Exploitative Interactions

Vocabulary practice flashcards generated from lecture notes on exploitative ecological interactions.

Exploitation

An ecological interaction $(+/-)$ where one organism benefits by feeding on or utilizing another organism, encompassing predation, herbivory, parasitism, and disease.

Herbivory

The consumption of plant tissue by animals, often involving symbiotic microorganisms that produce cellulase to digest cellulose.

Browsers

Herbivores that feed primarily on the leaves, fruits, or woody stems of trees and shrubs, such as goats, deer, and ibex.

Grazers

Herbivores that feed on low-lying vegetation like grasses and algae, including horses, bison, rabbits, snails, and insects.

Constitutive Defenses

Plant defense traits that are permanently present regardless of herbivore presence, such as waxy coats, thick cuticles, bark, thorns, and stored secondary metabolites.

Induced Defenses

Plant defense mechanisms that are directly triggered or initiated following herbivore feeding or plant damage.

Herbivore-Induced Plant Volatiles (HIPVs)

Airborne chemical signals released by plants in response to herbivory that function as indirect defenses by attracting natural enemies of the herbivores.

Parasitism

A relationship in which one organism derives nutrients at the expense of a host organism, causing harm and reduced host fitness.

Microparasites

Microscopic parasitic agents such as viruses, bacteria, fungi, and protozoa.

Macroparasites

Larger parasitic organisms, including arthropods, helminth worms, invertebrates, vertebrates, and parasitic plants.

Positive Phototaxis (in Parasite-Host Interaction)

An altered host behavior seen in amphipods infected by spiny-headed worms, where the host swims toward light to increase its likelihood of ingestion by a definitive vertebrate host.

Brood Parasitism

A breeding strategy in which birds like cuckoos and cowbirds lay eggs in nests of other species, relying on host parents to incubate and raise their offspring.

Parasitoidism

An interaction where an insect deposits eggs into or on a host organism, and the emerging larvae feed on and ultimately kill the host.

Glochidia

The microscopic, parasitic larval stage of freshwater mussels (such as Lampsilis) that attaches to the gills or fins of fish host species.

Entomogenous Fungi

Fungi that act as pathogens or parasites of insects and other arthropods by penetrating host cuticles to establish internal infection.

Gongylidia

Nutrient-dense hyphal swellings produced by fungal cultivars (such as Leucoagaricus gongylophorus) grown by higher attine ants as a primary food source.

Endoparasites

Parasites that inhabit internal body cavities, tissues, or cells of a host, such as African trypanosomes.

Ectoparasites

Parasites that attach to and feed on the external body surface of a host, such as ticks, fleas, lice, leeches, and mites.

Borrelia burgdorferi

The bacterium transmitted by the deer tick (Ixodes scapularis) that serves as the causative agent of Lyme disease.

Disease Triangle

A conceptual framework stating that plant disease manifestation requires three factors: a susceptible host plant, a virulent pathogen, and a favorable environment.

Inoculation

The initial contact phase of a plant disease cycle where a pathogen or its propagules arrive on a host plant.

Predation

The capture, killing, and consumption of one living animal by another animal.

Lotka-Volterra Host Population Growth Model

The differential equation governing prey population changes over time: $\frac{dN_h}{dt} = r_h N_h - p N_h N_p$, where $r_h$ is the per capita growth rate, $N_h$ is host density, $p$ is predation rate, and $N_p$ is predator density.

Lotka-Volterra Predator Population Growth Model

The differential equation governing predator population changes over time: $\frac{dN_p}{dt} = c p N_h N_p - d_p N_p$, where $c$ is host-to-predator conversion efficiency, $p$ is predation rate, and $d_p$ is predator death rate.

Aposematism

The use of conspicuous warning signals, such as bright coloration, by organisms to advertise toxic or unpalatable defenses to predators.

Batesian Mimicry

A dishonest defensive mechanism where a harmless or palatable prey species mimics the warning signals of an unpalatable or dangerous species to deter predators.

Müllerian Mimicry

An honest defensive signal where two or more unpalatable or noxious species share similar warning color patterns to enhance collective predator avoidance.

Primary Antipredator Behaviors

Antipredator actions or traits deployed before predator attack initiation to prevent detection or targeting, including camouflage, mimicry, and hiding.

Secondary Antipredator Behaviors

Antipredator responses triggered after detection or attack by a predator, including deimatic startle displays, protean erratic movements, flight, and retaliation.