Mangampo, Hanna Mae I.

BCS11
Assignment in Environmental Science

Different Types of Ecological Interactions and Their Examples

According to Purves (2013), an ecological community is defined as a group of actually or potentially

interacting species living in the same place. A community is bound together by the network of influences that species
have on one another. Inherent in this view is the notion that whatever affects one species also affects many others
-- the "balance of nature".

1. Mutualism occurs when both organisms benefit from an interaction.

Examples:
 Pollination is a common mutualistic interaction. The plant gains gamete transfer, the animal gets nectar
(and also pollen).
 A mutualism between certain ants and a small tree, the acacia, provides an excellent example of an obligate
mutualism. The acacia provides a number of benefits to the ants, including shelter, protein and nectar while
the ant provides several forms of protection.

2. Commensalism is when sometimes one organism benefits from an interaction, but the other gets nothing.

Examples:
 The clown fish and anemone. The clown fish hides from enemies within the stinging tentacles of a sea
anemone, to which the clown fish is immune.
 Burdock Seeds on the Fur of Passing Animals

3. Competition is when individuals or populations compete for the same resource and can occur within or
between species.

Examples:
 Lions and hyenas that compete for prey.
 Sharks, because during times of especially scarce food resources, sharks resort to the ultimate form of
competition: cannibalism. Instead of competing with other species for new food resources, sharks simply
start to eat each other.

4. Predation is when one organism eats another organism to obtain nutrients. The organism that is eaten is called
the prey.

Examples:
 owls that eat mice
 lions that eat gazelles

5. 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.

Examples:
 Sea lice or copepods that cling to the outside of fish where they feed.
 Tapeworms or segmented flatworms that attach themselves to the insides of the intestines of animals such
as cows, pigs, and humans.