Relationship project

Symbiosis

By: Paige Petrillo

Mutualism
● Both organisms benefit!
 The Clownfish and Sea the Anemone
● A sea anemone makes an ideal home for a
clownfish. Its poisonous tentacles provide
protection from predators and a clownfish
makes its meals from the anemone’s leftovers.
A clownfish can help an anemone catch its prey
by luring other fish over so that the anemone
can catch them. Clownfish also eat any dead
tentacles keeping the anemone and the area
around it clean.
 The bee and the flower
● Bees fly from flower to flower
gathering nectar, which they make
into food, benefiting the bees. When
they land in a flower, the bees get
some pollen on their hairy bodies,
and when they land in the next
flower, some of the pollen from the
first one rubs off, pollinating the
plant. This benefits the plants. In this
mutualistic relationship, the bees get
to eat, and the flowering plants get to
reproduce.
The spider crab and the algae
● Spider crabs live in shallow
areas of the ocean floor, and
greenish-brown algae lives on
the crabs' backs, making the
crabs blend in with their
environment, and unnoticeable
to predators. The algae gets a
good place to live, and the crab
gets camouflage.
 The bacteria and the human
● A certain kind of bacteria lives in the
intestines of humans and many other
animals. The human cannot digest all of the
food that it eats. The bacteria eat the food
that the human cannot digest and partially
digest it, allowing the human to finish the
job. The bacteria benefit by getting food,
and the human benefits by being able to
digest the food it eats.
 The ant and the fungus
● Ants actively create fungus,
sometimes using leaves and their
own fecal matter. Once the fungus
grows, the ants eat it to sustain life.
The fungus is given life by the ant.
The benefit to the ant is that the
fungus is food.
commensalism
● One organism benefits, the other is unharmed.
 The hyena and the lion
● The lion kills its meal and
this leaves food for the
hyena. The hyena gets food
and the lion is not affected.
The monarch butterfly and the bird
● These orange and black
butterflies leave their larva
on milkweeds. This larva
tastes bitter and is poisonous
to vertebrates and so birds
learn to avoid monarchs.
 The Pseudoscorpion and the beetle
● These look like scorpions but
do not have a sting. They will
sometimes hide under the wing
covers of large beetles, like the
cerambycid beetle. This not
only allows them to be
dispersed over a large area but
protects them from predators.
 The remora shark and the shark
● The remora sharks have a
disk on their heads which
allows them to attach to a
large animal, like a shark. As
the shark eats, any extra food
floats by and they can
unhitch themselves and eat
food, and the shark is
unaffected.
 The burdocks and the animals
● These are common weeds and
dispersal of their seeds is critical
to their life cycle. Their seeds
have spines or spines with hooks
that will allow them to be picked
up in the fur of animals passing
by. They can also attach to the
clothing of humans.
Parasitism
● One organism benefits, the other is harmed.
 The tapeworm and the human
● Tapeworms live in the gastrointestinal tract
feeding on the passing food. The most
common tapeworm species in humans are
fish, dwarf, beef and pork tapeworms. A
tapeworm attaches to the intestinal wall with
its head, scolex. Depending on the tapeworm
species the scolex usually has a set of hooks
and four suckers. Hooks dig into the
mucosa.
The roundworm and humans or animals
● The life cycle does not have a direct beginning, but can be started
with when the adult worm in the host passes eggs out with the fecal
material. These eggs then contaminate vegetation where they may
either embryonate or the larvae hatch, go through a series of
developmental stages, reach the infective third-stage and are
accidentally ingested by a susceptible host. The larvae mature to the
adult stage in the host, usually in the region in which they will
reside for the rest of their lives. If the infective stage larvae are
accidentally ingested by an abnormal host, development is slowed
and random migration may occur, causing tissue damage and
inflammation. Abnormal hosts often die from the effects of these
parasites. Examples of abnormal host-parasite relationships are the
deer meningeal worm found in elk, and the raccoon ascarid that
occasionally occurs in woodchucks, mice and squirrels. And don’t
forget, humans are just as vulnerable to these parasites.
 The bedbug and the human
● These insects live in dark cracks and
crevices in the vicinity of where people
sleep or sit, such as overstuffed couches,
only leaving these sites to feed. They only
stay on the host long enough to feed.
Bedbug bites cause itchy red papules. They
are not known to transmit any disease-
causing pathogen although some people
can develop allergic hypersensitivity to
their bite.
 The head lice and the human
● Lice are specially designed for the infection of a
specific host. Lice are limited in their capabilities of
infection to specific areas of the body, as the need
for hair is a necessity. Lice are dependent upon their
host for survival, and because of this fact, lice have
developed many characteristics to help maintain this
close relationship. Lice feed on blood, which must
be obtained through damage to the skin. Head lice
are limited to the scalp. The scalp provides the
necessary shelter, food, and reproductive
environment required by the lice. Hair keeps the
temperature consistent and warm, and is the location
for nit placement. Food is found in the form of
blood, and is readily available on the scalp. The
itching created by this feeding is caused by the
secretion of saliva by the lice.
 The mosquito and the human
● The mosquito feeds of the human's blood
the males plant eggs in the human
females just feed. The mosquitos carry
many deadly harmful diseases including
malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, and
encephalitis.