Biology
Definitions
Terms
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- Circadian
- A rhythm of about 24hours
- Long-day plant
- A plant that flowers with increasing day length, usually over 12 hours
- Commensalism
- An interspecific relationship where one organism benifits while the other is uneffected
- Circralunar
- A rhythm of about 1 month
- Ecosystem
- All the living things in an area plus the pysical factors
- Free-running period
- The natural period of the rhythm of there are no external cues
- Entrainment
- Forcing the free-running period to follow an external pattern
- Stimulus
- Anything that causes an orgaism to react
- Kinesis
- A whole-body response of animals where the response is independent of the stimulus direction, but may depend on the intensity of the stimulus
- Short-day plant
- A plant that flowers in short days, during the autumn or winter
- Photoperiodism
- The response of plants to the lengths of day(or night)
- Auxin
- A plant hormone that lengthens cells
- Circaannual
- A rhythm of about 1 year
- Antibiosis
- An INTERspecific relationship where one organism is harmed, but the other is unaffected
- Habitat
- The place or environment in which specific organims live
- Phase shift
- To change the start times of a rhythm, but not its period.(Entrainment)
- Endogenous rhythm
- An internal rhythm that occurs when there are no external cues. Caused by a biological clock
- Apical Dominance
- A tree where there is one main trunk and much smaller side branches. A bush is where all the stems are all equal.
- Dormancy
- When seeds do not germinate unless certain conditions happen.(such as cutting the coat or a long period of cold)
- Phytochrome
- A plant pigment that controls the photoperiodic response
- Biological Clock
- Internal timing systems that continue without external clues and control the timing of activities of plants and animals
- Nastic Movement
- A plant response that is independent of the direction of stimulus
- Circatidal
- A rhythm of about 12.5hours
- Nocturnal
- Active at night
- Tropism
- A plant growth response to a directional stimulus
- Taxis
- Movement of an animal or part of its body towards or away from a directional stimulus
- Limiting factor
- Any variable factor of the environment that limits the activity of an organim or population
- Territory
- An area used by animal for feeding or breeding, that the animal will defend
- Parasitism
- An interspecific relationship where one individual is benefited and the other harmed
- Exogenous rhythm
- A rhythm that occurs only when external cues are present
- Homing
- The ability to find and return to the home site. In animals only
- Period
- The length of a rhythm, how long it takes to repeat
- Batesian mimicry
- A harmless animal that looks like a poisonous
- Migration
- Annual mass movement of animals, from breeding areas to other non-breeding areas and then returning. Animals only
- Interspecific
- Between two different species
- Intraspecific
- Within one species
- Crepuscular
- When an animal is active around sunrise and sunset
- Diurnal
- Active during the day
- Aggression
- Threatening behaviour usually associated with competition. It can involve predation however. A more specific term agonistic behaviour refer to conflicts within species but excludes predation.
- Mutualism
- An interspecfic relationships where both benefit
- Home range
- An area that an animal uses for food, but will not defend
- Zeitgeber
- Time signal for a biological clock. Eg sunrise, sunset, temperature, tidal, movement, day length
- Allelopathy
- Chemical inhibition of one species by another. Basically the same as antibiosis, except that the definition emphasises the chemical connection
- Abscission
- Leaf or fruit fall because of death of cells in the abscission layer in the stalk