Concepts

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

The combined process of water evaporation from soil and plant surfaces and water transpiration from plant leaves, representing a major component of the water budget that increases with warming tempera...

Temperature-dependent physiological and behavioral responses that affect organism fitness and population dynamics

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

Survival of organisms through winter diapause or dormancy, often related to environmental conditions during overwintering

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

Physiological stress experienced by plants due to reduced water availability that can harm fitness by inducing leaf loss, reducing flower size, and decreasing seed production

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

CO2 efflux from soils to atmosphere representing combination of autotrophic respiration (root respiration) and heterotrophic respiration (microbial decomposition)

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

Natural selection on floral traits that occurs through differential pollinator visitation and resulting differences in reproductive success

The bidirectional exchange of water between groundwater aquifers and surface water bodies including streams, with groundwater contributing baseflow to streams and streams providing recharge to groundw...

The cycling of chemical elements between living organisms and the physical environment, particularly carbon and nitrogen cycles

Limitations on activity imposed by temperature and radiation conditions

Population regulation mechanism where demographic rates depend on population density through competition and resource limitation

The ability of organisms to adjust to changing climatic conditions through genetic, phenotypic, or behavioral changes

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

Mechanisms by which organic carbon is protected from decomposition in soils through physical, chemical, and biological processes

The microbiome's ability to extract energy from dietary sources

Alternative life history strategy where some individuals retain larval traits and become sexually mature in aquatic environment while others metamorphose to terrestrial adults

The formation of new species involves divergence of phenotypes and development of reproductive isolation, where initial divergence results from divergent natural selection and reproductive isolation a...

The degree to which water movement is facilitated or impeded through connected flow paths in subsurface sediments

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

Parental behaviors including female-pup interactions, vigilance, and antipredator behaviors that influence offspring survival and development

The study of reproductive behaviors, nesting habitat selection, and breeding success in bird populations

Mineral formation from ascending hydrothermal solutions

The selection of specific plants by female insects for egg-laying that affects larval survival and development

The process by which traits influence fitness, measured through directional and quadratic selection differentials relating trait values to reproductive success

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