Topic 6 - Key Terms

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Acetylcholine - A neurotransmitter, found across a wide range of organisms, and especially important at neuromuscular junctions. (T6)

Alkaloids - Large and diverse group of chemicals, containing nitrogen, often produced as secondary chemicals. (T6)

Allometric relationships - Changes in organism function (e.g. physiology) with body size. (T6)

Correlation - A statistical term describing the change of two variables together. A correlation may be positive (both variables increase) or negative (one variable increases as the other variable decreases). (T6)

Ecological community - A set of interacting organisms in one location, which may include plants, herbivores, other predators and parasites. (T6)

Neuromuscular - Between nerves and muscles, specifically the neuromuscular junction. (T6)

Neurotoxins - Toxins that directly affect the nerves or nervous system of target organisms. (T6)

Neurotransmitters - Chemicals used for communication between nerves or between nerves and muscle, e.g. acetylcholine. (T6)

Nicotine - A naturally occurring chemical found in some plants and which acts as a neurotransmitter. (T6)

Power-law relationship - Relationships between two variables in which the dependent variable is raised to a particular power of the independent variable, i.e. y = axb. An example is metabolic activity (y) and body size (x). The latter is an example of an allometric relationship. (T6)

Secondary chemicals - Chemicals produced by organisms that are outside the primary metabolism of the organism. They may be used for defence. (T6)

Silk - Structure produced by some spiders and insects, used for web or cocoon production. (T6)

Spearman rank correlation - A statistical test for determining the significance of a correlation. (T6)

Toxins - Substances that cause damage or death to organisms. (T6)

Trophic cascades - Changes in abundance of species at one trophic level due to changes in abundance at a higher or lower trophic level. (T6)