Concepts

The finite time and energy budget forcing organisms to trade off between competing activities like foraging and vigilance

Growth limitation of organisms due to insufficient availability of essential nutrients like nitrogen or phosphorus

The spatial arrangement and connectivity of subpopulations across a landscape that influences local population dynamics

A process by which adaptive evolutionary change occurs sufficiently rapidly to counteract a decline in population size under initially unfavorable conditions

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

A species that has a disproportionately large effect on its environment relative to its abundance and whose presence/absence significantly affects ecosystem structure and function

Classification approach to identify hillslopes with similar hydrologic behavior based on physical and dynamic characteristics

Animals adopt a foraging strategy that provides the most benefit (energy) for the lowest cost

Natural selection that favors behaviors that benefit relatives, even at a cost to the individual performing the behavior

Correlations between multiple repeatable, individually distinct behaviors that form consistent behavioral patterns across situations

Theory that predicts patterns of distribution, abundance, and energetics using instantaneous values of community state variables including total area, total abundance, total species richness, and tota...

Theory providing mass-metabolism scaling rules that relate metabolic rate to organism mass through allometric relationships

Framework predicting that larger islands have more species at equilibrium since extinction rates decline and colonization rates increase with increased area, and islands at greater distance from mainl...

Fitness benefits that include both direct fitness (individual's own reproductive success) and indirect fitness (fitness gained by helping relatives reproduce), weighted by coefficient of relatedness

Theory suggesting that offspring sex ratios might vary according to maternal condition, hence females should vary the sex of their offspring according to their ability to physically invest in their of...

Signals that meet criteria of stimulus-class specificity and contextual independence, where alarm calls are said to be functionally referential when there is tight association between predator type an...

Signaling system where the signal reliably indicates the quality or quantity of rewards available to the receiver

Theory that animals distribute themselves among habitat patches in proportion to resource availability, with high-quality patches becoming occupied first and animals moving to lower-quality patches as...

Morton's theory that physical behaviors and acoustic signals are associated, with aggressive behaviors linked to noisy, low-frequency sounds and submissive behaviors to higher-frequency pure tones

The range of resources or interaction partners utilized by a species, in this context referring to the diversity of flower visitors to a plant species

Some environments will be resource rich and produce a high amount of offspring (sources) while other environments will be resource low and produce a low amount of offspring (sinks)

A principle stating that allele and genotype frequencies remain constant in a population under certain conditions

Theory asserting that plant-pollinator interactions are neutral, random processes based on species abundances without considering traits or competitive dynamics

Mathematical relationships that describe how tree dimensions and biomass scale with each other

The concept that predator-prey interactions extend beyond direct predation and can influence prey behavior and habitat use through perceived predation risk

Breeding birds must balance energy allocation between reproduction and survival, with parasites forcing energy towards immune response rather than reproductive traits

Limitations on evolutionary divergence imposed by genetic architecture and patterns of genetic covariation

Theory stating that foragers will leave a patch after the quality of the patch drops below the average quality of the overall habitat

Theory stating that pollinator visitation rates are higher in areas of higher floral density while in sparse populations pollinators switch between plants less frequently

The distribution of limited resources among competing physiological functions such as growth, reproduction, and defense

The hypothesis that disposing of excess dietary nutrients imposes a growth cost on organisms, creating hump-shaped relationships with diet stoichiometry

Situations where time spent on one activity reduces time available for other activities

Paedomorphosis becomes the preferred life strategy when growing conditions such as prey abundance, water temperature, and population density are poor, so individuals opt to cut losses and become sexua...

The concept that signal production and structure depend on an individual's health status and condition

Population response where decreases in fitness due to other factors are offset by increases in another demographic parameter

The idea that individuals of different age-sex categories contribute differently to social structure and cohesion

Process-based framework for understanding drivers of thermal offsets and thermal coupling strengths in leaves based on energy budget parameters

Biogeographic classification of species based on their broader distributional affinities and evolutionary origins

Species that define ecosystems and provide critical habitat structure, where big sagebrush is a foundation species in steppe ecosystems of western North America

Sapsucker-fungus partnership that strongly influences the avian community by providing nest sites

Habitat structure that provides protection from predation by offering shelter or hiding places