SYMBIOSIS IN A CORAL REEF IN BALI

Symbiosis in the Coral Reef

The tropical Indo-Pacific is the world’s richest marine bio geographical area. The centre of this biologically rich area is an underwater triangle between Australia, the Philippines and Indonesia. If you want to identify all of the animals you will find here in the untouched pristine coral gardens you will need a lot of time and lots of good field guides but even than so many species are unknown by now. The pristine coral reefs combine the discrepancies of the species richest communities in our biosphere but in the same time the poorness of nutrients and space for this huge marine life. These conditions necessarily affect the sensitive and complex developed ecosystem to find a balance between the rare resources and the biodiversity richness which have to work together in a very sensitive way.
Therefore the concurrence for the rare resources inside the coral garden brings a fight between the fittest of the different species for there survival. In this case the animals had to develop complex mechanism of communication and adaptability between each other. The most conmen form to live together -you can find in the reef - is the symbiosis (sym [gr.] = together and bios [gr.] = life). A symbiosis is a shared life between different species which brings everybody of the partners more success and benefit.
But also if these symbioses between the different species are well developed it is still a concurrence between each of them for the available rescores.
We can divide three different types of symbiosis:

Comensalism

The benefit is here not given for both of the different species. One of the species have the profit of this relationship but the other have no detriment.
For example the Slender Suckerfish (Echeneis naucrates) suck himself with his back fins on a bigger fish,
The back fin is from the morphology formed like a suching plate based on vacuum.
With this organ he can suck on bigger fishes.

Here they find a society working together for food and protection which seem to be more comfortable for the Slender Suckerfish than for the other fish.
Who reaps the benefit of the symbiosis association is difficult to classify specially under the water because of the complex interrelation. Later they find out that also the landlord profit from the symbiosis too because he gets cleaned from the parasites. In this case we call it a facultative symbiosis.
Apart from the reason that it is difficult to categorise complex phenomena especially under the water never the less to classify the kind of interacting is depending on the topical results of research.


Facultative Symbioses

In facultative symbioses both of the partners have a benefit from the interaction but they can still live without each other.
For example the Cleaner fish (Labroides dimiatus)
In a cleaner station the little cleaner fish clean other species from there parasites.
Also if the area for cleaning is every time the same the fishes which want to be cleaned are changing all the time.

Obligate Symbiosis
An example for an obligate symbiosis is the cooperation between the zooxanthella algae and its coral polyp.
For both of the partners it became impossible to survive for a longer period by there own without the other one.