What are the differences between parasitism and symbiosis?

Symbiosis is a relationship between organisms in which they benefit from each other. Moreover, these organisms cannot live without each other. An example is lichen – a symbiosis of a fungus and algae.

The fungus helps the algae to extract minerals, the algae provides them with organic substances. The death of one of them will lead to the death of the other.

Parasitism – a type of relationship in which one organism lives at the expense of another and harms it, can cause its death.

For example, a tinder fungus, settling on a tree, feeds on it, destroying its tissues. Also examples of parasitism are bacteria, viruses that cause disease, death of the host.