All living organisms in nature are interconnected by a variety of relationships, called biotic. Their appearance is due to the need to get food, facilitate reproduction and distribution, and eliminate competitors. No kind of biotic connection is useless or meaningless, as there are numerous examples. Protocooperation - one of the types of biotic interaction - is considered by scientists to be almost the most curious connection between organisms.
What is this
Protocooperation is a biotic relationship in which the cooperation of different species brings significant benefits to all parties, but is not obligatory for any of them. That is, the participants in the interaction are able to exist separately, but the joint functioning greatly improves the quality of their life. Another name for the type of connection is facultative symbiosis. Examples of protocooperation in nature show that such connections are very important and very common. They arise both within different kingdoms of living organisms, and between them.
Protocooperation: animal examples
One of the most famous examples of facultative symbiosis is the bond between hermit crabs and sea anemones. The crayfish themselves have a very soft shell, and without a "neighbor" they have less chance of surviving. Anemone, on the other hand, has a small space for food production. Protocooperation gives crayfish protection from predators, while sea anemones increase hunting space.
Examples of protocooperation among marine animals are very diverse. So, large predators, among which are moray eels, often suffer from skin parasites. To get rid of them, the predators swim to the habitat of the wrasses, which cleanse the hunters from an unpleasant and harmful "neighborhood". Moreover, there are cases when wrasses swam into the mouth of a predator, and he did not try to have lunch as a “orderly”.
Similar medical services are provided to rhinos by some species of birds. Moreover, they voluntarily perform security functions, shouting warning rhinos about the danger.
Protocooperation: examples of plants
It is readily used by farmers, planting beans along with cereals. The former provide the latter with easily digestible nitrogen, the latter provide the beans with a support that helps to withstand the winds and receive more sunlight.
Optional symbiosis between different kingdoms
Very often, protocooperation occurs between plants and insects. There are many different examples. The most striking illustration isserve as an optional symbiosis between ants and some herbs, in particular, thyme and European hoof. In the latter, the flowers are inconspicuous, inconspicuous, and even located very close to the ground. But they are rich in nectar, for which ants come, pollinating flowers in parallel. Note that the ungulate can do without these insects during pollination; in their absence, the wind serves as a tool, although with a noticeably lower efficiency. Ants also contribute to the spread of seeds: they contain aryllus, for the sake of which insects take away planting material without damaging it.
Protocooperation between higher plants (oak, pine, birch and many perennial grasses) and fungi is very common. This relationship is called mycorrhiza. When it is established, the fungal mycelium can even penetrate into the root, on which the hairs stop developing. The fungus is fed from a higher plant, in return supplying it with water and mineral s alts. Moreover, both communication participants can do without each other, but together they develop noticeably better and faster.
Features of protocooperation
Protocooperation, examples of which we have given, is characterized by the non-specificity of species entering into such relationships. This means that participants are able to unite with different partners, often temporarily, while they need some specific qualities of the second party. For example, birds in winter, finding food in non-snowy areas, often combine with ungulates. Those provide access to feeding by breaking the layersnow or ice, and birds warn "comrades-in-arms" of possible dangers.
Shaky Edge
It is often difficult for biologists to determine where is commensalism, where is mutualism, and where is protocooperation. There are many examples of such indefinite relationships. We can mention the pollination of flowers by flying insects. On the one hand, this process is a side process in the feeding of the same bees, so that it can be attributed to protocooperation. On the other hand, insects cannot live without pollen, so the connection can also be considered mutualistic. To simplify the understanding of the fine line between these two types of biotic relationships, it is commonly believed that if a plant is pollinated by only one type of insect, or an insect can feed on only one type of plant, then such a relationship refers to mutualism. If the pollinators are different, as well as the types of vegetation, then this is a proto-cooperation.
The same remark applies to commensalism, in which cooperation is beneficial to one side and indifferent to the other. For example, the existence of non-pathogenic microorganisms in the human body. They feed at the expense of the carrier, they do no harm, but the benefits a person receives are far from all and unequal: some protect him to a certain extent from pathogens, some remain neutral.
Biologists also know examples intermediate between mutualism and protocooperation. One of the species participating in the connection can do without the second, but its “partner” cannot survive without the other side.
