Interdependence of LivingThings - Advanced

Douglas Wilkin, Ph.D.Niamh Gray-Wilson

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Printed: October 8, 2013

AUTHORSDouglas Wilkin, Ph.D.Niamh Gray-Wilson

www.ck12.org Concept 1. Interdependence of Living Things - Advanced

CONCEPT 1 Interdependence of LivingThings - Advanced

• List two different types of interactions that organisms can have with each other.

What does it mean to be interdependent?

Do species live alone, or do many live in communities with other organisms? All species rely on other species insome way for their survival. They may rely on other species for food, shelter or to help them reproduce. Here thebee is helping the flower spread its pollen. Species are not independent, they are interdependent.

Interdependence of Living Things

Biological interactions are the interactions between different organisms in an environment. In the natural world,no organism is cut off from its surroundings. Organisms are a part of their environment which is rich in living andnon-living elements that interact with each other in some way. The interactions of an organism with its environmentare vital to its survival, and the functioning of the ecosystem as a whole.

These relationships can be categorized into many different classes. The interactions between two species do notnecessarily need to be through direct contact. Due to the connected nature of ecosystems, species may affect eachother through such relationships involving shared resources or common enemies.

The term symbiosis comes from a Greek word that means “living together.” Symbiosis can be used to describevarious types of close relationships between organisms of different species, such as mutualism and commensalism,which are relationships in which neither organism is harmed. Sometimes the term symbiosis is used only for caseswhere both organisms benefit, sometimes it is used more generally to describe all kinds of close relationships, evenwhen one organism is killed by another, as shown in Figure 1.1. Symbiosis can also be used to describe relationshipswhere one organism lives on or in another, called parasitism, or when one organism kills and eats another organism,called predation. These relationships will be further described in Ecology - Advanced.

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FIGURE 1.1There are many different types of sym-biotic interactions between organisms.Clockwise from top left: Escherichia colibacteria live inside your intestines in amutualistic relationship: the bacteria pro-duce Vitamin K for you, and they gettheir food from what you eat. Clown-fish that live among the tentacles ofsea anemones protect the anemone fromanemone-eating fish, and in turn thestinging tentacles of the anemone protectthe clownfish from its predators (a specialmucus on the clownfish protects it fromthe stinging tentacles). Similar to the E.coli, this bee has a mutualistic relationshipwith the flower, the bee feeds from theflower, and the flower gets pollinated bythe bee. Lions are predators that feedon other organisms such as this Capebuffalo.

FIGURE 1.2A flock of starlings looks out, beforesearching for parasites on a red deerstag.

Competition is as an interaction between organisms or species, for the same resources such as water, food, orhunting grounds in an environment, shown in Figure 1.3. Eventually, the species that is less able to compete forresources will either adapt or die out. According to evolutionary theory, competition for resources plays an importantrole in natural selection.

Animals that eat decomposing organic material also have an important interaction with the environment. They helpto decompose dead matter and assist with the recycling of nutrients. By burying and eating dung, dung beetles, suchas the one shown in Figure 1.4, improve nutrient cycling and soil structure. They make the dead organic matter

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FIGURE 1.3Competition between organisms andspecies. These male deer are competingfor females during rutting (mating) sea-son. Trees in this Bangladesh forest arein competition for light.

available to bacteria that break it down even further.

FIGURE 1.4Dung beetles have important interac-tions with the environment, through whichmany other organisms benefit.

Organisms are not independent, they are interdependent. They cannot live alone; they need other organisms tosurvive. The same is true for species. All species need other species to survive.

Levels of Organization

In studying how organisms interact with each other, biologists often find it helpful to classify the organisms andinteractions into levels of organization. Similar to the way an organism itself has different levels of organization,the ways in which organisms interact with their environment and each other can also be divided into levels oforganization. For example:

The biosphere includes all living things within all of their environments. It includes every place that life occurs,from the upper reaches of the atmosphere to the top few meters of soil, to the bottoms of the oceans. An ecosystemis made up of the relationships among smaller groups of organisms with each other, and with their environment.Scientists often speak of the interrelatedness of living things, because, according to evolutionary theory, organismsadapt to their environment, and they must also adapt to other organisms in that environment.

A community is made up of the relationships between groups of different species. For example, the desert commu-

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nities consist of rabbits, coyotes, snakes, birds, mice and such plants as sahuaro cactus, ocotillo, and creosote bush.Community structure can be disturbed by such dynamics as fire, human activity, and over-population.

A population is a group of individuals of a single species that mate and interact with one another in a limitedgeographic area. For example, a field of flowers which is separated from another field by a hill or other area wherenone of these flowers occur.

It is thus possible to study biology at many levels, from collections of organisms or communities, to the innerworkings of a cell (organelle). More about the interactions of organisms will be discussed in Ecology - Advanced.

FIGURE 1.5This picture shows the levels of organiza-tion in nature, from the individual organ-ism to the biosphere.

The Diversity of Life

Evolutionary theory and the cell theory give us the basis for how and why organisms relate to each other. Thediversity of life found on Earth today is the result of 4 billion years of evolution. Some of this diversity is shown inFigure 1.6. The origin of life is not completely understood by science, though limited evidence suggests that lifemay already have been well-established a few 100 million years after Earth formed. Until approximately 600 millionyears ago, all life was made up of single-celled organisms.

The level of biodiversity found in the fossil record suggests that the last few million years include the periodof greatest biodiversity in the Earth’s history. However, not all scientists support this view, since there is a lotof uncertainty as to how strongly the fossil record is biased by the greater availability and preservation of morerecent fossil-containing rock layers. Some researchers argue that modern biodiversity is not much different frombiodiversity 300 million years ago. Estimates of the present global species diversity vary from 5 million to 30million species, with a best estimate of somewhere near 10 million species. All living organisms are classifiedinto one of the six kingdoms: Archaebacteria (Archaea), Eubacteria (Bacteria), Protista (Protists), Fungi, Plantae(Plants), and Animalia (Animals).

New species are regularly discovered and many, though already discovered, are not yet classified. One estimatestates that about 40 percent of freshwater fish from South America are noa few of the many members of the animalkingdom are shown in Figure 1.6. The animal kingdom is just a tiny portion ot yet classified. Every year, scientistsdiscover the existence of many hundreds more archaea and bacteria than were previously known. Just f the total

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diversity of life. More about the diversity of living creatures will be discussed throughout numerous concepts.

FIGURE 1.6Animal diversity. This figure shows justa fraction of the diversity of life. Thediversity of organisms found in the fivekingdoms of life, dwarf the number oforganisms found in the animal kingdom.The other kingdoms of life are Eubacte-ria, Archaebacteria, Protista, Fungi, andPlantae.

Vocabulary

• biodiversity: The variety of life and its processes; including the variety of living organisms, the geneticdifferences among them, and the communities and ecosystems in which they occur.

• biological interactions: The interactions between different organisms in an environment.• biosphere: The areas of Earth where all organisms live; extends from about 11,000 meters below sea level to

15,000 meters above sea level.• commensalism: A symbiotic relationship in which one species benefits while the other species is not affected.• community: The populations of different species that live in the same habitat and interact with one another;

the biotic component of an ecosystem.• competition: The relationship between organisms that strive for the same limited resources.• ecosystem: A natural unit consisting of a community (the biotic factors) functioning together with all the

nonliving (abiotic) physical factors of the environment.• interdependent: The notion that organisms (species) cannot live alone; they need other organisms (species)

to survive.• mutualism: A type of symbiotic relationship in which both species benefit.• parasitism: A symbiotic relationship in which one species (the parasite) benefits while the other species (the

host) is harmed.• population: A group of individuals of a single species that mate and interact with one another in a limited

geographic area.• predation: A relationship in which members of one species (the predator) consume members of other species

(the prey).

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• symbiosis: A close relationship/association between organisms of different species in which at least one ofthe organisms benefits from the relationship.

Summary

• The interactions of an organism with its environment are vital to its survival, and the functioning of theecosystem as a whole.

• An ecosystem consists of the relationships among smaller groups of organisms with each other, and with theirenvironment.

• Symbiosis can be used to describe various types of close relationships between organisms of different species.• Competition is as an interaction between organisms or species for the same resources in an environment.

Practice

Use this resource to answer the questions that follow.

• http://www.hippocampus.org/Biology → Non-Majors Biology → Search: Interactions Within Communi-ties

1. How do organisms within a community interact with each other?2. Describe and give examples of the two types of competition.3. How may predation benefit the prey population?4. Describe the various types of symbiotic relationships. Provide examples of each.

Review

1. What is biological interactions?2. What is the difference between mutualism and commensalism?3. What is predation?4. What are the levels of organization that organisms interact with their environment and explain them.5. Give an example of how you are interdependent from another organism.

References

1. E. coli: Courtesy of Rocky Mountain Laboratories, NIAID, NIH; Clownfish: Jan Derk; Lions: Flickr:paulshaffner; Bee: Jon Sullivan and pdphoto.org. . E. coli: Public Domain; Clownfish: Public Domain;Lions: CC-BY 2.0; Bee: Public Domain

2. Image copyright Godrick, 2010. . Used under license from Shutterstock.com3. Deers: Heinz Seehagel (User:HaSee/De.Wikipedia); Forest: Courtesy of USAID. . Public Domain4. User:LiquidGhoul/Wikimedia Commons. . CC-BY 2.55. CK-12 Foundation - Christopher Auyeung, modified by Mariana Ruiz Villarreal. . CC-BY-NC-SA 3.06. Bird: Kevin Cole; Moose: Courtesy Hagerty Ryan, US Fish and Wildlife Service; Frog: User:Zandberg/Wikimedia

Commons; Snake: Kelley Minars (Flickr: greaterumbrage); Fish: Adrian Pingstone; LadyBug: Jon Sullivan.. Bird: CC-BY 2.0; Moose: Public Domain; Frog: Public Domain; Snake: CC-BY-2.0; Fish: Public Domain;Ladybug: Public Domain

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