Concepts

The sharing of liquid food resources between nestmates through specialized anatomical and behavioral adaptations

Ecological interactions between hoofed mammals and aspen trees including herbivory effects on tree health and forest composition

Predicts that species can persist beyond some threshold of abiotic stress due to reduced competition, making range margins determined by species interactions rather than abiotic constraints

Transport of nutrients from coarse particulate organic matter to fine particulate organic matter via shredding organisms

A theory based on the assumption that distribution of individuals is scale free, meaning geometric patterns are the same whether viewed through microscope or telescope

A saturation function P = (Vmax * S)/(K + S) where P is productivity, S is richness, K is half-saturation point, and Vmax is asymptote

Model that constructs food webs by assigning niche values and ranges to species while maintaining desired connectance

Model suggesting phages integrate into host genomes as prophages when microbial abundances and growth rates are high

A model based on the assumption that individuals within each species are randomly scattered over the plot or landscape

Predicting community-level function by summing individual species contributions based on their abundance and per-capita rates

The requirement that the sum of species-area relationships for subgroups should equal the species-area relationship for the entire assemblage

Predation on flying insects by birds, bats, or other aerial predators during flight

The relative proportions and functional roles of autotrophic versus heterotrophic organisms in biofilm communities

The uptake and concentration of toxic alkaloid compounds by parasitic plants from their hosts

Process by which ants discover and begin tending aphid colonies

Process by which aspen acts as climax forest in the Upper East River Valley and expands into adjacent habitats through vegetative reproduction

Protection gained by an organism from living in association with another species

Ungulate feeding method where animals scrape off and eat chlorophyll-filled bark and cambium using their lower incisors

Having superior aggressive behaviors that deter other ants, measured through direct encounters

Diversity of soil microorganisms including bacteria, fungi, archaea, and protist communities

Between-plot flowering-time diversity component representing differences in phenological timing among plots

Metric calculated to determine deviation from null mean nearest taxon distance, used to identify whether deterministic or stochastic processes shape community composition

The postulated cascade of biodiversity loss that would occur in aspen and willow ecosystems if red-naped sapsuckers were removed

Communities of cyanobacteria, lichens, and mosses that live on soil surfaces and contribute to soil stability and fertility

A valuable and unpredictable prize (carrion) that must be defended from an assortment of organisms

The component of food webs based on detrital energy pathways as opposed to primary production

Activities of individuals or species that benefit from the rewards and services mutualisms exchange without offering any in return

A form of crypsis where prey species chemically match the surfaces of their host plants to avoid detection by predators that hunt primarily through olfaction

Simultaneous attack of hosts by multiple enemies, in this case herbivores and bacterial pathogens

The set of signallers and receivers engaged in the exchange of information

Total biomass of animal community, which was the strongest predictor of nutrient supply contributions across hydroperiods

The study of how plant genetic variation influences not only phenotypes of the plant itself, but also the community of organisms that associate with the plant

Ability of remaining species to increase growth and fill ecological niches left vacant by lost species

Measures of inter-tree competition including relative spacing, larger neighbor volume, and neighborhood density calculated within specified neighborhoods

The capacity of a species to successfully compete for limiting resources, which can be altered by parasitic stress

Number of existing links divided by the number of possible links, or C=L/S²