Epibiont

These organisms have evolved various adaptations to exploit their hosts for protection, transportation, or access to resources.

Examples of common epibionts are bacteria,[3] barnacles, remoras, and algae, many of which live on the surfaces of larger marine organisms such as whales, sharks, sea turtles, and mangrove trees.

This has been found to be especially important to marine organisms and aquatic ecosystems, as surface qualities do impact necessary ecological functions such as drag, radiation absorption, nutrient uptake, etc.

[4] P. bernhardus, or hermit crabs, acts as basibionts to many species of varying protozoa, hydrozoa, entoprocts, cirripeds, and polychaetes.

Multiple studies have found that P. bernardus in shells colonized with epibionts were likely to survive longer in laboratory settings when attacked by predators.