Ecological Facilitation

Ecological facilitation, also called probiosis, is a species interaction in which at least one participant benefits and neither is harmed, encompassing both mutualism, where both species gain, and commensalism, where one benefits while the other is unaffected. It stands in contrast to competitive interactions, in which species contend for scarce resources, and research suggests facilitation becomes more important than competition in physically harsh or stressful environments. Examples include flowering plants and their pollinators, in which the plant gains pollen dispersal and the pollinator gains food, and nurse plants, whose shade, moisture retention, and soil enrichment allow seedlings to establish more successfully than they could in open ground. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/