Types of Symbiosis in Nature
Symbiosis Type↕ | Who Benefits↕ | Example↕ | Habitat↕ | Known For↕ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Mutualism | Both species | Clownfish and sea anemone | Coral reefs | Clownfish get shelter and food scraps, anemone gets cleaning and protection |
Mutualism (obligate) | Both, cannot survive alone | Lichen (fungus + alga/cyanobacterium) | Rocks, tree bark worldwide | Fungus provides structure, alga photosynthesizes, neither can live apart |
Mutualism (pollination) | Both | Yucca moth and yucca plant | North American deserts | Only the yucca moth pollinates yucca, in return lays eggs in its seeds |
Mutualism (cleaning) | Both | Cleaner wrasse and large reef fish | Tropical reefs | Cleaner eats parasites off client fish, both benefit, clients line up at cleaning stations |
Mutualism (gut flora) | Both | Termites and cellulose-digesting microbes | Termite guts | Microbes digest wood for termites, termites provide home and food, let termites eat houses |
Commensalism | One benefits, other unaffected | Cattle egrets and grazing cattle | Grasslands | Egrets eat insects kicked up by cattle, cattle neither helped nor harmed |
Commensalism (phoresy) | Hitchhiker benefits | Remora fish and sharks | Open ocean | Remoras attach to sharks for free rides and food scraps, shark unaffected |
Commensalism (inquilinism) | Tenant benefits | Birds nesting in tree hollows | Forests | Tenant uses another organism's structure as home without harming it |
Parasitism | Parasite benefits, host harmed | Tapeworm in mammal intestine | Host gut | Classic parasitism, steals nutrients, can grow meters long |
Parasitism (brood parasite) | Parasite benefits | Cuckoo laying in warbler nests | Forests worldwide | Cuckoo chick ejects host eggs and is raised by unrelated parents |
Parasitoidism | Parasitoid, host killed | Parasitoid wasps on caterpillars | Worldwide | Larva develops inside host and eventually kills it, basis for biological pest control |
Amensalism | One harmed, other unaffected | Penicillium mold inhibiting bacteria | Soils, decaying matter | Mold releases antibiotics that kill bacteria, mold itself unaffected |
Competition | Neither | Lions and hyenas over carcasses | African savanna | Both species lose energy and risk injury fighting for the same resource |
Endosymbiosis | Both, one lives inside the other | Coral and zooxanthellae algae | Coral reefs | Algae photosynthesize inside coral cells, their loss causes coral bleaching |
Mycorrhiza | Both | Plant roots and mycorrhizal fungi | Soils worldwide | Fungi extend plant roots, trade nutrients for sugars, >90% of plant species rely on it |
Mimicry partnerships | Depends on mimic and model | Ants tending aphids for honeydew | Temperate meadows | Ants protect aphids from predators in exchange for sugary excretions |
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