5.3.1.

Lesson#1: [Species Interaction]

To-Do Date: Nov 14 at 8:30am

When two individual interact, this will produce three possible effects on each:  positive, negative, or
neutral.  In most cases, a negative impact results to harming the organism  e.g. injury or death or
there is energy expended to locate a prey since another organism consumed most of the available
prey.   A positive effect is always beneficial to the individual.  Neutral effects are less discussed in
most cases.  

Sometimes interactions between organisms are extremely intimate, e.g. symbioses that involves
dependence of each other to enhance their capacity to obtain nutrients e.g. the symbiotic relationship
between fungi and algae to exist as "lichen" or have place to live in e.g. the clownfish seeking shelter
in a sea anemone.  In some cases, this intimate association results in the gradual deterioration of
another that serves as host e.g. head lice as obligate ectoparasite on humans or the ability of
another to produce toxins to actively resist infection of a parasitic organism.

    

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foliose_lichen (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foliose_lichen)    
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphiprioninae (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphiprioninae)

  Male human head lice

Photo by Gilles San Martin

There are different types of interactions that occur between two species populations.  A summary of
these are shown in the table below:

https://www.notesonzoology.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/clip_image004-36.jpg
(https://www.notesonzoology.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/clip_image004-36.jpg)

The relationship of lichens and clownfish with sea anemone are examples of mutualism; while that of
the human head lice is parasitism, where humans become the host while the head lice as parasite. 
Commensalism is illustrated by epiphytic plants growing on branches of tall trees to obtain light.

                         Epiphytes on tree trunk

In some interactions, one organism is harmed while there is no impact on another.  This occurs in
amensalism, illustrated by allelopathy performed by certain plants by releasing toxic chemicals to
prevent the other plants to grow nearby.  
Competition is a diverse interaction.  One type of competition is interference competition.  It can
involve aggressive direct interaction between individuals to defend a territory or to prevent another by
growing over them or producing toxins that harm potential competitors.  Competition for available
substrate specially for corals or suitable territories for damselfish may sometimes be quite subtle,
often referred by ecologists as resource limitation, involving resource or exploitative competition. 
Such competition may involve individuals of the same species, known as intraspecific competition;
but can also be with other species known as interspecific competition.  When organisms have similar
niches, such interaction can result to competitive exclusion.

In some interactions, organisms get consumed by another e.g. herbivores eating plants, carnivores
feeding on animals.  The organism that consumes is a predator, while the one consumed is the
prey.  

                    Photo credits to Line Sabroe

           Predator-prey relationship showing a wasp eaten by a crab spider

You can view these relationships in the short video below:

 Ecological relationships (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNjPI84sApQ)

REFERENCES

Main References:  Chapter 13& 14, Ecology:  Concepts & Application (4th Ed.) or later by Molles