symbiotic relationships
Organisms benefiting together
Symbiotic relationships are close, long-term interactions between different species living together.
The term comes from biology, where it covers mutualism (both benefit), commensalism (one benefits, other unaffected), and parasitism (one benefits at the other's expense).
In general use, symbiotic usually implies mutual benefit: The two companies developed a symbiotic relationship, each providing what the other lacked.
The adjective symbiotic describes any such interdependence.
- mutualismTwo-way biological benefit
- mutual benefitGain for all involved
- give and takeMutual concession between parties
- mycorrhizaeFungal-root mutualistic associations
- neutralismDeliberate avoidance of alliances
cooperation · living together · dependency · food web · host · biodiversity · lichen · nitrogen-fixing · parasitic worm · beneficiary · ecological niches · facilitation · mitochondria · coexistence · partnership · reciprocity · clown fish · harm
- microbiologybacteria, bacterium, microbe, microbes, microorganisms
- spongessponge, sponges, sea sponge, marine sponges, natural sponge
- mycorrhizaemycorrhizae, mantle
symbiotic relationshipsparasitism
One benefits, one suffers
parasitic relationships · predation · exploitation · vampirism · toxic relationships
symbiotic relationshipscompetition
Struggle for supremacy
antagonism · rivalries · conflict · hostility · predation
symbiotic relationshipsindependence
Freedom from external control
isolation · autonomy · free-living · self-sufficiency · disconnection