Species Interactions - Science in the...
Transcript of Species Interactions - Science in the...
Species Interactions: more than the sum of their parts
Species interactions: more than
the sum of their parts
How species interactions created the world
- Jon
Most organisms cannot live on their own
- Shelbi
Power struggles and partnerships
- Leonora
Species interactions: more than
the sum of their parts
How species interactions created the world
- Jon
Most organisms cannot live on their own
- Shelbi
Power struggles and partnerships
- Leonora
How species interactions
created the world
Jon Sanders
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Species interactions have large
effects!
1. What’s in a species interaction?
2. How species interactions created the
world
3. How they can (and have!) destroyed it
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1. What’s in a species
interaction?
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Common interactions
• Predation
• Herbivory (plant predation!)
• Parasitism
• Competition
• ...what about positive interactions?
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Symbiosis
• Commonly: ‘positive’ interactions
• Originally: close interactions
syn = “together;” bios = “life”
• We’re going to use second meaning:
could be positive, negative, or neutral!
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+/+
+/-
+/0
CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Flickr user scott.tanis http://www.flickr.com/photos/scott-tanis/2674374058/
-/0
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Types of Symbioses
+ -
+ Mutualism Parasitism
0 Commensalis
m Amensalism
These interactions are on a continuum!
Questions?
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2. How species interactions
created the world
Photo: NASA
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How did Earth become
complex?
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How did Earth become
complex?
1) Energy input (life) maintains order
2) Species interactions increase complexity
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Life = energy
• Energy can come from many sources
• This diversity underlies many species
interactions
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tie in
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WORK WORK
Redox = moving electrons
+
– ]
Electron donor
(fuel)
Electron acceptor
(oxidant)
] ]
(REDuction/OXidation)
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sugar → CO2 CO2 → sugar
O2 → H2O H2O → O2
+
–
]
]
Oxidation Reduction
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sugar → CO2 CO2 → sugar
iron → rust rust → iron
O2 → H2O H2O → O2
Hydrogen Sulfide → S S → Hydrogen Sulfide
Oxidation Reduction
H2 → H+ H+ → H2
Nitrogen Gas → Nitrate Nitrate → Nitrogen Gas
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sugar → CO2
O2 → H2O
Oxidation Reduction
CO2 → sugar
iron → rust rust → iron
H2O → O2
Hydrogen Sulfide → S S → Hydrogen Sulfide
H2 → H+ H+ → H2
Nitrogen Gas → Nitrate Nitrate → Nitrogen Gas
Methane → CO2 CO2 → Methane
Sulfide → Sulfate Sulfate → Sulfide
Ammonia → Nitrate Nitrate → Ammonia
Nitrite → Nitrate Nitrate → Nitrite
Mn2+ → MnO2 MnO2 → Mn2+
Questions?
Timeline of life on Earth
Prokaryotes
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Early Earth
was reduced
• No oxygen
• Lots of CO2,
organic
molecules,
hydrogen
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sugar → CO2 CO2 → sugar
iron → rust rust → iron
O2 → H2O H2O → O2
ammonia → N2 N2 → ammonia
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Early life was structurally
boring
early life complex early life
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Until
photosynthesi
s! • Uses light to split
water
• SO MUCH
POWER!
• Store that energy
in CO2 --> sugar
• ...produces
oxygen
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]
sugar → CO2 CO2 → sugar
O2 → H2O H2O → O2 ]
`
Prokaryotes
Eukaryotes
Animals
Timeline of life on Earth
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Endosymbiosis
Non oxygen-utilizing bacterium
Oxygen-utilizing Bacterium
First eukaryote!
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New species interactions!
Predation
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Prokaryotes
Eukaryotes
Animals
Timeline of life on Earth
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Want to photosynthesize?
• You can’t. But bacteria can!
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`
Prokaryotes Eukaryotes
Animals
Birth
Loss
Gene Families
Duplication Transfer
David and Alm, Nature 2011
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3. How species interactions can
destroy worlds
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The oxygen catastrophe
• Early life was obligately anaerobic --
oxygen was incredibly toxic.
• Oxygenation of atmosphere must have
been devastating!
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Amensalism:
0/- CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Flickr user scott.tanis http://www.flickr.com/photos/scott-tanis/2674374058/
Recap
• Species interactions enable new kinds of life
• These interactions have profoundly affected our world
Species interactions: more than
the sum of their parts
How species interactions created the world
- Jon
Most organisms cannot live on their own
- Shelbi
Power struggles and partnerships
- Leonora
Most organisms cannot
live on their own
Shelbi Russell
Division of Labor
Creative Commons: Donovan Govan; Thomas Thwaites @ www.thetoasterproject.org
• How difficult would it be to
build a toaster from scratch? 404 parts
36 different materials
•Thomas Thwaites Toaster Project: - Mine and smelt
copper, iron, and nickel ore
- Shape metals into pins, heating element,
wires, etc.
- Mica for heating element
- Synthesize plastics
Function for mutualisms:
Overview • Division of tasks depends on:
–Organisms in mutualism
–Environment
• Most common purposes of mutualism:
–Protection
• Ants that protect acacia trees
• Light-producing bacteria that camouflage squid
–Nutrition
• Root fungi that provide nutrition for plants
• Bacteria that harvest energy from reduced chemicals to
feed clams
• Bacterial community that helps humans digest food
Function for mutualisms:
Overview • Division of tasks depends on:
–Organisms in mutualism
–Environment
• Most common purposes of mutualism:
–Protection
• Ants that protect acacia trees
• Light-producing bacteria that camouflage squid
–Nutrition
• Root fungi that provide nutrition for plants
• Bacteria that harvest energy from reduced chemicals to
feed clams
• Bacterial community that helps humans digest food
Protective mutualisms
• Its a dangerous
world...
–Herbivores
–Predators
–Parasites
–Pathogens
• Certain mutualisms
exist to evade and
confront these
dangers
Clockwise from top: Creative commons: masaki ikeda, Boing-boing; Shelbi Russell
Dan L. Perlman @ ecolibrary.org
Hollow thorns house ants
Trees feed ants
Carbohydrate-rich
nectar
Lipid and protein-rich food
Ants and Acacia trees
Dan L. Perlman @ ecolibrary.org
Ants protect trees
from
• Herbivores
• Other plants
Ants and Acacia trees
Camouflage in the ocean
• Open ocean
presents a
challenge for prey
• Many animals have
adopted white bellies to
avoid detection
Top to bottom: Creative Commons: Fbattail; Wolfgang_Striewski
Questions?
Function for mutualisms:
Overview • Division of tasks depends on:
–Organisms in mutualism
–Environment
• Most common purposes of mutualism:
–Protection
• Ants that protect acacia trees
• Light-producing bacteria that camouflage squid
–Nutrition
• Root fungi that provide nutrition for plants
• Bacteria that harvest energy from reduced chemicals to
feed clams
• Bacterial community that helps humans digest food
Nutritional mutualisms
• Nutrient poor diet
• Difficult to access nutrients
• Environments with unconventional energy
sources
Mycorrhizal fungi and Plants
Top to bottom, left to right: Creative commons: Adrian.benko; BetacommandBot; Malene; Thergothon; Tocekas.
• Help plants
acquire nutrients
• >80% of plant
species
• 400 million
years old
• Important for
soil colonization
The human ecosystem
• 90% of cells in the human body are bacterial
–99% of genes belong to them
• Hundreds of bacterial species in the gut alone
• Excrete our body weight in bacteria each year
• Without gut symbionts, we would need to
consume 30% more calories
Questions?
Mutualisms are a source of
evolutionary novelty
• A different way to adapt to a new
environment or way of life.
• The skill does not need to be evolved, just
the association.
Benefits must outweigh the
costs • Host and symbionts are in vulnerable
positions.
No cheaters
• However, the relationship is not always
balanced...
Species interactions: more than
the sum of their parts
How species interactions created the world
- Jon
Most organisms cannot live on their own
- Shelbi
Power struggles and partnerships
- Leonora
Power struggles and
partnerships
Leonora Bittleston
Outline
• Costs and benefits in species
interactions
• Cheating and how to counteract it
– Mutualisms that become parasitic and vice
versa
• Influence of humans and climate change
on species interactions
Types of Symbioses
+ -
+ Mutualism Parasitism
0 Commensalism Amensalism
Note: these interactions are on a continuum!
Mutualism: depends on costs
and benefits
Overall positive outcome if the cost of what you
give is less than the benefit you receive.
Partner A Partner B
You can think of a mutualism as a
romantic relationship…
Microsoft Office Clip Art Gallery
…Or an
economic
partnership
• Exchange of goods
• Agreement
between partners
Microsoft Office Clip Art Gallery
Outline
• Costs and benefits in species
interactions
• Cheating and how to counteract it
– Mutualisms that become parasitic and vice
versa
• Influence of humans and climate change
on species interactions
Cheating
• One partner receives benefit but gives little or
nothing in return
• Advantageous to evolve cheating
Maria Sarah
Cheating:
bacteria and plants
• Bacteria called
Rhizobia provide
nutrients to plants in
exchange for sugar
• Cheating bacteria
don’t produce
nutrients, but still get
the sugars
Microsoft Office Clip Art Gallery, Wikimedia Commons: Ninjatacoshel
How does a mutually beneficial
interaction persist?
1.Partner feedback
2.Partner choice
3.Time scales
4.Sanctions
1. Partner feedback
Maria Sarah
Partner Feedback: plants and fungi
Microsoft Office Clip Art Gallery
2. Partner choice
Maria Sarah
Bill
Questions?
3. Time scales
Maria Sarah
Time scales: ants and acacias
Species 1:
good
defender but
high resource
use
Species 2:
good
defender but
sterilizes
plant
•Plants house and feed ants
•Ants protect plants from
herbivores
Jon Sanders
Time scales
Each ant colony lives only
about 10 years, while the
trees live 150 to 200 years
Species 3 Species 1 Species 4
10 years
150 years
10 years
Jon Sanders, Microsoft Office Clip Art Gallery
Species 2
• Expensive insurance against infrequent
but severe threat
• ELEPHANTS!
Microsoft Office Clip Art Gallery
4. Sanctions
Maria Sarah
Fig tree wasps
• Trees need specialized wasps as pollinators
•Wasps need to develop inside figs
Wikimedia commons: Prashanthns, Leonora Bittleston
Tiny
wasp
Sanctions
• Some wasps lay eggs in figs without performing time-consuming pollination
• Trees abort figs that have wasp eggs but have not been pollinated, killing both fig and developing wasps
• Happens more in fig species where the wasp partners commonly cheat
Wikimedia commons: Prashanthns
Mutualisms can become
parasitic, but can it go the other
way?
Yes!
Wolbachia
• Bacterial parasites that infect about 60% of insect species
• Generally have a negative impact on reproduction and fitness
• Often passed through females, and exhibit ‘son-killing’
Microsoft Office Clip Art Gallery
Parasite to mutualist
Bacteria provide
essential B vitamins
for bedbugs
Flikr: Gilles San Martin
Outline
• Costs and benefits in species
interactions
• Cheating and how to counteract it
– Mutualisms that become parasitic and vice
versa
• Influence of humans and climate change
on species interactions
Human influence on a mutualism
• Heavy fertilization
of fields changes
fungal community
• Fewer mutualists
Fertilizer
Creative commons: Adrian.benko
Climate change and timing shifts
• Out of 1598 different species, 41% were
impacted by a global average warming of 0.6°C
(1.1°F)
Microsoft Office Clip Art Gallery
Interaction mismatches
• For example: plants flower at
different times from when
insects emerge
• Even small changes can
disrupt interactions
Microsoft Office Clip Art Gallery
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Closing thoughts
• Species interactions have large impacts on humans
and the world around us
• Most organisms need other organisms to survive
• Relationships between species are complex and can
change with their environment
Jon Sanders
Thank you! SITN would like to acknowledge the following
organizations for their generous support.
Harvard Medical School Office of Communications and External Relations
Division of Medical Sciences
The Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS)
The Harvard Biomedical Graduate Students Organization (BGSO)
The Harvard/MIT COOP
Restaurant Associates