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Name: Brionna Smith Date: March 30th 2021

Ecological Relationships
What symbiotic relationships are seen in ecosystems?

Why?
All living organisms need each other in some way to survive. This can include the interactions between predator
and their prey, the close associations between and among living things (symbiosis), or the competitive
relationships between and among species. All of these relationships may be equally advantageous to the parties
involved, or they may be more beneficial to one organism over the other.

1. Refer to the graph in Model 1.

a. What does the y axis on the left represent?

Number of hares
b. What does the y axis on the right represent?
Number of lynx
c. For both y axes, what value do the numbers on the axis need to be multiplied by?
10 to the 3rd power
2. What was the approximate population of snowshoe hares in 1865?
160
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3. What was the approximate population of lynx in 1865?

80
4. When the number if snowshoe hares is high, what happens to the number of lynx? Use actual data from the
graph to support your observation.
The lynx is lower

5. What happens to the population of lynx when the number of snowshoe hares decreases? Uses actual data
from the graph to support your observation.
The lynx is still decreasing

6. Propose an explanation for the apparent cause and effect relationship between the populations of lynx and
hares.
The more hares then the less lynx that there are the more hares there are

7. What does this information tell you--

a. About the effect of the size of prey populations on the number of predators?
If there is more prey then the predators will be constant with their numbers but when the preys
numbers are down the predators numbers go down

b. About the effect of predators on the population of their prey?

That they make them decrease

8. What other factor would influence the size of the hare population in addition to the size of the population of
lynx?
Weather, shelter, and other animals
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Model 2 - Symbiosis
Organism 1 Organism 2 Description of the relationship Symbiotic
Relationship
Dog Flea The flea feeds on blood from the dog. There is no Parasitism
benefit to the dog and the itching and bites may
lead to infection.
Fungus Algae The photosynthetic algae provide food for the mutualism
fungus, which in turn provides a suitable living
environment for the algae.
Termite Cellulose The bacteria in the gut of the termite breakdown mutualism
digesting and feed on some of the cellulose taken in by the
bacteria termite. The termite would be unable to digest
cellulose without these bacteria and they gain an
additional source of nutrition from the surplus
digested cellulose.
Shark Remora The Remora fish swim alongside the shark and take commensalism
scraps of food that the shark drops during feeding.
The shark does not eat the Remora and appears
unaffected by its presence.
Cattle Cattle egret The cattle egret (a small bird) follows herds of cattle commensalism
and eats insects that the cattle stir up as they move
through the grassland. The cattle appear unaffected
by the egrets.
Human Tapeworm The tapeworm lives in the small intestines where it Parasitism
feeds and grows, robbing the human of essential
nutrients.

9. Refer to the information given in Model 2.

a. In the dog and flea relationship, is there a benefit for one or both organisms? Explain.
Only one which is the flea because the flea gets blood while the dog gets nothing

b. Is either the dog or flea harmed by this relationship? Explain.

The dog is itchy

c. Which other relationship in Model 2 is similar to that between the dog and flea?
The human and Tapeworm
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10. Refer to the fungus and algae relationship in Model 2.

a. Is there a benefit for one of the organisms or both? Explain.

Only one. The tape worm takes the humans nutrition

b. Is either the fungus or algae harmed by this relationship? Explain.

No they help eachother

c. Which other relationship in Model 2 is similar to that between the fungus and algae?
Termite and the CDB

11. Refer to the shark and remora relationship in Model 2.

a. In the shark and remora relationship, is there a benefit to one of the organisms or for both? Explain.
Only one because the remora is getting food without being harmed

b. Is either the shark or the remora harmed by this relationship? Explain.

No. the fish eats and the shark eats

c. Which other relationship in Model 2 is similar to that between the shark and the remora?
Cattle and egret cattle

Read This!

Symbiotic relationships are identified by how they affect the organisms involved. The three types of
symbiotic relationships are listed below.
 Mutualism: Both organisms benefit from the relationship.
 Parasitism: One organism benefits and the other organism is harmed.
 Commensalism: One organism benefits and there is no effect on the other.

12. Using the information in the Read This! Box, label each of the relationships in Model 2 as mutualism,
parasitism, or commensalism.

13. Choose one of the organism pairs from Model 2 and justify why you categorized the relationship as you did.
The human and tapeworm is a parasitism because only the tapeworm gets something and harms the
human.
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14. What are the names of species in graphs A and B in Model 3?

P. aurelia and P. causatum
15. Which graph shows competition between two different species? Explain.
Graph A because its side by side and one is higher

16. Which graph in Model 3 shows population growth for only one species?
Graph B
17. What is the difference between the growing conditions in graph A and graph B?
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Because P. coudatum lowered

18. P. caudatum and P. aurelia are both species of Paramecium, a microscopic protozoan. P. caudatum is the
larger of the two species. When grown separately, which of the two species reaches a larger relative
population size after 20 days? Explain.
P. aurelia

19. When grown separately is there a substantial difference in the relative population size of the two types of
paramecia after 20 days? Explain.
Yes one grows bigger

20. Compare graphs A and B in Model 3.

a. Which population of species of Paramecium is more affected when the two species are grown together?
Explain.
P. caudatum because it decreases growth

b. Considering that P. caudatum is 50% larger in size than P. aurelia, develop a hypothesis with your group to
explain why interspecific competition has an effect on the relative population size of P. caudatum.
That it grows bigger

21. In a grammatically correct sentence, define interspecific competition.

the competition between individuals of different species

22. Refer to graph C in Model 3.

a. Describe the species of organism represented by the graph.

R. tigrina
b. These tadpoles are confined to a limited environment. What are they all competing for in that
environment?
Food and space
23. What is the minimum mean body mass required for metamorphosis of a tadpole to occur?
7.9g
24. When there are only five tadpoles, how long does it take for metamorphosis to occur?
2 weeks
25. When the number of individuals is increased to 60, what is the effect on the time taken for metamorphosis to
occur?
The amount of time is tripled
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26. When the number of individuals is increased to 160, what is the effect on the time taken for metamorphosis
to occur?
Increases to 9 weeks
27. Propose an explanation for why the population size affects the number of weeks before metamorphosis of
the tadpoles occurs.
The population size affects the amt. of time before metamorphosis occurs

28. The type of competition represented by graph C is referred to as intraspecific competition. What is different
about this compared to the competition seen in graph B?
The difference between this competition compared to the one in graph B is that competition takes place
with tadpoles.