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Mutualism can be contrasted with interspecific competition, in which each species experiences reduced fitness, and exploitation, and with parasitism, in which one species benefits at the expense of the other. [2] However, mutualism may evolve from interactions that began with imbalanced benefits, such as parasitism. [3]
This definition of mutualism should be suffice for this article, although it neglects discussion of the many subtitles of IF theory applied to mutualisms, and the difficulties of examining short-term compared to long-term benefits, which are discussed in Foster and Wenselneers (2006) and de Mazancourt et al. (2005) respectively.
Perhaps the most widely acclaimed example of a trophic mutualism was the discovery of the leafcutter ant that engage in trophic mutualism with a fungus. [9] These ants cultivate a certain type of fungus by providing it with leaves and other nutrients. In turn, the ants will feed on a special nutrient that is only created by the fungus they nurture.
Mutualism is an interaction between two or more species, where species derive a mutual benefit, for example an increased carrying capacity. Similar interactions within a species are known as co-operation. Mutualism may be classified in terms of the closeness of association, the closest being symbiosis, which is often confused with mutualism.
Symbiosis includes three types of interactions—mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism—of which only mutualism can sometimes qualify as cooperation. Mutualism involves a close, mutually beneficial interaction between two different biological species, whereas "cooperation" is a more general term that can involve looser interactions and can ...
A commonly used example of mutualism in mosaic coevolution is that of the plant and pollinator.Anderson and Johnson studied the relationship between the length of the proboscis of the long-tongued fly (P. ganglbaueri) and the corolla tube length of Zaluzianskya microsiphon, a flowering plant endemic to South Africa. [4]
Protocooperation is a form of mutualism, but the cooperating species do not depend on each other for survival. An example of protocooperation happens between soil bacteria or fungi, and the plants that occur growing in the soil. None of the species rely on the relationship for survival, but all of the fungi, bacteria and higher plants take part ...
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