Forest Ecology Definitions

Front 1

Ecology

Back 1

Study of what controls the distribution and abundance of species

Front 2

Ecological Pattern

Back 2

The arrangement of things

Front 3

Ecological Process

Back 3

Stages in bringing something about

Front 4

Community

Back 4

Assemblage of species

Front 5

Population

Back 5

All individuals of a species in a location

Front 6

Understory Tolerance

Back 6

Ability to survive beneath a closed canopy

Front 7

Resources

Back 7

Environmental factors for which organisms compete

Front 8

Disturbance

Back 8

An event that results in a change in environmental resources and conditions

Front 9

Biotic Community

Back 9

assemblage of species populations living in some prescribed area

Front 10

Scale

Back 10

The proportion that a model bears to the thing it represents

Front 11

First Principle of Ecology

Back 11

The composition of the biotic community depends upon climate, available biota, topography and soils, and the legacy of disturbance events

Front 12

Climatic Climax Community

Back 12

Assemblage of populations that would persist in the absence of large-scale disturbances

Front 13

Environmental gradient

Back 13

Gradual change through the landscape in some environmental factors

Front 14

Organismic Hypothesis

Back 14

Discrete associations and ecotones

Front 15

Individualistic Hypothesis

Back 15

Species are distributed along an environmental gradient according to its own environmental requirements

Front 16

Habitat

Back 16

The kind of environment in which a species occurs

Front 17

Niche

Back 17

The position of a species within the biotic community

Front 18

Ecotone

Back 18

Transition zone between two distinct community types

Front 19

Interspecific competition

Back 19

Leads to niche divergence via character displacement

Front 20

Biotic Association

Back 20

A repeating assemblage of populations of organisms

Front 21

Reciprocal Replacement Hypothesis

Back 21

Traits of species may have co-evolved so that if one falls down, the other takes its place

-Sugar maple and beech

Front 22

Env. Discontinuities

Back 22

Differences in forests in the same area

-slope side, disturbance history

Front 23

Palynology

Back 23

Inspecting soil for pollen grains of past trees

Front 24

Guild

Back 24

a group of species that makes their living in similar ways

Front 25

Biodiversity

Back 25

Species richness

-# of species

Front 26

Species Structure

Back 26

How all the species divide up the habitat space

Front 27

Autecology

Back 27

Interactions of a single species with its environment

Front 28

phenotypic variation

Back 28

Variation in a trait depending upon the environment in which it is growing

Front 29

Genotypic variation

Back 29

Variation in a trait caused by difference in the genes

Front 30

Safe Site

Back 30

A location where an individual of a species is likely to be able to complete its life cycle

Front 31

Monoecious

Back 31

Separate male and female flowers

-male on bottom

Front 32

Dioecious

Back 32

Separate male and female individuals

Front 33

Masting

Back 33

Synchronous seed production in a location

Front 34

Site Index

Back 34

Average forest canopy height at a standard age

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Site

Back 35

Sum of all factors that influence the growth and reproduction of trees

Front 36

Very Tolerant Gymnosperms

Back 36

Hemlock, Balsam Fir, Red and black spruce

Front 37

Very Tolerant Angio

Back 37

Beech, sug. Maple,Hornbeam,Striped Maple

Front 38

Mid Tolerant Gymno

Back 38

White Pine, N. White Cedar

Front 39

Mid Tolerant Angio

Back 39

Basswood, Red maple, yellow birch, White and red oak, hickory,white ash, elm

Front 40

Intolerant gymno

Back 40

Red Pine, E. Red Cedar

Front 41

Intolerant Angio

Back 41

Black Cherry, Tuliptree, Sycamore, Black walnut, black oak, scarlet oak

Front 42

Very Intolerant Gymno

Back 42

Jack pine, Eastern larch

Front 43

Very Intolerant Angio

Back 43

Pin cherry, Paper birch, Populus

Front 44

Elastic Modulus

Back 44

Flexibility of cell wall of plants, allowing cell volume to change to affect turgor pressure

Front 45

Critical Leaf Water Potential

Back 45

The point at which stomates close

Front 46

Q10

Back 46

The proportional increase in reaction rates for every 10 degree C increase in temperature

Front 47

Seed bank

Back 47

Accumulation of viable seeds in the soil

Front 48

Water Use Efficiency

Back 48

Ratio of carbon gain through photosynthesis to water loss by transpiration