Symbiotic Relationships

The act of living together.

Mutualism

• An association between organisms of two different species in which each member benefits.

Advantages:• Increases population since no one dies.

Disadvantages:• None.

Mutualism

Clean Fish & Moray Eel• The cleaner fish eats

parasites and food bits out of the mouth of moray eel.

• It gets a meal and is protected from predators by the fierce eel.

Commensialism

• Is a relationship between the host and symbiont, where the symbiont benefits and the host is neither helped nor harmed.

Advantages:• The symbiont benefits by receiving

transportation, housing, and/or nutrition.Disadvantages:• The host does not benefit.

Commensialism

• Example:• The remora attaches itself to the shark and saves

energy since it doesn’t have to swim, and it gets to snack on the sharks kills. The shark doesn’t get anything.

Shark & Remora

Parasitism

• A relationship between two species in which one species, the parasite, benefits from the other species, the host, and usually harms the host.

Advantages:• The only advantages are for the parasite.

Disadvantages:• The disadvantages will fall upon the host.

Parasitism

Examples: Ticks Fleas Tapeworms Heartworm

Parasitism

Loa Loa Worm & Human

• This worm infects human the blood stream and gets a nice warm safe home there. The human may go blind or have other complications as a result.

Predator/Prey

• A predator is an organism the eats another organism. Prey is the organism which the predator eats.

• Predation and prey effects the population by determining whether a certain population is big or small. – If the level of predation is small, there is a chance of

over population. – If there is to many predators then there is a chance

that an entire population can be killed out.

Predator/Prey