Journal 2: Symbiosis

Symbiotic relationships can be found anywhere in nature. In the marine environment, it is especially common to see plants and animals/plants and plants/animals and animals interacting with one another. This type of relationship can exist at a microscopic level to relationships with whales and barnacles. There are three types of symbiotic relationships; Mutualism, Parasitism, and Commensalism.

In mutualism, each species involved benefits from the other species. This can be seen when looking at the relationship between Drews Cleaning Shrimp and reef fish. The Drews Cleaning Shrimp will go in an animal's mouths, crawl around their bodies, and pick in nooks and crannies around corals and plants. In this example of a large scale mutualistic relationship, the shrimp gets food, and the other species are cleaned.

In a parasitic symbiotic relationship, one species gains from the other, while the other species is being harmed. This can be seen with the Cymothoa exigua, also known as the Mouth Louse. This arthropod eats the tongues of fish, and takes its spot. It sits in the fish's’ mouth and eats what would have been the fishes meal. The host fish usually suffers and dies. So you can see how in the relationship, the fish suffers, but the Mouth Louse benefits.

Finally, in a commensalistic symbiotic relationship, one organism benefits, and the other does not. The difference between parasitic and commensalistic is that in commensalistic, there is not a species that is being harmed. A good example of this is the Remora and a shark. The Remora stays with the shark and eats leftovers from the sharks kill. The shark is not benefited by the Remora, but it is not harmed either.

Posted on October 22, 2015 08:59 PM by i3williamnau