Many kinds of relationships exist between livingbeings on Earth, but not all of them are positive. Today we learn about amenismism. How does this unique type of relationship work? What examples of amenalism are the most vivid?
Definition of amenism
There are various relationships in whichthere are various species all over the world. In nature, no organism lives its life in complete isolation. It must somehow interact with other organisms and the environment. One of the types of relationships that have been classified by biologists and ecologists is amenism. This is any connection between organisms of different species in which one of them is inhibited or destroyed, while the other remains intact.
Types of amensism
Basically there are two types of amensism:
- Competition is a relationship in which a larger or stronger organism excludes another organism from a shelter (habitat) and takes its source of food.
- Antibiosis is a relationship in which one organism releases a chemical that kills another, while one that releases a harmful compound remains intact.
Examples of amensalism in nature
Almost every person faced the appearance of mold on bakery products. it common an example of amensism.Many types of bacteria and fungi under certain conditions can appear, for example, on bread. As a rule, this occurs with the expiration of its shelf life. This is a classic manifestation of antibiosis.
This example of amenalism clearly shows howone form capable of producing penicillin destroys other forms of bacteria that would also like to grow on this bread. It was these deadly properties of penicillin that led to its use as an antibiotic medication. Penicillin kills other bacteria, and they, in turn, do not cause him any harm.
Еще один прекрасный пример аменсализма относится to the category of competition. Large, tall black walnut trees can be found in many parts of the United States. Interestingly, there are no other plants beneath them. This is due to evolution, which has led to the ability of this plant to secrete a certain chemical substance - juglon, which destroys many herbaceous plants in its root zone.
Amenalism - what is it?
This is the interaction between by organismsin which one of them harms the other andwhile he himself receives no harm or tangible benefits. A clear example of amensism in animals is when sheep trample down grass or any cattle. While the grass does not have a tangible negative effect on the animal’s hooves, it itself suffers from squeezing.
Negative biological interaction
In nature, no living creature lives inabsolute isolation, and, thus, they must all interact with the environment and other organisms. The survival of the species and the functioning of the ecosystem as a whole largely depend on this.
One of the mechanisms of amensism isallelopathy that occurs in plants. It includes the production and release of chemicals that inhibit the growth and development of others. Allelopathic substances range from acids to simple organic compounds.
Amenalism is ecological interactionin which one organism harms another without receiving benefits. This kind of relationship can also be observed between humans and wildlife. Due to the destructive influence of humans on the environment, many species of animals and plants are endangered.
In almost all such cases, other types of animalsand plants suffer from human activity. For example, air pollution caused by cars, power plants, or steel mills often causes serious damage to lichens and plants in the affected area, while people do not directly benefit from this relationship.
The rarest kind of symbiosis
Amenalism is by far the rarest kindsymbiotic relationship, which involves a negative impact on one organism, while the other is not affected at all. However, in nature there are examples of mutual negative actions. For example, the relationship between sphagnum mosses and vascular plants in a sphagnum swamp, pine and sedge, and others. In this case, there is a situation of harmonious mutual oppression - some prevent growth, the latter take sunlight.
Relationships that are harmful to onepartner and neutral for another, position themselves in natural communities as the ultimate variant of asymmetric competition. For example, the tacit struggle for resources and natural selection. The stronger suppresses the weak, which inevitably leads to a new evolutionary step. An example of amensism can be observed between tall trees and young saplings or grass ground cover in the forest, which share sunlight, soil resources that they need for nutrition, and nitrogen.
Difficult relationship
The relationships of organisms are diverse andchangeable. This can be influenced by the environment, when the opposition in the struggle for limited resources, as well as different stages of the life cycle, is intensifying. Let us give an example of the relationship between salmon and bivalve pearl clam.
Being a larva, pearl oyster falls into the gillssalmon and plays the role of a parasite, but the grown-up individuals become independent organisms that live on the bottom and are engaged in filtering water, thereby improving the living space for fish. Some relationships cannot be described on one side only. Mollusks juveniles parasitize on fish, the offspring of which will later hide between congestion of shells from local predators.
What conclusions can be drawn
Interactions between organisms are likepositive and negative. The former are very important in the organization of ecosystems, they are responsible for the natural balance and act as a counterweight to competition - both interspecific and intraspecific, as well as such negative manifestations of cooperation as predation and parasitism. Amenalism is not considered a harmonious type of relationship, as one species will be necessarily oppressed, while the second will develop normally.
Remembering the example of amensalism with penicillin,It is worth mentioning that this substance inhibits the growth of other harmful or neutral bacteria, and they, in turn, can not give a decent resistance to mold. However, clinical trials have been conducted, and as a result, researchers have found that when penicillin is used for therapeutic purposes, the number of diseases caused by the fungus increases. This is due to the fact that in natural conditions there is a certain inhibition of the development of fungi by various bacteria.
