Concepts

Decrease in sugar concentrations within nectar, providing less nutritional benefit to pollinators

The ability to recognize who is singing important for territorial defense and mate attraction

Spatial arrangement and characteristics of conspecific individuals within pollination range affecting reproductive success

The influence of nearby conspecifics on an individual's fitness components, mediated by local density and composition

The process by which Red-naped Sapsuckers choose trees for nesting sites

Sampling design using plots of multiple sizes nested within larger plots to examine scale-dependent patterns

Activities related to building and maintaining nests, including burrow digging and gathering nest materials

Substrate that females use for nest construction (comb-building cavity, preexisting/constructed hole, constructed cell, soil)

A technique to compare ecological networks by pairing up species that play similar structural roles across communities

Repeated subgraphs or small-scale patterns that represent key building blocks of complex networks

Random changes in allele frequencies due to sampling effects

The tendency for species to retain ancestral ecological requirements rather than evolving new ones

Predicts functional and phylogenetic overdispersion in communities where closely related species will compete more strongly than distantly related species, leading to traits being more widely disperse...

Scoring system (3-6) for mammary gland development based on nipple visibility and prominence as indicator of reproductive activity

The biological conversion of atmospheric nitrogen to ammonia, making lupine a high-nitrogen host plant

Net uptake rate (NUR) of nitrogen calculated from 15N tracer experiments measuring plant nitrogen acquisition

A measure directly related to the amount of energy required for microbial oxidation of a given compound, with higher NOSC values correlating to lower ΔGox and greater energy yield

Sampling approaches that are often preferable because they require less effort and allow for repeated sampling

A newly developed non-invasive sampling method of using swabs to collect dermal secretions as a rapid and reliable alternative to sample hormones from amphibian species in the field

Plant size measurements that can be taken without destroying or removing the plant

Hydrologic system responses where combined effects of multiple perturbations differ from the sum of individual effects

Species loss that is targeted at species with traits that make them particularly vulnerable to environmental change

Colors that stimulate multiple cone types simultaneously but cannot be produced by monochromatic light, such as purple

Quantitative measure of how heavily rimed an ice particle is, with M = 0 meaning completely unrimed and M → 1 meaning spherical graupel

A plant species recently introduced to an environment that herbivorous insects may exploit as a new resource

Behavioral response to unfamiliar objects or situations in an animal's environment

Statistical model that generates random patterns while preserving certain constraints, used as baseline for comparison

Occurring in the greatest numbers, frequency, or biomass in the environment

Experimental approach using nutrient-enriched substrates to deliver controlled amounts of nutrients to algae in situ

Controlled studies that alter nutrient availability to test ecological responses

Comparison of animal-driven nutrient inputs versus ecosystem uptake capacity to determine if nutrients are in surplus or deficit

Cellular uptake of nutrients by algal colonies from the surrounding water

A framework to investigate how organisms optimize nutrient acquisition in complex environments by targeting specific nutrient compositions

Fat content and biomass composition of ant nests as food resources for bears

The dietary status and nutritional condition of an organism that can influence its behavioral decisions

Uses small mammals as a food source to rear young

Statistical approaches to estimate site occupancy probability accounting for detection probability

Visual interpretation method using high-resolution imagery to manually identify and classify land cover features

Behavioral preference shown by animals toward specific chemical odor cues when given choices between alternatives