Concepts

Mutually beneficial interaction between flowering plants and their animal pollinators where plants provide nectar/pollen rewards and animals provide pollination services

Negative interactions between individuals of different species competing for limited resources

The ability of an organism to successfully transfer pollen between flowers for plant reproduction

Mutually beneficial herbivore-predator associations where sap-feeding insects provide honeydew food for ants in exchange for protection against predators

The functioning of ecosystems including processes such as carbon and nutrient cycling and storage, community- and ecosystem-level responses, and overall ecosystem properties and processes

Foraging behavior where floral visitors bypass the floral opening and access nectar by chewing holes in nectar spurs or using pre-existing holes

Vocal signals produced in response to predator detection to warn conspecifics or communicate threat information

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

Indirect effects of predators on lower trophic levels mediated through changes in intermediate consumer behavior or abundance

The coordination between plant and microbial diversity, wherein both communities experience large shifts in composition following disturbance or when a perturbation disrupts their coordinated response

Behavioral, physiological, and life-history changes that reduce the risk of predation but have associated energetic or fitness costs to prey individuals and populations

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

Positive species interactions such as nurse plant effects by cushion-forming species that increase reproductive success for neighboring plants

Effects of non-native species on native community members and ecosystem processes

The process by which the structure of biological communities evolves over time, here applied to beaver pond aging and invertebrate community development.

The modification of environments by organisms in ways that influence resource availability for other species, exemplified by beaver dam construction creating pond habitats.

Transfer of pollen between different plant species that share generalist pollinators, often resulting in reproductive costs through pollen loss and reductions in seed set

Effects of animal feeding on plant biomass and community structure

Selective pressure relationships between host plants and their parasites that can shift based on environmental changes

Movement of seeds away from parent plants through various mechanisms including wind, animals, and gravity

The consumption of plant material by animals

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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