Concepts

Raw material on which ecological and evolutionary processes act - variation of traits within species that can mediate responses to biotic and abiotic factors

Net production of plant biomass above ground surface measured as standing crop minus losses to herbivores

The microbiome's ability to extract energy from dietary sources

Population size or density of individual species within a habitat

Plant characteristics that reflect ecological strategies, including specific leaf area and leaf dry matter content

Statistical method for recognizing evolutionarily independent lineages based on genealogical patterns in molecular data

Variation in organismal body size both within and between species, influenced by environmental and genetic factors

Measure of soil acidity/alkalinity that may influence plant phenotype expression

Accounting framework that tracks carbon inputs, transformations, and outputs in environmental systems to quantify net carbon fluxes

Geographic classification system used to reduce complexity and simplify presentation of continental-scale results

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

The degree to which values at nearby locations are correlated, used to assess spatial clustering in disease patterns

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

Describes consistent and strong correlations among plant functional traits reflecting the ecological tradeoffs and constraints of plants around resource use

The ratio of dry root weight to total dry plant weight, used as an indicator of soil nutrient availability with higher values indicating nutrient-poor conditions

The reciprocal evolutionary change in interacting species driven by natural selection, where adaptations of one species create selective pressures on another species

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...

The percentage of ground area covered by a particular plant species when viewed from above

The ability of a system to change but maintain its basic attributes; a resilient forest stand subjected to disturbance will return to conditions similar to those present prior to the disturbance but m...

Geographic patterns in biodiversity and chemical diversity across latitudinal and environmental gradients

Higher temperatures shorten larval developmental period leading to smaller adults, where body size exhibits temperature-mediated variation

Maximum temperature of warmest month, capturing seasonality in contrast to average annual temperatures

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