312 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.
In experimental ponds with 70% floating photovoltaic coverage, bottom-water methane concentrations doubled due to altered cycling dynamics, yet surface emissions remained low because the arrays promoted massive blooms of methanotrophs that consumed dissolved methane before it could reach the atmosphere.
This study uses species distribution models to demonstrate that while the endemic *Gentiana cachemirica* faces severe habitat contraction due to its narrow niche and limited dispersal, the critically endangered *Gentiana kurroo* exhibits scenario-dependent responses ranging from modest expansion to decline, highlighting how climatic niche breadth and dispersal capacity mediate species' vulnerability to climate change in the Himalayas.
This study analyzes six decades of data from 44 Finnish bird species to demonstrate that while their breeding phenology is strongly plastic, there is also widespread evidence for the recent evolution of this plasticity, enabling birds to increasingly adjust their egg-laying timing in response to rising temperatures.
This paper presents a novel method using triple-frequency (X, Ka, and W-band) zenith-pointing Doppler cloud radar data to estimate vertical profiles of aerial insect concentrations, revealing that W-band radars detect the highest daytime concentrations of small insects at lower altitudes while longer wavelengths capture higher concentrations at greater altitudes and during nighttime.
By integrating six years of density monitoring with high-resolution environmental data, this study models habitat suitability for four priority weeds in the Australian Capital Territory to identify multi-species invasion hotspots, thereby enabling more efficient, strategic, and spatially explicit management of complex weed infestations.
This study demonstrates that coordinated governance strategies, combined with moderate livestock intensification, can effectively redirect projected soybean expansion in Brazil away from native vegetation in the Amazon, Cerrado, and Pantanal toward already converted lands, thereby preventing significant deforestation while maintaining agricultural output.
Although monitoring data from Nitmiluk National Park (2005–2018) revealed some annual changes in mammal fauna, a significant reduction in survey effort prevented the identification of clear patterns linking these changes to fire regimes, highlighting the critical need for future monitoring to be better aligned with management goals and local stakeholders.
This paper develops a mathematical model to demonstrate that intercropping can either suppress or exacerbate vector-borne plant virus outbreaks depending on specific host characteristics, while also identifying conditions to prevent both persistent and transient disease transmission for sustainable crop management.
Human land-use change in Southeast Asia, particularly the proliferation of artificial nest farms, drives the co-occurrence of ecologically similar swiftlets and swallows primarily through environmental filtering that homogenizes niches, rather than through increased competition or breakdowns in niche partitioning.
This paper proposes science-based operational criteria and specific thresholds for the three main indicators (native species, deadwood, and large/old trees) to effectively identify and protect old-growth forests in northern Europe, ensuring compliance with EU Biodiversity and Forest Strategies while minimizing misclassification.