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Predation occurs when one organism hunts and eats another organism to obtain nutrients. Examples include owls eating mice and lions eating gazelles. Competition happens when organisms vie for the same resources like food, territory, or mates. Commensalism is a relationship where one organism benefits without affecting the other, such as barnacles attaching to whales. Parasitism involves one organism benefiting at the cost of harming its host, like ticks feeding on animal blood. Mutualism occurs when both organisms benefit each other, like lichen providing shelter and nutrients in exchange for sugars from algal or cyanobacterial photosynthesis.

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272 views2 pages

Science

Predation occurs when one organism hunts and eats another organism to obtain nutrients. Examples include owls eating mice and lions eating gazelles. Competition happens when organisms vie for the same resources like food, territory, or mates. Commensalism is a relationship where one organism benefits without affecting the other, such as barnacles attaching to whales. Parasitism involves one organism benefiting at the cost of harming its host, like ticks feeding on animal blood. Mutualism occurs when both organisms benefit each other, like lichen providing shelter and nutrients in exchange for sugars from algal or cyanobacterial photosynthesis.

Uploaded by

gem
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Predation

Predation is when one organism eats another organism to obtain nutrients. The organism that
is eaten is called the prey. Examples of predation are owls that eat mice, and lions that eat
gazelles.

Competition is when individuals or populations compete for the same resource, and can
occur within or between species. When organisms compete for a resource (such as food or
building materials) it is called consumptive or exploitative competition. When they compete
for territory, it is called interference competition. When they compete for new territory by
arriving there first, it is called preemptive competition. An example is lions and hyenas that
compete for prey.

Commensalism

Commensalism is a relationship in which one organism benefits while the other is neither
helped nor harmed. Examples are barnacles that grow on whales and other marine animals.
The whale gains no benefit from the barnacle, but the barnacles gain mobility, which helps
them evade predators, and are exposed to more diverse feeding opportunities. There are four
basic types of commensal relationships. Chemical commensalism occurs when one bacteria
produces a chemical that sustains another bacteria. Inquilinism is when one organism lives in
the nest, burrow, or dwelling place of another species. Metabiosis is commensalism in which
one species is dependent on the other for survival. Phoresy is when one organism
temporarily attaches to another organism for the purposes of transportation.
Parasitism

Parasitism is a relationship in which one organism benefits and the other organism is harmed,
but not always killed. The organism that benefits is called the parasite, and the one that is
harmed is the host. Parasitism is different from parasitoidism, which is when the host is
always killed, such as when one organism lays its egg inside another organism that is later
eaten by the hatchlings. Parasites can be ectoparasites -- such as ticks, fleas, and leeches --
that live on the surface of the host. Parasites can also be endoparasites -- such as intestinal
worms – that live inside the host. Endoparasites can be further categorized into intercellular
parasites, that live in the space between cells, or intracellular parasites, which live inside of
cells. There is also something called hyperparasitism, which is when a parasite is infected by
another parasite, such as a microorganism living in a flea, which lives on a dog. Lastly, a
relationship called social parasitism is exemplified by an ant species that does not have
worker ants, living among another ant species that do, by using the host species’ workers.

Mutualism

Mutualism is a relationship in which both species benefit. Mutualistic interaction patterns


occur in three forms. Obligate mutualism is when one species cannot survive apart from the
other. Diffusive mutualism is when one organism can live with more than one partner.
Facultative mutualism is when one species can survive on its own under certain conditions.
On top of these, mutualistic relationships have three general purposes. Trophic mutualism is
exemplified in lichens, which consist of fungi and either algae or cyanobacteria. The fungi's
partners provide sugar from photosynthesis and the fungi provide nutrients from digesting
rock. Defensive mutualism is when one organism provides protection from predators while
the other provides food or shelter: an example is ants and aphids. Dispersive mutualism is
when one species receives food in return for transporting the pollen of the other organism,
which occurs between bees and flowers.

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