Protocol cooperation

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Protocooperation (from Greek protos = foremost, first and Latin cooperatio = participation ) describes the loosest form of symbiosis in ecology, i.e. a relationship between individuals of different species. Both types benefit from the relationship with the cooperation partner. For both types, however, this “ cooperation ” is not mandatory, that is, they can survive even without protoco- cooperation .

Outside of microbiology, the term protocooperation is used rather rarely and irregularly for the phenomenon described. As an alternative, the term "alliance" is often used in the same sense, but most cases are simply referred to as mutualism .

An agriculturally relevant example of a protocol cooperation is the relationship between bumblebees and red clover as well as field beans : Bumblebees make a significant contribution to the fertilization of these crops (i.e. increase their chances of reproduction ), while the pollen serves to feed them. Both the animals and the plants can survive on their own, as bumblebees have other sources of food and the plants can also be pollinated by other species.

Protocooperations involving bird species include e.g. B.

  • Maggot chopper , crocodile guardian , small-ground finch ( Geospiza fuliginosa ) and other "cleaning birds", which, sometimes only very occasionally, collect parasites from vertebrates.
  • Blanket Toko and Eastern Yellow -Beaked Toko cooperate with Helogale parvula undulata , a subspecies of the southern dwarf mongoose . The two Toko species catch the insects (especially grasshoppers) that these mongooses , which live in groups, scare off when they search for food. The dwarf mongooses benefit from this protocooperation because both tokos warn of predators from the air. The dwarf mongooses wait for the toko to begin their prey. The Eastern Yellow-Beaked Toko also shows specific behaviors to indicate to the dwarf mongoose that it is willing to cooperate.
  • Another example was e.g. B. between a mole cricket species and a nematode pathogenic fungus described, the cricket spreading the fungus that protects itself from nematode infection.

See also

literature

  • Anselm Kratochwil, Angelika Schwabe: Ecology of communities - biocenology. Eugen Ulmer Verlag 2001.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Frank R. Isenhart, David F. DeSante: Observations of scrub-jays cleaning ectoparasites from black-tailed deer. In: Condor. Volume 87, 1985, pp. 145-147.
  2. ^ Alan Kemp: The Hornbills - Bucerotiformes . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1995, ISBN 0-19-857729-X . P. 141 and P. 143
  3. ↑ HG Fowler, CR Garcia: Parasite-dependent protocooperation. In: The natural sciences. Volume 76, No. 1, 1989, pp. 26-27. doi : 10.1007 / BF00368307