The Importance of Symbiosis

Though you may never have even heard of the word symbiosis, it plays a huge part in the world you live in. The definition of symbiosis is a close and often long term relationship between two different biological species. To be even more descriptive, there are three different types of symbiosis; commensalism, mutualism, and parasitism. Commensalism is the type of symbiosis in which one of the organisms benefits from the relationship, and the other one is not affected. An example of commensalism is clownfish and anemone because the clownfish benefits from the anemone's poisonous tentacles whereas most fish avoid it, because the anemone gives the clownfish a protective layer of mucus that makes them immune to stings. The second type of symbiosis is mutualism, in which both organisms benefit from the close relationship. An example of mutualism is algae and fungus in order to make the organism lichen. This is symbiosis because neither the algae nor the fungus could live without each other, for example, the fungus cannot survive without a photosynthetic organism such as algae, to produce it's food from sunlight. Furthermore, the algae cannot survive without the fungus, because the fungus is the organism that finds the two-part organism a place to live on, most commonly a tree or a log. Afterwards, the algae uses the nutrients supplied by the tree or log to create food. As you can see, neither organism can live without each other. Lastly, the third type of symbiosis is parasitism, in which one organism benefits, however, the other is harmed. For example, a intestinal parasite is a parasitic relationship because the parasite lives on the human gastro-intestinal tract because it serves as an ideal breeding environment. However, to the human gastro-intestinal tract it causes a severe infection, which could lead to more severe diseases. Overall, however, symbiosis is vitally important to millions of our world's most fascinating creature's survival.