All living organisms in a certain way interact with each other. In this regard, in nature there are many types of biotic relationships, such as neutralism, mutualism, amennalism, parasitism and even competition. Each of these types has its own formula and implies a certain behavior of living beings. In this article we will analyze what is commensalism and what are its features.
Definition of commensalism
So, commensalism is a cohabitation of two living organisms, in which one of them receives obvious benefits, and the other receives nothing - neither harm nor benefit. That is, with such “cooperation”, one species freely gets a benefit that helps it survive, and at the same time does not harm its “partner” at all.
Commensalism has a fairly simple formula: +0, where “+” is the benefit extracted by the first organism, and “0” is its effect on another organism, which, as already mentioned, is neither positive nor negative.
A classic example of commensalism is the interaction of large mammals with dense hair and plants with special hooks to move. So, for example, burdock seeds are attached to the dog’s coat, which in turn distributes them. Often the dog does not even know about the existence of seeds, while the burdock gets a noticeable benefit - the ability to move in space.
Types of Commensalism
Speaking about what is commensalism, one cannot but mention the fact that several of its species stand out in nature. They differ from each other in the way in which one of the organisms benefits. These include: parasitism, absenteeism and lodging. Consider each of these species individually.
Hijacking
The term "parasite" may be familiar to many in everyday life. Freeloader - a person living on other people's means, in a sense, even a "parasite." The commensalism of this species has approximately the same meaning in nature.
So, the essence of parasitism lies in the fact that one organism eats the remnants of food of the "owner". Obviously, the owner does not feel any influence from the "parasite", because the food that he left is no longer required.
A good example of hijacking is eating foxes living in the tundra, leftovers of polar bears.
Honeycomb
The next type of commensalism is coercionism. This type of relationship is characteristic, rather, for fungi and plants, and not for animals. The essence of co-work is that two organisms consume different substances or parts of the same resource.
This occurs, for example, in schools of animals when they share food with each other, but such relationships cannot be called commensalism, since they unite organisms of the same species. A classic example of sotrapeznichestvo is the "eating" fell by saprophytes (bacteria) and higher plants and the benefits of this.
Lodging
When considering what commensalism is, it is necessary to say about a type of relationship in which some species use the bodies or dwellings of other organisms as their refuge. It is important to note that parasitism is not a quarry, as parasites cause obvious harm to their partners.
An example of this interaction is the habitat of some small fish among the tentacles of a jellyfish, the laying of fish eggs in the shells of some mollusks, fish sticking on the body of a shark, the coexistence of vines and orchids on trees. That is, we can conclude that lodging is quite common in the nature around us.
Finally
So, in the article we examined what commensalism is. They learned what types of this interaction stand out in living nature, and examined some examples of each of them. This topic still occupies the people of science - biologists, chemists, geographers, ethnologists and not only. We wish you success in the further study of these and many other sciences!