Symbiosis: predator/prey, mutualism, commensalism, & parasistism

Symbiosis is a relationship between one organism and another. There are 4 kinds of symbiosis. First of all, there is symbiosis mutualism in which both organisms get benefit from each other. Second, there is symbiosis commensalism, in which one organism is benefited and the other organisms is neither benefited nor disadvantaged. Another symbiosis is parasitism in which one organism is benefited and the other organism is disadvantaged. Last but not least, predator/prey is a relationship between organisms in which stronger organism eat weaker organism to fulfill its need of energy.

An example of symbiosis mutualism is butterfly and flower. The butterfly gets to have the flower nectar, and the flower has the butterfly helps its pollination. In this case, both organisms are benefited.

An example for symbiosis commensalism is shark and remora fish. Remora fish lives attached to a shark or other big fish and survive by eating the leftovers of the bigger fish. The shark is neither benefited nor disadvantaged, but the remora fish is definitely benefited.

An example for parasitism will be denque mosquito and human. Denque mosquito lives by eating human or other animals blood, and not only that those mosquitos are often bringing sickness along with them. The infected human or other organisms, besides losing their blood, they have a chance of getting sick as well.

Last but not least, an example for predator/prey relationship will be lion attacking wildebeest. Wildebeest survived by eating plants as a herbivore, but lion is not a herbivore like wildebeest. The only way for a lion to survived is by eating other organisms to get their energy.

Food Web: Aquatic Ecosystem

That is a picture of an aquatic food web. It starts off with algae, grass, and diatoms (a kind of phytoplankton), the producers in this ecosystem. The energy produced by algae, grass, and diatoms first go to herbivores. Herbivores are organisms that eat producer, they also called Primary Consumers. In this picture, the primary consumers are zoo-plankton, crickets, and snails. Going further on, organisms that eat primary consumers are called secondary consumers. In this picture, the secondary consumers are small fishes, heron, frog, duck, and the black bird. In this picture, heron is both secondary and tertiary consumers. Besides eating snails, heron also eats small fishes. Another tertiary consumer in this picture is snake. Lastly, the quaternary consumer in this picture is the snake-eating eagle. However, it is not over yet. There is one more group in this food web. Yup, it is decomposer. Decomposer is a group that decipher the dead organisms body into components that in turn will help the producers becoming more fertile in nutrition. And that is all about this aquatic food-web.