05 Jan Mutualism – Individuals

Week 2 discussion

DQ1 View the Biome Explorer in the topic materials. Click on an ecosystem and a scenario. How might this scenario affect the genetic diversity of the population? Would this be good or bad for the population? Then explain another topic (not listed in the scenarios) that can impact a species population within the ecosystem. Why?

DQ2 Select an example of a global biome and an example of an ecosystem found in that global biome (grassland, forest, desert). What kind of animals and plants would you expect to make up that ecosystem? Provide one symbiotic relationship example within your selected ecosystem (such as mutualism, commensalism, and predator prey).

There are different types of relationships:

Mutualism – Individuals of both species benefit (i.e., ox-pecker, a type of bird, eating parasites from rhinoceros)

Parasitism – Individuals of one species feed from individuals of the other species, causing them harm without necessarily killing them (e.g., tape worm, ticks, bot flies). This also is sometimes grouped with predation because both are consumption.

Predation – Individuals of one species kill and consume individuals of the other species.

Commensalism – Individuals of one species benefit, but the other is not hurt or harmed (e.g., a bird nest in a tree doesn’t hurt the tree, a scavenger that eats the left overs that have been abandoned by a predator).

Competition – Individuals of both species use either the same food, water, or shelter type, so they are competing with each other like a sports game.