Animal and Plant Behaviour Vocabulary

Comprehensive Question and Answer flashcards covering vocabulary and core concepts of animal and plant behaviour, biological timing, navigation, ecological relationships, and reproductive strategies.

What are the primary functions of abscisic acid in plants?

It is a plant growth hormone that causes leaf fall, maintains dormancy, and produces a variety of other physiological effects.

What is an active period in biological rhythms?

The time measured from the start of activity until the activity begins again in a new cycle.

What is an actogram and what is it used for?

A type of graph or chart commonly used in circadian research to record and plot an organism's rhythmic behaviour by displaying activity (present or absent) against time.

What is agonistic behaviour?

Intraspecific behaviour that alternates between attack and escape; aggression specifically between members of the same species that is typically more intense due to shared niche requirements.

What is allelopathy, and what is an example?

A relationship where plants reduce competition by releasing toxic chemicals that kill competitors, such as walnut trees.

What are altricial young?

Offspring born helpless that require parental care, such as puppies or birds that are born without sight.

How is altruism defined in animal behaviour?

A rare natural behaviour where an individual helps another with no apparent gain to itself, such as dolphins helping a drowning human to the surface.

What is amensalism?

An ecological relationship where one organism is unharmed/unaffected while the other is harmed, such as an elephant accidentally stepping on a mouse.

What is antibiosis?

An antagonistic interaction between organisms where one organism produces substances that inhibit the growth or activity of another, benefiting while the other is harmed (e.g., fungi killing adjacent organisms through secretions).

What is appeasement behaviour?

Behaviour used to calm a dominant individual, such as grooming in apes.

What is auxin and what specific role does indole-acetic acid (IAA) play?

Auxin is a plant hormone regulating growth by affecting cell elongation; indole-acetic acid (IAA) is an auxin made in root and shoot tips responsible for stem cell elongation.

What is Batesian mimicry?

A protective strategy where members of a harmless species copy the markings of a toxic species to gain protection from predation, such as Viceroy butterfly caterpillars copying toxic monarch caterpillars.

What is a biological clock?

The internal timing mechanisms within living organisms that control the onset of activity and link physiological processes with daily, monthly, or seasonal cycles or development stages.

What is biological orientation?

The change in position of the whole or part of an organism in response to an external stimulus, such as light.

What does the prefix chemo- indicate in biological responses?

Being affected by or responding to a chemical.

What is a circadian rhythm?

An endogenous cyclical variation or rhythm that lasts approximately $24\,\text{hours}$ under constant environmental conditions.

What is a circalunar rhythm?

An endogenous rhythm with a period of about $29\,\text{days}$.

What is a circannual rhythm?

An endogenous cyclical rhythm that lasts approximately one year ($365\,\text{days}$) under constant environmental conditions.

What is a circa semilunar rhythm?

An endogenous rhythm with a period of the spring tide cycle of about $14.7\,\text{days}$.

What is a circa tidal rhythm?

An endogenous rhythm with a period of about $12.5\,\text{hours}$.

What is a clinostat?

A device that rotates objects (such as plants or cells) around a horizontal axis to simulate a microgravity or weightless environment.

What is commensalism?

An interspecific relationship where one organism benefits and the other remains unaffected ($+0$), such as a remora and a shark.

What are communal breeders?

Groups of individuals that mate, nest, and rear young cooperatively, such as pūkeko.

What is co-operative defence?

A behaviour where animals combine as a group to defend against predators, such as American bison forming a group around young when cornered by wolves.

What does crepuscular mean?

An activity pattern where an organism is most active at dusk and dawn (e.g., pekapeka flight).

What is critical day length?

The photoperiod above which long-day plants flower and below which short-day plants flower.

What are cytokinins?

A group of plant hormones that retard ageing, promote cell division and bud formation, and sometimes promote flowering and break dormancy.

What are day-neutral plants?

Plants that flower at any time of year, irrespective of day length or night length, such as dandelions.

What is diapause?

A delay or period of arrested growth at some stage of development (such as in arthropods), caused by environmental cues and ended by specific stimuli.

What is diurnal activity?

Being most active during daylight hours, such as Kōkako feeding.

What distinguishes an endogenous rhythm from an exogenous rhythm?

An endogenous rhythm is controlled by internal factors (a biological clock) independent of external stimuli, whereas an exogenous rhythm is directly driven by and dependent on external environmental stimuli.

What is entrainment?

The process of resetting or synchronising an internal biological clock/activity pattern to environmental rhythms via a zeitgeber so that both have the same period.

What is etiolation and what hormone causes it?

Rapid elongation of plant stems in response to low light conditions, caused by the plant hormone gibberellin.

What does free-running mean?

A condition where an organism relies on its internal biological clock to maintain a rhythm in constant conditions, proceeding independently of external environmental changes.

How do animals use a geomagnetic compass to navigate?

By detecting Earth's magnetic field using magnetite in the head when celestial cues (sun or stars) cannot be used, as seen in whales, birds, and arthropods.

What is a dominance hierarchy?

An established order of rank in a social group from most dominant to most submissive that saves energy by reducing internal group conflict (e.g., pecking orders in hens or pūkeko).

What is the difference between a home range and a territory?

A home range is an undefended area travelled during daily foraging that may overlap with others; a territory is an actively and vigorously defended area containing resources, nest sites, or mates.

What is homing?

The ability of an animal to return to its home site after travelling over unfamiliar territory (e.g., bees returning from foraging).

What is kin selection?

A reproductive strategy where individuals help raise siblings (who share $25\%$ of their alleles), increasing the survival and reproduction of shared alleles while learning parenting skills.

What is kinesis, and how do orthokinesis and klinokinesis differ?

Kinesis is a non-directional movement response governed by stimulus intensity; orthokinesis controls the speed or rate of linear movement, while klinokinesis controls the rate of turning.

What is a lek?

A communal courtship area where males congregate and display to call and attract females, such as in kākāpō.

What characterises long-day plants (LDP) versus short-day plants (SDP)?

Long-day plants flower when the photoperiod exceeds a critical day length (or night length is shorter than a critical value); short-day plants flower when photoperiod is less than the critical length (or night length is longer than a critical value).

What is Müllerian mimicry?

A phenomenon where two or more distinct toxic or dangerous species share similar warning colouration, mutually reinforcing predator avoidance.

What is a nastic response?

A non-directional plant response to the intensity of an environmental stimulus, such as photonasty in clover or thigmonasty in mimosa.

Where is the biological clock located in insects, birds, and mammals?

In insects, it is located in the optic lobes; in birds, in the pineal gland; in mammals, in the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) of the hypothalamus.

What is a phase shift?

The advancement or delay of the onset of activity in a free-running rhythm caused by the presentation of a zeitgeber.

What is phytochrome and in which forms does it exist?

A light-receptor pigment in plant leaves used to detect photoperiod and measure night length, existing in two interconvertible forms: $P_{fr}$ and $P_r$.

How do polygyny, polyandry, and polygynandry differ?

Polygyny involves one male mating with multiple females; polyandry involves one female mating with multiple males; polygynandry is an organised multi-male, multi-female mating system within a social group.

How do r-strategy and K-strategy reproductive systems differ?

r-strategists produce high numbers of offspring with little to no parental care and low survival rates; K-strategists produce few offspring with extensive parental care and high survival rates.

What is ritual aggression?

Contests or aggressive displays where a winner and loser are determined without causing physical injury, reducing harm and conserving energy.

What is a taxis?

A directional orientation movement of an entire organism toward (positive) or away from (negative) a directional stimulus, such as maggots moving away from light.

What is a tropism?

A directional growth movement in plants toward or away from an external directional stimulus (e.g., light, gravity, touch).

What is a zeitgeber?

An external environmental synchronising cue (literally 'time-giver') used to reset or entrain an internal biological clock with the natural environment.