BIOB50H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Interspecific Competition, Limiting Factor, Ecological Niche
Document Summary
An antagonistic interaction (-/-) in which both parties are harmed by their shared use of a limiting resource, reducing their ability to survive, grow, and reproduce. (cost to both species) Intraspecific competition: competition between individuals of the same species. Interspecific competition: competition between members of different species. The more species are similar, the higher the competition (and individuals of your own population have the highest competition) The more limiting the resource, the more intensive the competition (e. g. coral reefs have space as a limiting resource and both members of one species as well as other species compete for space) Gauss principle of competitive exclusion: two species that use a limiting resource in the same way cannot coexist indefinitely; one species will outcompete (exclude) the other, driving it to extinction. [complete competitors cannot coexist: aurelia (higher k) and p. caudatum feed on floating bacteria and they feed on the same species whereas p. bursaria feeds on a separate species.