Best Buddies A look at Symbiotic Relationships in an ecosystem.

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Best BuddiesA look at Symbiotic Relationships in
an ecosystem.
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Symbiotic-Relationships

• Every plant critter needs energy to survive
  thrive. Because of this, many inter-species
  relationships have been forged for the survival
  and purpose of accumulating this energy.
• In todays lesson we will examine these
  ecological relationships and how they either
  benefit or harm one another.

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Class Activities

• Think/Share Pair
• Define what it means to be a buddy to someone
  else.
• Define the 9 different eco-relationships.
• Best Buddies 30 Second Theater
• Pass out a copy of each slide and form 5 groups.
  
• These groups will develop a skit which will
  reflect ecosystem relationships as if it were a
  human relationship.

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Symbiosis/ Symbiotic Relationships

• The living together of two dissimilar organisms
  and how they get their food.
• Think in terms of benefit, harmed or killed.
• These can be categorized into 3 categories
• Mutualism
• Commensalism
• Parasitism
• Other ecological relationships include
• Producer/ Consumer
• Competition
• Predator / Prey

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30 Second Theater

• Produce a 30 second skit and take the Ecological
  relationship and convert it to a human
  relationship.
• Think in terms of relationships where one of the
  two Benefit, harm, kill, or neither harmed or
  killed as they both seek resources/food etc.

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Producer / Consumer

• Producer produces food
• Consumer eats the food

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Competition

• Both species both compete and fight for the same
  space and food.

Two types of predators competing for food
Two Bugs competing for nectar in a flower
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Predator / Prey

• One species benefits, the other DIES!

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Parasitism

• One species benefits, the other is harmed but NOT
  killed.

A parasitic wasp that laid her eggs on or in the
spiny caterpillar's body. The parasitic wasp
larvae ate most of their host, avoiding the vital
organs, so that the caterpillar stayed alive.
Mosquitoes sucking blood (and possibly
transferring a disease)
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Commensalism

• One species is benefited, the other neither
  benefits nor is harmed

The barnacle benefits by finding a habitat where
nutrients are available. The presence of barnacle
populations does not appear to hamper or enhance
the survival of the animals carrying them.
The fish gains protection and the anemone is
neither harmed nor helped
Humpback whale
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Mutualism

• Both Species Mutually Benefit from each other

The fungus gets food from the photosynthesizing
algae and the algae gets a place to live.
The caterpillars have nectar organs which the
ants drink from. The ants provide protection for
the caterpillar.
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Ecosystem Relationships
type of interaction sign effects
Mutualism / both species benefit from interaction
Commensalism /0 one species benefits, one unaffected
Competition  -/- each species affected negatively
Predator/Prey, Parasitism, Producer/Consumer /- one species benefits, one is disadvantaged
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Class Activity

• Best Buddies
• These next 12 slides are posted around the room.
• Students will take their form and interpret the
  relationship based on what they see.
• Roles are what the organism does as if it were
  an actor on the ecological screen.
• Relationships
• Producer/Consumer
• Producer/Decomposer
• Predator/Prey
• Mutualism
• Commensalism
• Parasitism
• Competition

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Mushroom
Forest
Forests take in sunlight and produce food.
Meanwhile the mushroom helps to break down dead
stuff and recycle the material back into the
forest ecosystem.
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2
Elephant
Grassland
The savannahs of Africa are home to many
elephants and other critters. They provide food,
shelter and water that the elephants need to live
and survive.
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Hunter
Elk
During the months of October, many hunters help
reduce the number of elk in the forest by hunting
them and using their meat for food.
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Grasshopper
Leaves
Grasshoppers have been known to devour whole
crops. They eat most any vegetation.
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Aphid
Ant
Aphids get their energy and nutrients from
sucking on the sugar in the sap found in plants.
But they dont need all of the sugar they get
from the sap and pass it on as honeydew. Ants
collect the honeydew by tapping on their antenna
and offer protection from predators.
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Cowbird (Eats insects stirred up by herds)
Buffalo
Buffalo used to travel in herds across the
plains, as they walked through the grass the
insects would fly out of the grass and the
cowbirds would eat them. The cowbirds would
follow the buffalo, which helped them catch
insects. This neither helped or hurt the buffalo.
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Honey Guide (Eats Bee Larve)
Honey Badger (Loves to eat honey)
Honey guide birds exhibit a unique pattern by
calling out loudly and chattering that attracts
the badger's attention. Then flies ahead, toward
the bees' nest, making sure the badger is
following. On arrival, the badger tears open the
bees' nest and feast on the bees' wax, honey, and
larvae --making sure some are left over for its
loyal referral--the honey guide bird.  
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Snail Has a home gets rid of it when hes out
grown it.
Hermit Crab Needs a Home
A hermit crab lives in shells that are made and
then abandoned by snails. This neither harms nor
benefits the snail.
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Tick
Deer
A tick feeds on deer blood to the detriment of
the deer.
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10
Warbler
Cuckoo
A cuckoo may lay its eggs in a warblers nest.
The cuckoos young will displace the warblers
young and will be raised by the warbler.
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Gazelle
Ostrich
These two animals feed next to each other in the
grasslands. Both watch for predators and alert
each other to danger. The visual abilities of
these two animals are different so they are able
to identify threats the other animal would not
see.
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Shark
Remora
A remora attaches themselves to a sharks body.
They travel with the shark and feed on the left
over food from the sharks meals. This does not
hurt or help the shark.