What's a word similar to symbiosis, but applies to all organisms. I'm trying to use it in context with the idea that everything is interconnected, so if one species goes extinct it will affect others (i.e. humans) down the road.

Question

What's a word similar to symbiosis, but applies to all organisms.  I'm trying to use it in context with the idea that everything is interconnected, so if one species goes extinct it will affect others (i.e. humans) down the road.

azureilai · Answer

mutualism

anonymous · Answer

But that only applies to 2 species

azureilai · Answer

Well, there is no word that can apply to all organisms because not all organisms can benefit each other. Since symbiosis means a realtionship beneficial to each other, a tiger eating a rabbit will not be good for the rabbit. It you look at any food webs, there are producers, consumers, and decomposers. The term to describe the relationship between them is ecological relationship. There are five diffrent ones. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_relationship

anonymous · Answer

Oh not necessarily benefit each other, but affect one another. As in if we take away one organism from the biosphere, all other living creatures will also be affected in some way

azureilai · Answer

I think the word you might be looking for is synergy. (But I am not sure)
or you can just define the realtionships between all organisms as "ecological realtionships"
biology-online.org
have some good resources. You may want to check there.