Exploitative interactions, also known as enemy–victim interactions,
is a part of
consumer–resource interactions Consumer–resource interactions are the core motif of ecological food chains or food webs, and are an umbrella term for a variety of more specialized types of biological species interactions including prey-predator (see predation), host-parasite (s ...
where one organism (the enemy) is the consumer of another organism (the victim), typically in a harmful manner. Some examples of this include
predator–prey interactions
Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill t ...
,
host–pathogen interactions,
and
brood parasitism.
In exploitative interactions, the enemy and the victim may often coevolve with each other.
How exactly they coevolve depends on many factors, such as population density. One evolutionary consequence of exploitative interactions is
antagonistic coevolution Sexual antagonistic co-evolution is the relationship between males and females where sexual morphology changes over time to counteract the opposite's sex traits to achieve the maximum reproductive success. This has been compared to an arms race be ...
. This can occur because of resistance, where the victim attempts to decrease the number of successful attacks by the enemy, which encourages the enemy to evolve in response, thus resulting in a
coevolutionary arms race. On the other hand, toleration, where the victim attempts to decrease the effect on fitness that successful enemy attacks have, may also evolve.
Exploitative interactions can have significant biological effects.
For example, exploitative interactions between a predator and prey can result in the extinction of the victim (the prey, in this case), as the predator, by definition, kills the prey, and thus reduces its population.
Another effect of these interactions is in the coevolutionary "hot" and "cold spots" put forth by
geographic mosaic theory. In this case, coevolution caused by resistance would create "hot spots" of coevolutionary activity in an otherwise uniform environment, whereas "cold spots" would be created by the evolution of tolerance, which generally does not create a coevolutionary arms race.
See also
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Biological interactions
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Coevolution
In biology, coevolution occurs when two or more species reciprocally affect each other's evolution through the process of natural selection. The term sometimes is used for two traits in the same species affecting each other's evolution, as well ...
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Consumer–resource interactions Consumer–resource interactions are the core motif of ecological food chains or food webs, and are an umbrella term for a variety of more specialized types of biological species interactions including prey-predator (see predation), host-parasite (s ...
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Host-pathogen interaction
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Parasitism
Parasitism is a Symbiosis, close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the Host (biology), host, causing it some harm, and is Adaptation, adapted structurally to this way of lif ...
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Predation
Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill the ...
References
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Biological interactions