Eko-patrol: Mutualism or cooperation.

First time this Saturday we’ve held our workshop in the new Argonauta’s office, in the center of Murter. Youngsters were happy that they are in the „center of events“ but also remembered the old offices with a lot of good memories.

We’ve started with a game which showed youngsters why cooperation is beneficial. They experienced that is easier to explain some term (chair, light, printer…) when you’re explaining in a team, rather than explaining alone.

It was interesting to see how many mutualism relationships are in nature, and how is mutualism important for human race. If the bugs would not help in pollination of plants, we could not eat a lot of fruitage. Some beings enter in obligated mutualism, where concept „you help me – i help you“ functions very good. For example, ringworm are association of mushrooms and algae. Mushrooms are in charge for water and minerals, while algae produce food through photosynthesis. We’ve watched a lot of videos about mutualism but youngsters were thrilled with relationship of crab and anemone. When crab overgrows the house, he just find a new, bigger one and move in. But when the crab is in a relationship with anemona, he needs to „persuade“ the anemona to move in a new house and that can be really funny. Corals live in mutualism relationship with algae Zooxanthellae, and that relationship is very important for our planet because coral reef are remarkable points of biodiversity. Because of global warming and acidification of the oceans, algae leave the corals what leads to coral bleaching and and finally dying. Aware how bad the situation is, we’ve reminded youngster on some of tips how to reduce consumption of fossils fuels.

For the end of the workshop youngster needed to connect the advertisements of mutualistic partners. For example the advertisement of the ants (Do not be fooled by our size because our motto is “together we are stronger.” We’re looking for a friendly roommate who has “full fridge”.) needed to be connected with the advertisement of the plant acacia (I offer safe and spacious home with a lot of food. I’m looking for one or more roommates who will be able to protect me.), advertisement of the sea anemone with the advertisement of the clown fish etc.

To have more strength for patrol, we’ve ate some donuts and yogurt and happily went to the local horse farm. We’ve learned what do they like to eat, what’s the name of each one and we also found out that some of them are allergic to dust, what was interesting. We went to the church on the top of the hill and enjoyed in view of-beautiful Murter island.

Until the next patrol!