BCSSS

International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

2nd Edition, as published by Charles François 2004 Presented by the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science Vienna for public access.

About

The International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics was first edited and published by the system scientist Charles François in 1997. The online version that is provided here was based on the 2nd edition in 2004. It was uploaded and gifted to the center by ASC president Michael Lissack in 2019; the BCSSS purchased the rights for the re-publication of this volume in 200?. In 2018, the original editor expressed his wish to pass on the stewardship over the maintenance and further development of the encyclopedia to the Bertalanffy Center. In the future, the BCSSS seeks to further develop the encyclopedia by open collaboration within the systems sciences. Until the center has found and been able to implement an adequate technical solution for this, the static website is made accessible for the benefit of public scholarship and education.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

SYMBIOTIC PARTNERSHIP 2)4)

← Back

The association of two or more distinct vegetal and/or animal species producing benefits and/ or protection to both.

This seems to be a step previous to integrated symbiosis, or at least could be.

An example at a practically automatic level is the reaction of a tree, parasited by some insect. The tree emits pheromones as a response to the attack and these attract parasites of the parasite.

P. CORNING (2001, p. 8-9) gives examples of symbiotic partnership. One is between the African honey guide bird, who discovers a hive and a badger, who is able to dismember it. The bird gets the beeswax and the badger eats the honey.

Corning also cites the partnership of the same honeyguide bird with the nomadic northern Kenyan Boran people, with similar results.

Symbiotic partnership also exist at the simplest biological level. Corning even gives an example of multiple partnership in a single-celled protist: Mixotricha paradoxa.

Symbiotic partnership, whatever its level or complexity, is clearly a socializing mechanism, leading to living systems of higher degrees of integrated organization.

It is however different in nature from herd effects or swarms which gather individuals of the same species, mainly for reciprocal protection.

Categories

  • 1) General information
  • 2) Methodology or model
  • 3) Epistemology, ontology and semantics
  • 4) Human sciences
  • 5) Discipline oriented

Publisher

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science(2020).

To cite this page, please use the following information:

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (2020). Title of the entry. In Charles François (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics (2). Retrieved from www.systemspedia.org/[full/url]

We thank the following partners for making the open access of this volume possible:

© 2020 BCSSS Contact/Imprint