Concepts

Manipulative experiments that alter abiotic conditions or reciprocally transplant individuals to understand and predict the effects of environmental change on biological communities and ecosystem func...

Consumption of plant material by animals, measured as browse occurrence on host plants

An evolutionary process in which a population evolves to become more suited to its local environment through natural selection, resulting in higher fitness in the home environment compared to individu...

The cycling of chemical elements between living organisms and the physical environment, particularly carbon and nitrogen cycles

The decomposition and fragmentation of dead organic matter by organisms, particularly the conversion of coarse to fine particulate organic matter

Experimental approach where organisms from different source populations are grown in different environments to test for local adaptation

Animals adopt a foraging strategy that provides the most benefit (energy) for the lowest cost

Daily mass gain during critical post-emergence development period in juvenile mammals

Ecosystem responses to climate change that exert positive or negative feedbacks on climate, mediated by slow-moving factors such as shifts in vegetation community composition

The study of traits controlled by multiple loci with continuous phenotypic distributions and measurable heritability

Theory that predicts patterns of distribution, abundance, and energetics using instantaneous values of community state variables including total area, total abundance, total species richness, and tota...

SPAD measurement of leaf chlorophyll concentration indicating photosynthetic capacity

A gradual change in a trait across an environmental gradient, where width is expected to be proportional to dispersal distance divided by square root of difference in selection between ends of the cli...

The constraint of microbial activity and carbon respiration by water availability in soil systems

Theory providing mass-metabolism scaling rules that relate metabolic rate to organism mass through allometric relationships

Areas of transition between adjacent, distinct ecosystems with unique species assemblages at the fringes of mature stands

Theory suggesting that offspring sex ratios might vary according to maternal condition, hence females should vary the sex of their offspring according to their ability to physically invest in their of...

Statistical inference procedure that selects flattest probability distributions compatible with constraints imposed by prior knowledge

Distribution of metabolic rates over individuals in a community, obtained by summing over abundance

Classification of species with similar characteristics into plant functional groups or plant functional types to reduce complexity in ecological communities

When single genes or alleles influence multiple, seemingly unrelated traits

Reduction in population growth rates, size, or occurrence across species ranges

Chromosomes that determine sex, including different haplotypes in the sex-determining region

Shift toward woody plant encroachment into nonwoody meadows and grasslands

Chromosomal rearrangement where a segment is reversed in orientation, potentially suppressing recombination and maintaining linkage between beneficial alleles

An integrative measure of how much tension there is in the water column of the xylem, reflecting the ease or difficulty a plant has in transporting water from the soil