BI111 Chapter Notes - Chapter 47.3/47.4: Keystone Species, Climax Community, Superorganism
Document Summary
Some interactions between species can benefit both. When the benefits for each participate outweigh their costs, the interaction is a mutualism. Mutualism are interactions between species that benefit both participants: In response to signals from the bacteria, plays builds the bacteria home, the nodules out of root tissue a cost outweighed by the benefit of enhanced access to nitrogen a benefit measures in greater growth and reproductive output. Mutualists are also subjected to natural selection just like any other adaptation. Close interactions between species that have evolved over long periods of time are called symbioses. While some mutualism involve close interactions between specific species others are less particular. All herbivores feed on plant tissues with the help of microbial symbionts. Nearly all eukaryotes depend on microbial symbionts with which they have evolved. When one or more sides of a mutualism cannot survive without the other this association is said to be obligate.
