Relationships
Herbivory
In the Gulf of Mexico,there is a variety of relationships. One example of herbivory would be plankton eating algae. Plankton depend on algae as their food source to survive and if either of them weren't available changes would be made to the food chain. The relationship could be impacted heavily by the oil. If both species were killed off by the oil, there would be a gap in the food web causing other species to die from starvation or competition. If the population of plankton drastically fell, algae could overgrow and overpopulate the area. If the amount of algae decreased significantly, plankton could die off from starvation.
Predation
Another type of community interaction that could affected is predation. An example of predation in the geographic range is shrimp eating plankton for a food source. The oil could have killed off the entire population of shrimp and plankton leaving a hole in the food web. The shrimp population could have died off completely leaving the plankton to overpopulate or vice versa.
Parasitism
Types of symbiosis that could be affected is parasitism. An example of parasitism in the Gulf of Mexico is leeches sucking off tuna's blood for food. The leech lives on the tuna which does harm to the fish. This could be affected since the oil has a chance of killing the tuna causing the leeches to die from starvation.
Mutualism
One type of symbiosis that could be affected as well is mutualism. An example is different types of fish can help each other while hunting for food. One fish could use a set of skills such as being on guard while the other finds the food, or a fish that has a light could help the other fish look for food. Both fishes would be benefited since they would be getting food. However, the oil could kill one of the species of fish leaving the other one abandoned trying to find food.
Commensalism
A third type of symbiosis that could be affected by the oil is commensalism. An example that goes on in the Gulf of Mexico is shrimp can hide in plants from predators. The shrimp are protected and live while the plant is unaffected. The oil could damage that relationship. The shrimp population could die out unaffected the plant, or the plants could die leaving the shrimp vulnerable to predators.