Concepts

Nectar-secreting organs located on leaf laminae, petioles, rachis, bracts, stipules, pedicels, or fruit that attract arthropods

The relationship between a host organism and its associated microbial community, including costs and benefits to host fitness

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

How male and female plants of dioecious species differ in their interactions with insects

Shift toward woody plant encroachment into nonwoody meadows and grasslands

Plot showing cumulative number of species discovered as a function of sampling effort, used to assess sampling completeness

Communication through sound production that requires receivers to detect and discern between distinct acoustic signals

Chemical inhibition of one plant by another through secondary metabolites, tested via leachate applications

Co-occurrence patterns between species that reflect ecological interactions beyond shared environmental responses

Study of organisms that utilize dead animal matter as a resource for feeding or reproduction

Categorization of invertebrates based on feeding mechanisms: collector-gatherers, grazers, predators, shredders, and suspension-feeders

Signaling system where the signal reliably indicates the quality or quantity of rewards available to the receiver

Sugar composition of plant phloem sap which honeydew is derived from, potentially altered by temperature affecting ant recruitment or tending behavior

Species-specific selection for particular combinations of physical habitat characteristics like water depth, current velocity, and substrate size

The range of resources or interaction partners utilized by a species, in this context referring to the diversity of flower visitors to a plant species

Approach using organism functional traits to understand ecological patterns and predict responses to environmental change

Theory asserting that plant-pollinator interactions are neutral, random processes based on species abundances without considering traits or competitive dynamics

Tree mortality and ecosystem disruption caused by bark beetle infestation, resulting in pulsed release of conifer needles and altered biogeochemical cycling

Behavior where caddisfly larvae consume material from their own or others' protective cases

Daily behavioral pattern where aquatic organisms move vertically in the water column, typically showing different activity levels during day versus night periods

The concept that predator-prey interactions extend beyond direct predation and can influence prey behavior and habitat use through perceived predation risk

The excretion of sugar-rich liquid waste by herbivorous hemipterans feeding on plant sap

Species with greater primary production exert the main controls for the functioning of ecosystems due to greater aboveground abundance of biomass or leaf area that promotes resource uptake

Combined impact of multiple predators differs from the sum of their individual effects, can be greater or less than additive

Theory stating that pollinator visitation rates are higher in areas of higher floral density while in sparse populations pollinators switch between plants less frequently

Species best suited for the environment that make up most of the vegetation in early successional stages

Percentage of leaf area affected by pathogen symptoms including powdery mildew, rust, and other fungal diseases

Chemical compounds overproduced by queens compared to workers that potentially regulate worker reproduction

The tendency of foragers to maintain a consistent foraging strategy across multiple floral visits rather than switching between different tactics

Input of terrestrial invertebrates into aquatic food webs providing energy to aquatic predators

The concept that higher trophic levels are more sensitive to environmental change due to their smaller population sizes and greater environmental demands

Model developed to determine LARs based on SAR and simple properties of food webs including species richness, number of links and connectance

Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera orders used as indicators of aquatic ecosystem health

A statistical distribution commonly observed in species abundance patterns, predicted by METE for undisturbed communities

Standardized measure of interaction strength ranging from -1 to 1, where positive values indicate facilitation and negative values indicate competition