Concepts

The consumption of plant material by animals

Predicts that species interactions should disappear at the stressful end of environmental gradients where abiotic conditions constrain species ranges

Communication through chemical signals that mediate various aspects of social activities in insects, especially regulation of reproduction

The extent to which fungal symbionts colonize plant tissues, measured as percentage of tissue colonized

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...

Bird species that utilize nest cavities created by other species rather than excavating their own

The length of flower tubes, which correlates with bumble bee proboscis length and determines flower accessibility

The hypothesis that animals allocate less time to antipredator vigilance as a function of increasing numbers of animals foraging together

Taxa that are significantly associated with particular habitat conditions and can be used to assess ecosystem state or restoration success

Chemical cues released by predators that benefit prey by providing information about predator presence

Bacterial communities that colonize and live within floral nectar, potentially affecting nectar chemistry and pollinator behavior

Nutritional and defensive characteristics of plants that affect herbivore performance, including water content and nutrient ratios

When sapygid wasps enter brood cells during the provisioning or brood cell construction stages and lay eggs in provisioned brood cells prior to wall construction

Measure of foraging specialization using standardized Hurlbert's niche breadth, where values closer to 1 represent generalized foraging and values closer to 0 represent specialized foraging

Experimental removal of the most abundant plant species to test effects of species loss on community structure and function

The tendency for flower foragers to visit a single flower species during foraging trips even when alternative rewarding species are available

The process by which non-native species become established and spread in new environments

The species assemblage and relative abundances of aquatic invertebrates in a habitat, used as indicators of ecosystem condition and habitat quality

Effects of human recreational activities on wildlife communities through habitat alteration, disturbance, and behavioral changes

Interactions involving three species or groups, such as soil microbes, plants, and pollinators

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

The nutritional value of algae as food for aquatic consumers, typically measured by nutrient content

Social ranking system based on agonistic interactions where some individuals consistently dominate others

Parasitic plants that retain absorptive roots and are capable of carbon fixation through photosynthesis but still need to draw some of their resources from their hosts because they have low nutrient-u...

Selective feeding behavior of herbivores that favors certain plant traits or genotypes over others

The degree to which parasites show preference or restriction to particular host species rather than being generalist

A measure of the evolutionary history represented in an ecological community, calculated as the sum of branch lengths connecting species in a phylogenetic tree

Mathematical models that represent how different pollinators perceive color based on their photoreceptor sensitivities and opponent color processing

Framework predicting that larger islands have more species at equilibrium since extinction rates decline and colonization rates increase with increased area, and islands at greater distance from mainl...

Selective consumption behavior of invertebrates feeding on different types of organic detritus

The flow of energy through ecological systems, measured as invertebrate biomass transfer from terrestrial to aquatic environments

Restoration of native plant communities in disturbed areas through environmental manipulation

A network's sensitivity to simulated extinction of plants or pollinators, measured as secondary extinction cascades

Chemical compounds emitted by plants as signals to other organisms, interrelated with atmospheric chemistry and climate change

Quantitative collection methods for invertebrates living on or in stream bottom substrates

Small-scale disruptions to ecological systems that can create ripple effects throughout the entire community

Hypothesis that parasitism of dominant plant species reduces their competitive ability, allowing less competitive species to increase in abundance

Internal aboveground symbionts living within plant tissues that can produce alkaloids for plant defense