Name: Population Attributes
Uploaded: 2019-07-19
Duration: 4 min 58 s
Description: The population attributes provide a lot of information about an ecosystem and thus help population ecology. Watch this video and learn more about it.

Question

Explain how different organisms interact in a population emphasizing on the possibilities of various relationships.

Accepted Answer

Under a natural condition, no organism can remain separated from all other living forms. An individual of a population is influenced directly or indirectly by several species. Even autotrophic organisms like plant species cannot survive alone. This has to depend on soil microbes (for the breakdown of organic matter in soil) to fulfilled their inorganic nutrient requirements. The plants also depend on some animals or insects for pollination activities. Some vital processes like growth, nutrition, and reproduction depend upon the co-actions or interactions of other members within the species or between individuals of different species (population). The first one is called intraspecific interaction and the second is interspecific interactions. Such interactions can be beneficial (positive interaction) or detrimental (negative interaction) or neutral (neither beneficial nor harmful) to one or both the individual species. Based on these interactions some relations have been developed:

Mutualism: It is an interaction between two or more species in which all are benefited out of the relationship. It is a type of obligate association of two organisms where both live together and cannot live separately.

Competition: The name suggests that this is a kind of interaction where two individuals or species compete for a limited resource. This can happen between the members of the same species (intraspecific) or between members of different species of a community (interspecific).

Predation: In predation, one animal kills another animal or plant for food. So to say one species called predator is benefited and the interaction is detrimental for the other species i.e., prey. Examples of predators are a tiger, lion, larger fish, animal, etc. and prey includes deer, smaller fish, plants, etc.

Parasitism: This is a relationship between two individuals where in one individual called the parasite receives benefit at the expense of the other individual called the host. It is a harmful interaction between two individual species. Parasitism is mainly food coaction, but the parasite derives shelter and protection from the host, too. The parasite ordinarily does not kill the host until this completes its reproduction.

Explain how different organisms interact in a population emphasizing on the possibilities of various relationships.

Important Questions on Organisms and Environment

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