Concepts

When organisms dependent on synchronized milestones adapt to environmental changes at different rates, causing their reproductive, feeding, and/or migration patterns to become asynchronous

Spatial gradients in elevation that capture variation in temperature, soil age and type, disturbance regimes, and land-use histories providing important insights into how organisms, communities, and e...

When a genotype produces different phenotypes under differing environmental conditions

A measure of community diversity that accounts for both species richness and relative abundance, calculated using the Shannon-Weiner index

The framework that climate affects species abundances and distributions both directly through physiological effects and indirectly through effects on multi-trophic species interactions

Negative interactions between individuals of different species competing for limited resources

Way in which individuals distribute themselves across landscape, including movement patterns and spatial organization like home range size and overlap

Number of days from autumn snow onset to spring snowmelt, providing temperature stabilization and protection for overwintering organisms

Plant fitness measured through various components including fruit set, seed production, and seeds per plant

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

The concept that organisms face competing demands for limited resources during development that create trade-offs between different fitness components

Reduced seed set resulting from insufficient pollen receipt, particularly affecting females when hermaphrodite density and frequency increases

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

Changes in species geographic distributions in response to changing climate conditions, typically involving movement to higher elevations or latitudes

Selection where individual fitness depends on the local frequency rather than global frequency, creating population structure with groups varying in genetic and phenotypic composition

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

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 concept that co-occurring species occupy distinct positions in multidimensional nutrient space to minimize competition and facilitate coexistence

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

An evolutionary process in which a population evolves to become more suited to its local environment through natural selection, resulting in higher fitness in the home environment compared to individu...

The proportion of phenotypic variation in a trait that is due to genetic variation, estimated using parent-offspring regression methods

The rate at which plants convert carbon dioxide and water into glucose using light energy, measured as gas exchange

The frequency and duration of annual pond inundation vs. exposure, with categories including temporary ponds (dry annually in early summer), semi-permanent ponds (dry in late summer in most but not al...

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

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

Experimental approach where organisms from different source populations are grown in different environments to test for local adaptation

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...

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

Changes in ecological patterns and processes across different time scales

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

The effects of long-term warming on hydrological processes, including changes in snowpack dynamics, growing season length, and water demand by vegetation

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

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

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

Secondary metabolites that mediate interactions with herbivores and pathogens in Brassicaceae

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

Chemical compounds emitted by flowers that contribute to floral scent and can influence pollinator attraction and plant-herbivore interactions

Movement of genes between populations through migration and reproduction

Direct damage to plant buds and flowers from freezing temperatures occurring during vulnerable developmental stages

The selective choices made by organisms regarding where to construct nests, influenced by environmental factors that affect offspring survival and reproductive success.

The identity and relative abundance of species within an ecological community

Interbreeding between taxa that alters the pool of genetic variation available for population responses to changing environments

The tendency for related species to resemble each other more than expected by chance, measured by Blomberg's K and Pagel's lambda

Selection that maintains multiple alleles in a population at frequencies above those expected from mutation alone

Predation behavior where individuals consume members of their own species, particularly common in A. m. nebulosum populations targeting first year hatchlings

Reproduction in which pollen from a flower fertilizes ovules in the same flower or on the same plant