The web of relationships in the natural world is known as the ecosystem, and the study of it ecology. Much as economy has to do with the distribution of goods, services, and property between human beings, ecology—which, like economy, also takes its root from the Greek word for household, and having to do with management of resources— has to do with the distribution of matter, energy, and use of the environment between organisms.
Ecological relationships are founded upon the distribution of the Sun’s energy, which is captured in the photosynthesis of the plants and is shared with the rest of the organisms in the ecosystem by way of the food web or trophic system. Perhaps just as important, however, are the hydrogen and nutrient cycles, including water and the primary nutrients, such as carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, among many others. These and many more are exchanged in the food web and moved up the trophic pyramid accordingly. Those engaged in ecological relationships together are known as ecological communities.
Trophic relationships are those community dealings relating to the short-term consumption of one organism or energy source by another, such as the Sun’s rays by a primary producer (like plants), the plant’s leaves by a primary consumer (such as an insect), the insect by the secondary consumer (like a bird), and then by a tertiary consumer (like a fox). The trophic relationships, then, include relations of production and consumption, such as those of prey and predator. But they also involve competition for resources, such as between cheetahs or between cheetah and hyena.
While death and suffering are apparent in the ecosystem, evolution also takes place, allowing something novel and improved to take the place of that which has vanquished. In the evolutionary competitions that exist, such as the evolutionary “arms race” between predator and prey, a delicate balance is maintained that allows greater and greater heights to be reached. Predators, for instance, keep grazers and browsers from producing population levels that the land cannot withstand. Without the predators, the grazers and browsers would ultimately suffer worse than they do with the predators being present. Everything, down to the scavengers and decomposers, has a role to play in making the environment more habitable.
Ecological relationships include not only trophic relationships, but also interspecific associations, symbiosis, and intraspecific societies.
When different organisms of a different species inhabit an area in common such that there is some interaction between them, this produces an association, which can be beneficial, neutral, or detrimental, owing to forces such as facilitation, competition, or amensalism, but always entail a greater interdependence. Those associations which become very close, and especially those which involve close contact, become forms of symbiosis. Symbiosis refers to the close relationships that exist between different organisms of different species living in close ecological relationships. Symbionts, those involved in symbiosis, can be involved in relationships of parasitism, where one organism benefits at the expense of another, commensalism, where an organism benefits without expense to another, or mutualism, where each organism benefits from a reciprocal arrangement.
It is difficult to justify the existence of parasites, but they do have an ecological role to play, it seems, particularly when it comes to evolution by way of horizontal gene transfers and environmental selection. Yes, that’s right, parasites play a role in the asexual transfer of genetic material from one organism to another, and have some say in which organisms can continue. It is similarly difficult to justify the existence of commensalists, but commensalists serve at times as genetic repositories and incubators for experimental genetic variations, providing a sometime source for novel genetic strategies, some of which may be passed on by the parasites. Parasites and commensals can be co-opted into obligate mutualist relations.
Mutualists, unlike parasites and commensalists, are organisms of different species who have found a way to assist one another in surviving. Mutualism is self-justifying, in that it involves a win/win dynamic that arises due to the benefit that each participant has in participating.
Some animals form close intraspecific associations, which become known as societies. These social organisms, known as social animals, interact with one another according to what is called social behavior, meaning that that which one dishes out, one expects to receive in return.
Social behavior among animals includes agonistic behavior, or behavior surrounding contest for resources such as food, territory, or mates. Agonistic relationships involve threats, contests, and submission to dominance. Prosocial, agonistic behavior is distinguished from the antisocial, antagonistic behavior of intraspecific, asocial animal communities by the fact that it is guided by baseline instincts that serve as standards of interaction between contestants, and in which one can expect reciprocal engagement. Unlike antagonistic behaviors, which are unconstrained forms of violent competition, that is, agonistic behaviors are constrained forms of violent contest, which typically stop short of the death of contestants and nearly always follow standards of good sportsmanship. This is as if natural law is recognized by the conscience of the animal, but is what we instead refer to as instinct. To be a social animal, as often with being a mutualist, typically means having at least some instincts necessary to be self-restrained, so as to be able to maintain a society. In this case, it also ensures the fitness of society’s members.
Along with agonistically competitive behaviors, however, some social animals engage in cooperation, which— like mutualism between species, but being within a species instead— involves collaborative or reciprocal relationships where each participant benefits in a win/win fashion. As with mutualism, this can involve the sharing of resources, keeping predators at bay, acts of facilitation, or etc.
Ecological communities undergo a series of changes known as succession, whereby one community will replace another. For instance, the first community to establish control of an environment, or which is the most basic to exist there, is known as the pioneering community, composed of likewise-named pioneering species. These species will tend to spread quickly and require no facilitation from other species. However, ecological succession means that each community, while using the environment, will change it such that it becomes unusable for itself. The pioneering community changes the environment, such as by changing the nutrient cycles, such that it facilitates the next community in replacing it. The next community, well-suited to living in the “waste” of the previous one, then takes its place. This facilitation and succession process continues until we come to what is called a climax community, one which is typically characterized by high amounts of mutualism and cooperation, has reached the top performance possible for its environment considering its current state of evolution.
Evolution, or physical changes that lead to the formation of novel or new community structures, allows for greater and greater levels of climax to be achieved. Evolution occurs when new genetic formations have been established, whether through random mutation or recombination, that have been found to have adaptive value in relation to the environment such that it can be said to serve the purpose of filling an ecological niche, in which case it can be said to have passed the test of natural selection. The entirety of the ecological system, from its largest communities and their trophic interactions to the associations, symbionts, and societies within the smallest community, has undergone the process of evolution. This process has ensured the ecological community and societal balances that are to be found throughout and on every level. It has not only given the mother her maternal drives, but the agonist his merciful impulse and the cooperator her refined sensibilities.
It may very well be difficult to see the benefit to the prey of the predator, to the host of the parasite, and to the challenger of the victor, but there is, lying beneath each of these conflicts, an underlying benevolence of sorts, an interdependence that has been identified as the circle or web of life. The predator, the parasite, and the agonist all share in common a purpose of challenging the fitness of others, and beyond this play roles of controlling populations and spreading genetic material, among many other important duties. Life as we know it could not exist without them. At the same time, there is an unpleasantness to them, and they are not to be celebrated in and of themselves. Instead, it is the associate, the mutualist, and the cooperator who have been responsible for the peak moments in evolution and for the brightest moments of living.
When looking at ecological communities, associates, symbionts, and cooperators, it becomes increasingly clear that Nature is Perfection, and that Perfection includes not only The Good, but also the bad. That is, even the worst aspects of the ecosystem ultimately serve to support the best, which facilitate even greater beings through evolution. Those things that we consider to be bad, then, while correctly identified as such, a part of Perfection, serving the purpose of what philosophers have identified as a force allowing for the best of possible worlds, a world with just enough evil so as to allow for Goodness to be appreciated. All evil, in the end, serves the Greater Good. This is what we see in evolution, from the turmoil-filled terrors of predation, parasitism, and agonism to the sublime and curious wonders of association, mutualism, and cooperation. So, while it is natural and right to prefer The Good to the bad, to favor the existence of the one over the other, and to celebrate when the bad is lessened, it must be understood that such favoritism takes place within a greater ecological-evolutionary balance that makes the world what it really is, eternally Perfect, the best of possible worlds, a world where greater and greater levels of Goodness can be experienced in contrast with the bad we are leaving behind.