Give examples of connections between organisms in a natural community.

There are a huge number of connections and relationships between living organisms in nature. There are usually four types of relationships.

predation,
competition,
symbiosis and parasitism.

The relationships between organisms are also very diverse. Some eat others as food, others use them as building material for the construction of nests and other dwellings. There are organisms that carry seeds and pollen from plants.

Let’s present the main types of relationships.

Predation
Predation is a type of relationship between living organisms, when one is a predator and the other is a prey. For example, a wolf hare, a hawk mouse, an antelope crocodile, a mosquito dragonfly. Moreover, predators feed only on live prey. They are not interested in dead organisms.

Competition
Competition is one of the most common forms of relationships between organisms in nature. Competition can take place both between absolutely identical animals (for example, between mice for finding food), and between different animals (a hawk and a fox for finding food for themselves). Those animals compete, whose food, habitats are the same. The struggle can be for food, for habitat (for example, animals living in holes compete to occupy them first), for an individual of the opposite sex (female). Competition for females is especially developed in mammals and birds.

Symbiosis and parasitism
Symbiosis is the joint mutually beneficial living of two organisms, when each of them benefits its partner. So, for example, in the symbiosis of the aspen mushroom and the aspen tree, the fungus gives the tree water and minerals absorbed from the soil, and the tree gives the fungus nutrients that it itself forms in its leaves. Another example is the symbiosis of a hermit crab and anemones. Cancer constantly carries an anemone on its shell, which protects it with its poisonous tentacles, and anemones feed on the remains of cancer food.

In parasitism, only one can benefit from coexistence of two organisms. The other organism is inhibited. The parasite lives entirely on the host’s nutrients. An example of a parasite is a leech that attaches itself to fish and feeds on its blood; roundworms (worms) that live in the body of many mammals, including humans.