On Mutual Benefits
Scott Gil C. Clara
An ecosystem is where living and non-living things interact with one another. Plants, animals, and the other living things live in and get there from the environment. Plants make their own food. They do this with sunlight, water, nutrients, and carbon dioxide. The food that they manufacture is also used by other living organisms to sustain life. The environment as a whole is the home of all their living things. Earth indeed one big ecosystem.
Organisms interact with one another in many different ways. When organisms live in close association with one another, they are said to have a symbiotic relationship.
The most common symbiotic relationship. Individual in this relationship all benefits from the association establish. There is a close association with each other. One typical example is exhibited by corals and algae. The coral provide shelter for the algae (zooxanthellae) that live on the polyps. The algae in return give nourishment to the corals. The photosynthetic activity of algae accelerates the disposition of calcium carbonate.
Mutualism may also be observed in the relationship in the carabao and the cattle egret. The birds eats the fleas from the carabao's body that in turn provides protection and shelter for the bird. It may also be demonstrated by the fishes-grouper and wrasse. The grouper allows the wrasse to dart in and out of its mouth. The wrasse cleans the grouper’s mouth in exchange for the small pieces of food that it can get.
In the rice field, azolla (water fern) is grown together with the rice plant. Azolla allows an alga, anabaena to live with it. The anabaena fixes nitrogen in the soil making it fertile. The azolla and anabaena both benefit from the process of each other. The gas exchange between plants and animals is another example of mutualism. Oxygen needed by animals is given off by plants while the carbon dioxide needed by plants that is given by animals.
This is the world of mutualism.
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