Biology and evolution terms

In this page i put many of the biological, geographical and ecological terms that i've learnt, i will also have a short explanation of them.

**Allopatry and Biotic Interchange:**

Allopatry occurs when animal species can't interbreed any more due to geographic separation. For example, if a continent breaks apart, then the species on said continent won't affect each other as there is now a large sea between the two parts. If one of the parts develops a tropical climate, and the other an arid one, then the species will each re-adapt to their new environments, and begin to look less and less alike, creating two entirely new ecosystems.

Biotic Interchange is basically the opposite of allopatry, it occurs when for example, two continents merge into one, or an ice age briefly makes them connect. This will allow animals to travel from one continent to another, which can lead to disturbances in either ecosystems, for example, when a hardy and adaptive animal from a desert environment enters a lush jungle biotope, it already has an evolutionary head start, allowing it to outcompete the fairly defenseless native jungle life.

**R Selection and K Selection:**

R Selection and K Selection are two different forms of reproduction, R selection is aimed at producing a high amount of offspring that each have a relatively low chance of survival, an issue which is subverted by the sheer number of offspring, allowing at least a few to survive, R selection is common in insects, rodents like rats and a number of fish.

On the other hand, K Selection means that an animal produces only few offspring, but invests a lot into said offspring, giving them a high chance of survival, this does mean that *if* the offspring were to die, it would be a greater loss and would also have wasted a lot of the parents' efforts. But in turn this issue is subverted by making that chance of the offspring dying very low. K selection is most notably seen in humans, whales and other large mammals.

Oviparity is the term for reproduction through the laying of eggs, simply put, if an animal lays eggs that hatch externally from the parent, then said animal uses oviparity.

Viviparity:

Viviparity is the term for live birth, meaning that the infant develops in the mothers' womb and are born by exiting the womb when their bodies are fully developed.

Ovoviviparity:

Ovoviviparity is, as the name suggests, the term for anything in between oviparity and viviparity, for example, the green anaconda lays eggs but they are kept within the mothers' body, making for a weird mixture between live birth and egg-laying. Notably, ovoviviparity is used by the Plumasapiens, the intelligent species of Propus V.

**Precipitation:**

Precipitation is the term for the amount of rainfall in a certain region, for example a rainforest has high levels of precipitation, whereas a desert has almost none. Precipitation can be lowered or heightened through a bunch of factors, such a wind currents, mountain ranges blocking said wind currents, among other factors, on Propus V, this is most evident on Southern Acheas, where a large mountain range blocks off all wind currents from the east, making the lower half of the continent an arid wasteland.

**Ecological Niches:**

An ecological niche is basically the role an animal or other organism fills within the larger ecosystem, an ambush predator, a scavenger or a tree browser are all practically ecological niches.

**Niche Partitioning:**

Niche partitioning occurs when an outcompeted species that possesses the same ecological niche as a dominant one adapts to both fill the same niche, yet not find competition in species that have a headstart. For example, bats are nocturnal because else they would be outcompeted by the way better adapted birds. By hunting at night, when most bird species are asleep, they will find almost no competition in the air, a great example for niche partitioning.

**Continents/ Supercontinents/ Subcontinents:**

A continent is a fairly wide term, referring to a large landmass, there are two separate definitions for a continent, for example, earth has seven continents, Asia, Europe, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica and Oceania. You might notice that some of these dont fit the description of ``large landmass`` such as Europe and Oceania, this is because english simply doesn't have a diverging term for this kind of continent.

If we were to use the first term, then earth would have four continents, Afro-Eurasia, America, Antarctica and, oddly, Australia (i'd personally call Australia a subcontinent but ok). A subcontinent is simply a landmass which is deemed too large to be an island but too small to be a continent.

Then you have supercontinents, a supercontinent is a singular landmass usually comprised of multiple, merged continents. For example, millions of years ago, earths' landmasses were all combined into Pangea, a very large supercontinent. Propus V has also had a Supercontinent known as Gargantha, which broke into pieces during the Thanatocene.

**Albedo:**

   Albedo is the term for the amount of solar radiation that a planet reflects, a high albedo can lead to colder temperatures because less sunlight is kept on the planet, whereas a low albedo results in high temperatures. The chart shows which terrain is more reflective and thus heightens the albedo.

**Glacial/ Interglacial Periods:**

A glacial period is simply a more official term for an ice age, ice ages can occur due to many things, like axial tilts, elliptical orbits and a high albedo, to name a few. Interglacial periods are simply the periods in between ice ages, when the temperature rises a little, you can see these glacial and interglacial periods as slowed down seasons.

**Greenhouse Periods:**

Greenhouse periods are the opposite of a glacial periods, during a greenhouse period, there are no ice caps, and the sea levels can be hundreds of meters higher than usual. Precipitation will also be higher and so are carbon dioxide levels, plant populations and overall temperatures.