecology.

Hinrichsen, R. A., Yokomizo, H., Salguero-Gomez, R.2026-02-06
🌿 ecology

Repeated and widespread introduction of a mosquito-borne virus, but wildlife impact remains localised in urban area

By integrating multidisciplinary surveillance with citizen science, researchers found that while Usutu virus has repeatedly and widely established itself in the UK, its significant impact on Eurasian Blackbird populations remains localized to urban areas likely due to heat island effects, suggesting that cities may serve as early warning systems for future mosquito-borne pathogen emergence in temperate zones.

Hanmer, H. J., Bruce, R. C., Jenkins, A. J., Santos, M., Seilern-Macpherson, K., Haddow, S., Jones, E., John, S. K., Ion (…)2026-02-05
🌿 ecology

Large language models possess some ecologicalknowledge, but how much?

This study evaluates the ecological knowledge of Gemini 1.5 Pro and GPT-4o using a new benchmark dataset, revealing that while these models outperform naive baselines in tasks like species presence prediction, their overall performance remains significantly below expert levels, indicating a critical need for domain-specific fine-tuning to effectively integrate LLMs into ecological science.

Dorm, F., Millard, J., Purves, D., Harfoot, M., Mac Aodha, O.2026-02-04
🌿 ecology

Microplastics drive both linear and threshold-type shifts in soil multifunctionality along concentration gradients

This study demonstrates that microplastic pollution drives both linear and threshold-type shifts in soil multifunctionality, with physical deterioration—specifically the loss of water-stable aggregates—serving as an early-warning signal that precedes cascading impacts on chemical and biological processes.

Meizoso-Regueira, T., Dacal, M., Ring, E., Rillig, M. C.2026-02-03
🌿 ecology

Global Trends and Hotspots in Grassland Root Functional Traits Research (2000-2025)

This bibliometric study analyzes global research trends in grassland root functional traits from 2000 to 2025, identifying key producing nations, six major research hotspots including trait-climate interactions and soil microbe synergies, and outlining future directions for methodological standardization and international collaboration.

Feng, x. y., Gao, Y., Li, q. j., Yang, t. y., Yin, J., Yang, S., Jiang, h. z., Wang, t. x., Wang, c. p., Zhao, L. L.2026-02-03