Broadly, what two ways could a plant defend itself again herbivory
via Physical or chemical traits (or defense mechanisms)
What ecosystem service do peatlands provide?
Soil carbon storage
This plant communities typically needs fire disturbance once every 5 years to maintain its structure of housing early succession and late succession plants?
Savannahs
Land area coverage of peatlands globally?
Name one plant part that comprises high nitrogen content.
seeds, meristems
(T or F) Volcanoes, hurricanes, tornados are naturally occurring (catastrophes) or forms of disturbance in which plant communities are impacted quickly and intensely, but also recover with the same tenacity.
F - disturbance typically quick but recovery tends to be slow on average (e.g., MT. ST. Helens)
[DOUBLE] - High ________ content in evergreen foliage make conifers burn easily.
Resin
On average, wildfires burn more than ____________ million acres each year in North America.
5 million
(Something to note here on the figure (area influenced) above. Most times these averages are summarized across varying years (e.g., 5 year average, 10- year average etc. ). If you're interested in looking at the effects of fire, you can look at the National Interagency Command Center's Summary Statistic Report and it will provide more detailed numbers.
Beside our large bovine tetrapods, what other organisms must we consider when we think about herbivory?
detritivores, bacteria, fungi
Serotinous Cone
The water table is a factor that often helps ____________ habitats in preventing wildfire.
Peatlands
Megasporaphylls refer to thick scales that bear what __________________? (e.g., what do they protect?)
ovules/seeds
Leachate that exudes from the plants leaves is known as __________ leachate.
Foliar
What organisms complete at least part of their life cycle within a plant, wherein their symbiosis can provide a plant with enhanced attributes that can help aid in response to environmental pressures (e.g., drought/herbivory)
Endophytes
The ability to change a trait (phenotype) is known as__________?
plasticity
The # of times an event occurs when thinking of the four properties of disturbance refers to what?
Frequency
This form of competition is over the essential _____________ needed for plants to complete their life cycle.
Resource Competition
a form of interference competition in which plants release _______________ chemicals which inhibit growth of other plants.
Allelopathy, allelochemicals
Competition that is relative to the size of the individual
asymmetric or symmetric competition
What are the 4 principles that describe the capacity in which a disturbance may influence a plant community?
Duration -
Intensity -
Area -
Frequency -
This plant community is very susceptible to experiencing successional changes without frequent disturbance such as fire and herbivory.
Savannah
_______________ can affect competition but assessing the relative contribution of their involvement in plant competition is difficult to assess given the number of interactions
Mycorrhizae
Removal experiments
What are three main groups of chemical defenses we discussed?
Terpenes, phenolics, and nitrogen containing products.
Liquid that has percolated with other organic material (leaf-litter, dead organic materials, etc).
Leachate