ECOLOGICAL

RELATIONSHIPS
K R I S J O H N P. S I LVA N O
Siquijor State College
Larena, Siquijor
 OBJECTIVES

Identify and
Differentiate the
Discuss the three Appreciate the Discuss analyze
various
types of direct importance of commensalism and environmental
ecological
interactions. mutualism. its significance. issues and
interactions.
concerns.
 Whale
sharks gulf
oil spill

Don't be
fooled by its
name—the
whale shark is
the largest
fish in the
sea.
 COMMUNITY INTERACTION
1. Competition
▪ It happens when organisms of the same (intraspecific competition) or
different (interspecific competitions) species attempt to use an
ecological resource in the same place at the same time.
▪ When two or more organisms rely on the same environmental
resource.
▪ The competition is generally observed for acquiring some limiting
abiotic factor in the environment. For example, plants compete for
water, light, minerals, and carbon dioxide.
▪ Competition negatively affects both participants (-/- interaction), as
either species would have higher survival and reproduction if the
other was absent.
COMMUNITY INTERACTION
▪ Species compete when they have overlapping niches, that is,
overlapping ecological roles and requirements for survival and
reproduction.
▪ Some organisms are better able to compete than others in a given
portion of an ecosystem. These species exclude their competition
from that part of the ecosystem: this is called competitive exclusion.
▪ The competitive exclusion principle tells us that two species can't
have exactly the same niche in a habitat and stably coexist. That's
because species with identical niches also have identical needs,
which means they would compete for precisely the same resources.
Image modified from "Community ecology: Figure 7," by OpenStax College, Concepts of Biology, CC BY 4.0.
 COMPETITIVE EXCLUSION
▪ Two types of single-celled microorganisms, Paramecium aurelia and
Paramecium caudatum. When grown individually in the lab, both species
thrive.
▪ But when they are grown in the same test tube (habitat) with a fixed
amount of nutrients, both grow more poorly and P. aurelia eventually
outcompetes P. caudatum for food, leading to P. caudatum's extinction.
▪ In nature, it's rarely the case that two species occupy exactly
identical niches. However, the greater the extent to which two
species' niches overlap, the stronger the competition between them
will tend to be.
 RESOURCE PARTITIONING
▪ Competitive exclusion may be avoided:
▪ if one or both of the competing species evolves to use a different resource;
▪ occupy a different area of the habitat;
▪ or feed during a different time of day.
▪ The result of this kind of evolution is that two similar species use largely non-
overlapping resources and thus have different niches. This is called resource
partitioning.
▪ It helps the species coexist because there is less direct competition between
them.
 The anole lizards
found on the island of
Puerto Rico. In this
group, natural
selection has led to the
evolution of different
species that make use
of different resources.
Each species lives in
its own preferred
habitat, which is
defined by type and
height of vegetation
(trees, shrubs, cactus,
etc.), sunlight, and
moisture, among other
factors.
 COMMUNITY INTERACTION
2. Predation
▪ It an interaction where one organism captures and feeds on another
organism.
▪ Behavior of one animal feeding on another.
▪ Predators refers to the organism that kills and consume.
▪ Prey is an organism turns into someone’s dine.
▪ This interaction is beneficial for the predator, but harmful for the
prey (+/- interaction).
▪ Predation may involve two animal species, but it can also involve an
animal or insect consuming part of a plant, a special case of predation
known as herbivory.
 COMMUNITY INTERACTION
3. Symbiosis
▪ Is a general term for interspecific interactions in which two species
live together in a long-term, intimate association.
▪ Refers to any relationship in which two species live closely together.
▪ The close relationship of two dissimilar organisms.
 THREE TYPES OF DIRECT INTERACTION

1. MUTUALISM 2. COMMENSALISM 3. PARASITISM

Mutualism between Bubalus bubalis Cattle egrets eat the insects stirred up Ticks are among the external parasites
and Acridotheres javanicus. by cattle when they are grazing. that may be found on the cattle.
 THREE TYPES OF DIRECT INTERACTION

1. MUTUALISM
▪ Occurs when both species benefit from the relationship (+/+
interaction).
▪ Examples of Mutualism
▪ Pollination
▪ Dispersal Mutualisms
▪ Cleaning Mutualisms
▪ Defense Mutualisms
 POLLINATION
• Pollinator may get:
o Food – nectar, pollen (high
energy or high protein food)
o Meting advantage – some bees
get scent molecules.
o Nesting materials – some bees
get was for their nests.
• Flowering plants gets:
o Efficiency of pollen transfer
(compared to wind)
o Mixing of pollen from many
plants and prevention of
inbreeding
 POLLINATION
• Pollinators flees, bees, wasps, bats, beetles, birds.
o any animal that visits the flower regularly may be a pollinator.
 DISPERSAL MUTUALISM
• Fruits are plants rewards for animal dispersal of seeds.
• Seeds often pass through the guts of dispersers without harm
o Some seeds even benefit from this by being deposited with the
manure as a fertilizers.
o Some seeds use the passage as a signal to germinate and will not
do so without this.
o Some plants protect the seed with toxins while making the fruit
palatable
 Peach seeds (pits) are full of cyanide
o Some plants sacrifice some seeds to dispersers (seeds are usually
very good food – lots of vitamins, proteins and lipids)
Key steps of the scatter-hoarding process: (1) seed selection, (2) transportation, and (3) deposition. Seeds can be
cached within and between patches of suitable habitat already colonized by the species, in a patch of unsuitable
habitat, or in suitable habitat that can be colonized. Illustration credit: Emily Underwood
 CLEANING MUTUALISM
• One species gets food by removing (and eating) ectoparasites of
another
• Partner loses its parasites without having to clean itself
o Also on reefs, cleaner fish perform same function as shrimp
o Birds eat parasites from outside of large herbivores
 DEFENSE MUTUALISM
• One species gets food and/or
shelter from another species
• Other partner gets protection
from being eaten
o Anti-Acacia System
 Acacia Tree provides:
 Place for ants to live
in swollen base of
tree.
 Foods for ants in form
of special extension of
leaves. Pseudomyrmex-ant and Acacia tree mutualism
DEFENSE MUTUALISM
 Ants are aggressive and
attack almost anything
that comes into provide
protection from
 Other insect
herbivores
 Large, vertebrate
herbivores
(including human,
that happens to
lean on the tree)
Pseudomyrmex-ant and Acacia tree mutualism, another
type of thorn, being used for shelter
 IMPORTANCE OF MUTUALISM
• Mutualism once thought to be important in the way nature work
• Mutualism fell out of favor:
o Competition/predation studies became more common
o Theory predicted either that mutualist population became infinite
in size or that an equilibrium was unstable (tended to go to
extinction when perturbed from equilibrium point)
 Correlated point is that you never see the three-way mutualism
(where there must be three partners present) and theory
predicts that instability goes up very sharply as the number of
partner increases.
• Many feel that some mutualisms get their start as parasitic relationships
and that evolution of the system may, under certain conditions, favor
mutualism as the final outcome.
 COMMENSALISM
• Happens when one member of the association
benefits and the other is neither helped nor
harmed (+ / 0 interaction).
• Commensalism means literally “at table
together”.
• A Symbiotic relationship between two species
in which one species benefits and one does
not benefit but is unharmed.
• The commensal—the species that benefits
from the association—may obtain nutrients,
shelter, support, or locomotion from the host
species, which is unaffected.
 COMMENSALISM
• Example:
Clownfishes live within the waving mass
of tentacles of sea anemones.
Because most fishes avoid the poisonous
tentacles, the clownfishes are protected from
predators.
Perhaps this relationship borders on
mutualism because the clownfishes actually
may attract other fishes on which the
anemone can feed. The sea anemone’s
tentacles quickly paralyze and seize other
fishes as prey.
 COMMENSALISM
• Examples:
 Epiphytes, plants that use their hosts for aerial support but gain their
resources from the atmosphere.
 Nurse plants are larger plants that offer protection to seedlings from
the weather and herbivores, giving them an opportunity to grow.
 Tree frogs use plants as protection.
 COMMENSALISM
• Examples:
 Golden jackals, once they have been
expelled from a pack, will trail a tiger to
feed on the remains of its kills.
 Goby fish live on other sea animals,
changing color to blend in with the host,
thus gaining protection from predators.
 The burdock plant produces spiny seeds
that cling to the fur of animals or clothing
of humans. The plants rely on this method
of seed dispersal for reproduction, while
the animals are unaffected.
PARASITISM
• This is a symbiotic relationship between two
organisms in which one species (parasite)
benefits for growth and reproduction to the harm
of the other species (host).
• +/- interaction
• It must be emphasized that parasite and host
interact and that excessive harm done to a host,
which makes it less competitive, also endangers
the survival of the parasite species.
• Parasitism can be differentiated into
ectoparasites and endoparasites, depending
respectively, on whether they live on or in the
host.
PARASITISM
• Ectoparasites
 Lice
 Flea
 Ticks
 Flies
• Endoparasites
 Flatworm
 Roundworm
 Pinworm
 Virus
 PARASITISM
• Animals are parasitized by; • Plants are parasitized by;
 Viruses  Viruses
 Bacteria  Bacteria
 Fungi  Fungi
 Protozoans  Nematodes
 Flatworms (tapeworms and  And few other plants
flukes)
 Nematodes
 Insects (fleas, lice)
 Arachnids
• a PARASITE is an organism that:
 Lives on or in the body of another organism
(host)
 From whose tissues it gets its nourishment, and
 To whom it does some damage
• PARASITES damage their host in two major way:
 Consuming its tissues, e.g. hookworms
 Liberating toxins,
 Tetanus bacilli (Clostridium tetani) secrete
tetanus toxin which interferes with synaptic
transmission.
 Diphtheria bacilli (Corynebacterium
diphtheria) secrete a toxin that inhibits
protein synthesis by ribosomes.
 PARASITISM IN PLANTS
• A plant parasite is the Dodder (Cuscuta sp.).
• It is often twined round the stems of clover
plants or grasses, which damages severely.
 PARASITISM IN PLANTS
• A plant parasite is the Dodder (Cuscuta sp.).
• It is often twined round the stems of clover
plants or grasses, which damages severely.
• At intervals along the twining stem small root-
like structures, called haustoria, link the
Dodder to its host and penetrate to the host’s
vascular bundles.
• In this way the parasite obtains organic
nutrients, water and mineral salts directly from
the host.
• Any herbaceous plant can be infected.
• It can cause a great of damage to wheat or
lucerne field.
PARASITISM IN ANIMALS
• The bilharzia parasite, Schistosoma haematobium, a parasitic flatworm, is a good example
of successful parasite.
• It completes its life cycle in two hosts.
• The male and female adults live in the blood of humans while larval forms live in the
bodies of a type of snail, Bulinus africanus.
• The adults possess suckers with which they attach themselves to the walls of blood
vessels.
• Their bodies are covered with thick cuticles.
• When mature, adults meet in the blood of a man.
• The male and female ‘associated’ in that the slightly broader male rolls its body into a
tube in which the long, thin female lives.
• When the female is ready to lay eggs she frees herself and moves into small blood vessels
in the wall of a bladder.
• When the egg comes into contact with water, its shell breaks and a ciliated larva, called a
miracidium, is released.
• Sporocycts are produced by the miracidium.
• Cercariae are produced after several generations of sporocysts.
• The cercariae make their way into the water and make contact with a human.
• Within 6-12 weeks the larvae develop into adults and the cycle is reported once more.
• There is not always a clear division between these categories,
but in general, parasites tend to live on or in their hosts for
long periods of time, while a predator tends to have a brief
interaction with its prey.

Also, compared to predators feeding on prey, parasites are less

YES! 1/4
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3. 4.
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8. 9-10.