Lecture 13: Community Ecology and Species Interactions II

Vocabulary flashcards covering ecological interactions such as parasitism, parasitoidism, and transmission mechanisms, alongside genetic terms reviewed in Lecture 13.

Parasitoids

Internal predators that require a single host to complete development and must kill their host to complete their lifecycle.

Parasites

Organisms that are typically much smaller than their hosts and slowly consume or graze host tissues without typically killing the host as part of their lifecycle.

Ectoparasites

Parasites that live and feed on the outside surface of a living host.

Endoparasites

Parasites that live inside the body of their living host.

Horizontal transmission

The movement of a parasite between individuals that are not parent and offspring, occurring between members of the same or different species.

Vertical transmission

The movement of a parasite directly from a host parent to its offspring.

Vector

An organism that facilitates the horizontal transmission of a parasite between hosts, typically without suffering severe symptoms.

Reservoir species

A species that harbors a parasite without experiencing severe symptoms, allowing the parasite to persist in a community outside of its primary host.

Pathogen

A microbial parasite, typically viral or bacterial, that causes disease in its host.

Kleptoparasitism

A form of interaction involving the direct theft of prey or other resources from a host, resulting in a negative impact on the host.

Brood parasitism

A form of social parasitism involving the infiltration of host nests by the offspring of another species, exploiting parental care and causing negative impacts on the host and its offspring.

Pleiotropy

A genetic phenomenon where a single genetic change leads to multiple phenotypic differences or effects.

Epistasis

Hierarchical control of the expression of one gene by another gene, where one gene masks, suppresses, or inhibits the phenotypic expression of another gene.

Polygenic traits

Phenotypic characteristics controlled by complex interactions among multiple genes that typically exist along a continuous spectrum.

Mutation

Any change in the DNA sequence that codes for a gene or the expression of a gene, serving as the raw material for adaptive evolution.