Studies of interaction between pathogens

Summary

A fundamental ecological observation is that activity of any organism affects the environment in which it lives. This has consequences not only for that organism or members of that species, but for other species inhabiting the same environment. It means that the dynamics of a population of a species living in a given environment cannot be evaluated without considering other species in the same environment and the interactions with and between these. Two species may experience several potential interaction types, e.g. competition (A and B have a negative effect on each other), mutualism (A and B have a positive effect on each other) or exploitation (A has positive effect on B, while B has negative effect on A), which may be either direct or indirect.