READ: Symbiosis

Symbiotic Relationships

Some organisms play nice. Some don’t. Some play nice with certain organisms while playing not so nice with others. Regardless, many organisms have close living relationships that can be characterized.

Humans, like nature, have many types of relationships. Let’s examine the relationships of Superman. Superman has many relationships in his life. Lois Lane loves Superman and protects his secret while Superman loves and protects her—a mutualistic relationship. Lex Luthor is always looking to attack and hurt Superman—a predator- prey like relationship. We all know Superman’s weakness is kryptonite, which pulls away his power and can, with long-term exposure, kill him—a parasitic relationship. Lastly, Lois Lane and Lex Luthor share a relationship where Lex benefits because he can use Lois to draw in Superman, serving as a benefit for Lex, but neither help nor harm Lois—a commensalistic relationship.

Symbiosis is a close relationship between two species in which at least one species benefits. For the other species, the relationship may be positive, negative, or neutral. There are three basic types of symbiosis:

• Mutualism
  
• Commensalism
  
• Parasitism
  

Mutualism is a symbiotic relationship in which both species benefit. An example of mutualism involves goby fish and shrimp.

The multicolored shrimp in the front and the green goby fish behind it have a mutualistic relationship.

The nearly blind shrimp and the fish spend most of their time together. The shrimp maintains a burrow in the sand in which both the fish and shrimp live. When a predator comes near, the fish touches the shrimp with its tail as a warning. Then, both fish and shrimp retreat to the burrow until the predator is gone. From their relationship, the shrimp gets a warning of approaching danger. The fish gets a safe retreat and a place to lay its eggs.