1. Mutalism is when both species will benefit from the relationship
example : bees and flowers
bees are attracted to the nectar that the plants produce and as the bee collects nector, pollen sticks to the hair of the bees and is transferred from the flower to flower.
2. Commensalism is one member of the association benefits and one is neither helped nor harmed.
example : barnacles and whales
a barnacle is a filter feeder and gets food by filtering the water that pauses through its body as it moves. the barnacle does not have an effective mode of movement, so it attaches to the underbelly of the whale and filters the water as the whale swims. the barnacles do not feed off the whale and its attachement does not harm the whale.
3. Parasitism is one organism lives on or inside another organism and harms it
example : tapeworms
internal, live in the digestive track and does not cause the host to show symptoms until they are large enough to steal a majority of the nutrients from the host.
