Biological interaction

Biological interactions result from the fact that organisms in an ecosystem interact with each other, in the natural world, no organism is an autonomous entity isolated from its surroundings. It is part of its environment, rich in living and non living elements all of which interact with each other in some fashion. An organism's interactions with its environment are fundamental to the survival of that organism and the functioning of the ecosystem as a whole. Sign-mediated interactions in which molecules serve as signs are the characteristic feature of communicative interactions.

In ecology, biological interactions are the relationships between two species in an ecosystem. These relationships can be categorized into many different classes of interactions based either on the effects or on the mechanism of the interaction. The interactions between two species vary greatly in these aspects as well as in duration and strength. Species may meet once in a generation (e.g. pollination) or live completely within another (e.g. endosymbiosis). Effects may range from one species eating the other (predation), to mutual benefit (mutualism).

The interactions between two species need not be through direct contact. Due to the connected nature of ecosystems, species may affect each other through intermediaries such as shared resources or common enemies.

Interactions categorized by effect
Terms which explicitly indicate the quality of benefit or harm in terms of fitness experienced by participants in an interaction are listed below. There are six possible combinations, ranging from mutually beneficial through neutral to mutually harmful interactions. The level of benefit or harm is continuous and not discrete, such that an interaction may be trivially harmful through to deadly, for example. It is important to note that these interactions are not always static. In many cases, two species will interact differently under different conditions. This is particularly true in, but not limited to, cases where species have multiple, drastically different life stages.

Neutralism
Neutralism describes the relationship between two species which do interact but do not affect each other. It is to describe interactions where the fitness of one species has absolutely no effect whatsoever on that of other. True neutralism is extremely unlikely and impossible to prove. When dealing with the complex networks of interactions presented by ecosystems, one cannot assert positively that there is absolutely no competition between or benefit to either species.Since true neutralism is rare or nonexistent, its usage is often extended to situations where interactions are merely insignificant or negligible.

Amensalism
Amensalism between two species involves one impeding or restricting the success of the other without being affected positively or negatively by the presence of the other. It is a type of symbiosis. Usually this occurs when one organism exudes a chemical compound as part of its normal metabolism that is detrimental to another organism.

The bread mold Penicillium is a common example of this; penicillium secrete penicillin, a chemical that kills bacteria. A second example is the black walnut tree (Juglans nigra), which secrete juglone, a chemical that harms or kills some species of neighboring plants, from its roots. This interaction may still increase the fitness of the non-harmed organism though, by removing competition and allowing it access to greater scarce resources. In this sense the impeding organism can be said to be negatively affected by the other's very existence, making it a +/- interaction.

Antibiosis or allelopathy also explain similar interactions.

Competition
Competition is an interaction between individuals or populations that is mutually detrimental.

Synnecrosis is a particular case in which the interaction is so mutually detrimental that it results in death, as in the case of some parasitic relationships. It is a rare and necessarily short-lived condition as evolution selects against it. The term is seldom used.

Antagonism


In antagonistic interactions one species benefits at the expense of another. Predation is an interaction between organisms in which one organism captures biomass from another. It is often used as a synonym for carnivory but in its widest definition includes all forms of one organism eating another, regardless of trophic level (e.g. herbivory), closeness of association (e.g. parasitism and parasitoidism) and harm done to prey (e.g. grazing). Other interactions that cannot be classed as predation however are still possible, such as Batesian mimicry, where an organism bears a superficial similarity of at least one sort, such as a harmless plant coming to mimic a poisonous one.

Ecological facilitation
The following two interactions can be classed as facilitative. Facilitation describes species interactions that benefit at least one of the participants and cause no harm to either. Facilitations can be categorized as mutualisms, in which both species benefit, or commensalisms, in which one species benefits and the other is unaffected. Much of classic ecological theory (e.g., natural selection, niche separation, metapopulation dynamics) has focused on negative interactions such as predation and competition, but positive interactions (facilitation) are receiving increasing focus in ecological research.

Commensalism
Commensalism benefits one organism and the other organism is neither benefited nor harmed. It occurs when one organism takes benefits by interacting with another organism by which the host orgaism is not affected. A good example is a remora living with a shark. Remoras eat leftover food from the shark. The shark is not affected in the process as remoras eat only leftover food of the shark which doesn't deplete the sharks resources.

Mutualism
Mutualism is an interaction between two or more species, where species derive a mutual benefit, for example an increased carrying capacity. Similar interactions within a species are known as co-operation. Mutualism may be classified in terms of the closeness of association, the closest being symbiosis, which is often confused with mutualism. One or both species involved in the interaction may be obligate, meaning they cannot survive in the short or long term without the other species. Though mutualism has historically received less attention than other interactions such as predation, it is very important subject in ecology. Examples include cleaner fish, pollination and seed dispersal, gut flora and nitrogen fixation by fungi.

Symbiosis
The term symbiosis (Greek: living together) can be used to describe various degrees of close relationship between organisms of different species. Sometimes it is used only for cases where both organisms benefit, sometimes it is used more generally to describe all varieties of relatively tight relationships, i.e. even parasitism, but not predation. Some even go so far as to use it to describe predation. . It can be used to describe relationships where one organism lives on or in another, or it can be used to describe cases where organisms are related by mutual stereotypic behaviors.

In either case symbiosis is much more common in the living world and much more important than is generally assumed. Almost every organism has many internal parasites. A large percentage of herbivores have mutualistic gut fauna that help them digest plant matter, which is more difficult to digest than animal prey. Coral reefs are the result of mutalisms between coral organisms and various types of algae that live inside them. Most land plants and thus, one might say, the very existence of land ecosystems rely on mutualisms between the plants which fix carbon from the air, and Mycorrhyzal fungi which help in extracting minerals from the ground. In fact the evolution of all eukaryotes (plants, animals, fungi, protists) is believed to have resulted from a symbiosis between various sorts of bacteria: endosymbiotic theory.

Competition


Competition can be defined as an interaction between organisms or species, in which the fitness of one is lowered by the presence of another. Limited supply of at least one resource (such as food, water, and territory) used by both is required. Competition is one of many interacting biotic and abiotic factors that affect community structure. Competition among members of the same species is known as intraspecific competition, while competition between individuals of different species is known as interspecific competition. Competition is not always a straightforward, direct interaction either, and can occur in both a direct and indirect fashion.

According to the competitive exclusion principle, species less suited to compete for resources should either adapt or die out. According to evolutionary theory, this competition within and between species for resources plays a critical role in natural selection.