Organisms and Populations
Population Interactions
Can you think of any natural habitat on earth that is inhabited just by a single species? There is no such habitat and such a situation is even inconceivable
For any species, the minimal requirement is one more species on which it can feed
Even a plant species, which makes its own food, cannot survive alone; it needs soil microbes to break down the organic matter in soil and return the inorganic nutrients for absorption
And then, how will the plant manage pollination without an animal agent? It is obvious that in nature, animals, plants and microbes do not and cannot live in isolation but interact in various ways to form a biological community
Even in minimal communities, many interactive linkages exist, although all may not be readily apparent
Interspecific interactions arise from the interaction of populations of two different species
They could be beneficial, detrimental or neutral (neither harm nor benefit) to one of the species or both
Both the species benefit in mutualism and both lose in competition in their interactions with each other
In both parasitism and predation only one species benefits (parasite and predator, respectively) and the interaction is detrimental to the other species (host and prey, respectively)
The interaction where one species is benefitted and the other is neither benefitted nor harmed is called commensalism
In amensalism on the other hand one species is harmed whereas the other is unaffected
(i) Predation: What would happen to all the energy fixed by autotrophic organisms if the community has no animals to eat the plants?
You can think of predation as nature’s way of transferring to higher trophic levels the energy fixed by plants
When we think of predator and prey, most probably it is the tiger and the deer that readily come to our mind, but a sparrow eating any seed is no less a predator
Although animals eating plants are categorised separately as herbivores, they are, in a broad ecological context, not very different from predators
Besides acting as ‘conduits’ for energy transfer across trophic levels, predators play other important roles
They keep prey populations under control
But for predators, prey species could achieve very high population densities and cause ecosystem instability
When certain exotic species are introduced into a geographical area, they become invasive and start spreading fast because the invaded land does not have its natural predators
The prickly pear cactus introduced into Australia in the early 1920’s caused havoc by spreading rapidly into millions of hectares of rangeland
Finally, the invasive cactus was brought under control only after a cactus-feeding predator (a moth) from its natural habitat was introduced into the country
Biological control methods adopted in agricultural pest control are based on the ability of the predator to regulate prey population
Predators also help in maintaining species diversity in a community, by reducing the intensity of competition among competing prey species
In the rocky intertidal communities of the American Pacific Coast the starfish Pisaster is an important predator
In a field experiment, when all the starfish were removed from an enclosed intertidal area, more than 10 species of invertebrates became extinct within a year, because of interspecific competition
If a predator is too efficient and overexploits its prey, then the prey might become extinct and following it, the predator will also become extinct for lack of food
This is the reason why predators in nature are ‘prudent’
Prey species have evolved various defenses to lessen the impact of predation
Some species of insects and frogs are cryptically-coloured (camouflaged) to avoid being detected easily by the predator
Some are poisonous and therefore avoided by the predators
The Monarch butterfly is highly distasteful to its predator (bird) because of a special chemical present in its body
Interestingly, the butterfly acquires this chemical during its caterpillar stage by feeding on a poisonous weed
For plants, herbivores are the predators
Nearly 25 per cent of all insects are known to be phytophagous (feeding on plant sap and other parts of plants)
The problem is particularly severe for plants because, unlike animals, they cannot run away from their predators
Plants therefore have evolved an astonishing variety of morphological and chemical defences against herbivores
Thorns (Acacia, Cactus) are the most common morphological means of defence
Many plants produce and store chemicals that make the herbivore sick when they are eaten, inhibit feeding or digestion, disrupt its reproduction or even kill it
You must have seen the weed Calotropis growing in abandoned fields
The plant produces highly poisonous cardiac glycosides and that is why you never see any cattle or goats browsing on this plant
A wide variety of chemical substances that we extract from plants on a commercial scale (nicotine, caffeine, quinine, strychnine, opium, etc.,) are produced by them actually as defences against grazers and browsers
(ii) Competition: When Darwin spoke of the struggle for existence and survival of the fittest in nature, he was convinced that interspecific competition is a potent force in organic evolution
Firstly, totally unrelated species could also compete for the same resource
For instance, in some shallow South American lakes, visiting flamingoes and resident fishes compete for their common food, the zooplankton in the lake
Secondly, resources need not be limiting for competition to occur; in interference competition, the feeding efficiency of one species might be reduced due to the interfering and inhibitory presence of the other species, even if resources (food and space) are abundant
Therefore, competition is best defined as a process in which the fitness of one species (measured in terms of its ‘r’ the intrinsic rate of increase) is significantly lower in the presence of another species
It is relatively easy to demonstrate in laboratory experiments, as Gause and other experimental ecologists did, when resources are limited the competitively superior species will eventually eliminate the other species, but evidence for such competitive exclusion occurring in nature is not always conclusive
Strong and persuasive circumstantial evidence does exist however in some cases
The Abingdon tortoise in Galapagos Islands became extinct within a decade after goats were introduced on the island, apparently due to the greater browsing efficiency of the goats
Another evidence for the occurrence of competition in nature comes from what is called ‘competitive release’
In general, herbivores and plants appear to be more adversely affected by competition than carnivores
Gause’s ‘Competitive Exclusion Principle’ states that two closely related species competing for the same resources cannot co-exist indefinitely and the competitively inferior one will be eliminated eventually
This may be true if resources are limiting, but not otherwise
More recent studies do not support such gross generalisations about competition
While they do not rule out the occurrence of interspecific competition in nature, they point out that species facing competition might evolve mechanisms that promote co-existence rather than exclusion
One such mechanism is ‘resource partitioning’
If two species compete for the same resource, they could avoid competition by choosing, for instance, different times for feeding or different foraging patterns
MacArthur showed that five closely related species of warblers living on the same tree were able to avoid competition and co-exist due to behavioural differences in their foraging activities
(iii) Parasitism: Considering that the parasitic mode of life ensures free lodging and meals, it is not surprising that parasitism has evolved in so many taxonomic groups from plants to higher vertebrates
In accordance with their life styles, parasites evolved special adaptations such as the loss of unnecessary sense organs, presence of adhesive organs or suckers to cling on to the host, loss of digestive system and high reproductive capacity
The life cycles of parasites are often complex, involving one or two intermediate hosts or vectors to facilitate parasitisation of its primary host
The human liver fluke (a trematode parasite) depends on two intermediate hosts (a snail and a fish) to complete its life cycle
The malarial parasite needs a vector (mosquito) to spread to other hosts
Majority of the parasites harm the host; they may reduce the survival, growth and reproduction of the host and reduce its population density
They might render the host more vulnerable to predation by making it physically weak
Do you believe that an ideal parasite should be able to thrive within the host without harming it? Then why didn’t natural selection lead to the evolution of such totally harmless parasites? Parasites that feed on the external surface of the host organism are called ectoparasites
The most familiar examples of this group are the lice on humans and ticks on dogs
Many marine fish are infested with ectoparasitic copepods
Cuscuta, a parasitic plant that is commonly found growing on hedge plants, has lost its chlorophyll and leaves in the course of evolution
It derives its nutrition from the host plant which it parasitises
The female mosquito is not considered a parasite, although it needs our blood for reproduction
Can you explain why? In contrast, endoparasites are those that live inside the host body at different sites (liver, kidney, lungs, red blood cells, etc.)
The life cycles of endoparasites are more complex because of their extreme specialisation
Their morphological and anatomical features are greatly simplified while emphasising their reproductive potential
Brood parasitism in birds is a fascinating example of parasitism in which the parasitic bird lays its eggs in the nest of its host and lets the host incubate them
During the course of evolution, the eggs of the parasitic bird have evolved to resemble the host’s egg in size and colour to reduce the chances of the host bird detecting the foreign eggs and ejecting them from the nest
Try to follow the movements of the cuckoo (koel) and the crow in your neighborhood park during the breeding season (spring to summer) and watch brood parasitism in action
(iv) Commensalism: This is the interaction in which one species benefits and the other is neither harmed nor benefited
The cattle egret and grazing cattle in close association, a sight you are most likely to catch if you live in farmed rural areas, is a classic example of commensalism
The egrets always forage close to where the cattle are grazing because the cattle, as they move, stir up and flush out insects from the vegetation that otherwise might be difficult for the egrets to find and catch
Another example of commensalism is the interaction between sea anemone that has stinging tentacles and the clown fish that lives among them
The fish gets protection from predators which stay away from the stinging tentacles
(v) Mutualism: This interaction confers benefits on both the interacting species
Lichens represent an intimate mutualistic relationship between a fungus and photosynthesising algae or cyanobacteria
Similarly, the mycorrhizae are associations between fungi and the roots of higher plants
The fungi help the plant in the absorption of essential nutrients from the soil while the plant in turn provides the fungi with energy-yielding carbohydrates
The most spectacular and evolutionarily fascinating examples of mutualism are found in plant-animal relationships
Plants need the help of animals for pollinating their flowers and dispersing their seeds
Animals obviously have to be paid ‘fees’ for the services that plants expect from them
Plants offer rewards or fees in the form of pollen and nectar for pollinators and juicy and nutritious fruits for seed dispersers
But the mutually beneficial system should also be safeguarded against ‘cheaters’, for example, animals that try to steal nectar without aiding in pollination
Now you can see why plant-animal interactions often involve co-evolution of the mutualists, that is, the evolutions of the flower and its pollinator species are tightly linked with one another
In many species of fig trees, there is a tight one-to-one relationship with the pollinator species of wasp (Figure 11.4)
It means that a given fig species can be pollinated only by its ‘partner’ wasp species and no other species
The female wasp uses the fruit not only as an oviposition (egg-laying) site but uses the developing seeds within the fruit for nourishing its larvae
The wasp pollinates the fig inflorescence while searching for suitable egg-laying sites
In return for the favour of pollination the fig offers the wasp some of its developing seeds, as food for the developing wasp larvae
Not all orchids offer rewards
The Mediterranean orchid Ophrys employs ‘sexual deceit’ to get pollination done by a species of bee
One petal of its flower bears an uncanny resemblance to the female of the bee in size, colour and markings
The male bee is attracted to what it perceives as a female, ‘pseudocopulates’ with the flower, and during that process is dusted with pollen from the flower
When this same bee ‘pseudocopulates’ with another flower, it transfers pollen to it and thus, pollinates the flower
Here you can see how co-evolution operates
If the female bee’s colour patterns change even slightly for any reason during evolution, pollination success will be reduced unless the orchid flower co-evolves to maintain the resemblance of its petal to the female bee