Commensalism Totally Explained

Everything about Phoresy totally explained

In ecology, commensalism is a kind of relationship between two organisms where one benefits and the other isn't significantly harmed or helped (like a bird living in a tree). The term derives from the English word commensal, meaning "sharing of food" in human social interaction; that word derives from the Latin com mensa, meaning "sharing a table".

Types

As with all ecological interactions, commensalisms vary in strength and duration from intimate, long-lived symbioses to brief, weak interactions through intermediaries. It is one of the three kinds of symbiotic relationships. Originally it was used to describe the use of waste food by second animals, like the carcass eaters that follow hunting animals but wait until they've finished their meal. Other forms of commensalism include:

Phoresy: One animal attaching to another animal for transportation only. This concerns mainly arthropods, examples of which are mites on insects (such as beetles, flies, or bees), pseudoscorpions on mammals and millipedes on birds. Phoresy can be either obligate or facultative (induced by environmental conditions).
Inquilinism: Using a second organism for housing. Examples are epiphytic plants (such as many orchids) which grow on trees, or birds that live in holes in trees.
Metabiosis: A more indirect dependency, in which the second organism uses something the first created, however after the death of the first. An example is the hermit crabs that use gastropod shells to protect their bodies.

The question of whether the relationship between humans and some types of our gut flora is commensal or mutualistic is still unanswered.
Some biologists argue that any close interaction between two organisms is unlikely to be completely neutral for either party, and that relationships identified as commensal are likely mutualistic or parasitic in a subtle way that hasn't been detected. For example, epiphytes are "nutritional pirates" that may intercept substantial amounts of mineral nutrients that would otherwise go to the host plant. Large numbers of epiphytes can also cause tree limbs to break or shade the host plant and reduce its rate of photosynthesis. Similarly, the phoretic mites in the image above may hinder their host by making flight more difficult, which may affect its aerial hunting ability or cause it to expend extra energy while carrying these passengers.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Phoresy'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://commensalism.totallyexplained.com">Commensalism Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.