BIOSCI 108: Biodiversity - Patterns of Life

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering core concepts of biodiversity, microbial ecology, plant physiology, animal classification, and mātauranga Māori from the BIOSCI 108 exam.

Dysbiosis

A disturbance to the normal gut microbiota, frequently caused by external pressures such as medication or disease.

Quorum Sensing Inhibitor

A therapeutic strategy that disrupts bacterial cell-to-cell communication without directly killing the bacteria, making the rapid development of antimicrobial resistance far less likely.

Prokaryote

A term of convenience used to describe cellular organisms belonging to the domains Bacteria and Archaea that lack a membrane-bound nucleus.

Biofilm

A structured community of microorganisms adhering to a surface, which provides antibiotic resistance, promotes metabolic interactions such as syntrophy, and increases evolutionary potential through horizontal gene transfer.

Particulate Organic Carbon (POC)

Carbon-containing particles generated via stimulated phytoplankton growth; ocean iron fertilization experiments were deemed only partially successful because this newly formed organic carbon failed to sink to the ocean floor.

HNLC

An acronym for High-Nutrient, Low-Chlorophyll, designating marine regions where phytoplankton biomass remains surprisingly low despite abundant primary macronutrients.

Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors

Antiviral drugs, such as azidothymidine (AZT), that inhibit the viral reverse transcriptase enzyme to prevent HIV from transcribing its single-stranded RNA genome into double-stranded DNA.

Bacterial Species Formal Description Criteria

The formal standard requiring pure culture isolation, detailed phenotypic documentation, and a $16\text{S rRNA}$ gene sequence identity of $< 97\%$ compared to previously described species.

Urchin Barren

A heavily degraded marine area where unchecked grazing by sea urchins eliminates kelp forests, leading to an overall decrease in community diversity and secondary production.

Translocation

The physiological process in vascular plants that transports photoassimilates, primarily sugars, from source organs to metabolic or storage sinks via the phloem.

Auxin

A plant hormone that coordinates phototropism by migrating to and promoting cellular elongation on the shaded side of a shoot or coleoptile, causing bending toward light.

Phytochromes

Plant photoreceptors that detect shifts toward high ratios of far-red to red light and switch to an inactive form, initiating shade-avoidance responses such as stem elongation.

Parasitic Plant

A specialized plant that derives water, mineral nutrients, or photosynthates directly from another living plant through specialized invasive organs.

Tohu

In Māori ecological knowledge (mātauranga), natural signs or environmental indicators—such as bird arrivals or flowering patterns—that signal seasonal shifts and time cultural activities like planting.

Whakapapa

A foundational Māori concept expressing genealogy, descent, and holistic interconnectedness linking people, ecosystems, flora, fauna, and celestial entities.

Protostome

A bilateral animal developmental pattern characterized by embryonic cleavage where the initial blastopore formed during gastrulation becomes the mouth.

Chordate Diagnostic Characteristics

The set of four morphological traits present at some life stage in all chordates: a notochord, a dorsal hollow nerve cord, pharyngeal gill slits, and a muscular post-anal tail.

Chondrichthyes

The vertebrate class comprising cartilaginous fishes (such as sharks and rays) characterized by single-circuit circulation, placoid scales, and a large oil-rich liver for buoyancy.

Rarefaction Curve

An ecological curve plotting detected taxonomic units (such as amplicon sequence variants, or ASVs) against sample sequencing depth to evaluate species richness and sampling completeness.

Whakapapa of Rehua

A genealogical framework connecting the star Rehua to terrestrial tree species like Karaka ($\textit{Corynocarpus laevigatus}$), marine species including Moki, Maomao, and Hapuku, and tree fern descendants like Mamaku ($\textit{Cyathea medullaris}$).

Nod Factors

Lipochitooligosaccharide signaling compounds secreted by $\textit{Rhizobia}$ bacteria that induce root hair curling and nodule organogenesis in legumes during nitrogen-fixing symbiosis.

Symplastic Pathway

The continuum of cytoplasm interconnected across plant root cells through plasmodesmata, allowing the selective internal transport of water and dissolved minerals.

Hypersensitive Response (HR)

An active plant defense mechanism characterized by rapid, highly localized programmed cell death surrounding a pathogen infection site to restrict further invasion.

Double Fertilisation

A reproductive mechanism exclusive to angiosperms in which one sperm nucleus fertilizes the egg to yield a diploid ($2n$) zygote, while a second fuses with two polar nuclei to yield triploid ($3n$) endosperm tissue.

Cephalization

The evolutionary specialization and concentration of sensory organs, nervous control centers, and feeding apparatuses at the anterior end of a bilaterally symmetrical animal.

Coelom

A fluid-filled internal body cavity found in triploblastic animals that is entirely lined with tissue derived from the embryonic mesoderm.

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)

Airborne chemical compounds synthesized and released by plants to attract pollinators, initiate plant-to-plant signaling, or recruit predatory insects to combat herbivory.