Competition Flashcards
What are some examples of a resource?
Food
Shelter
Climate
Nutrients
Territory
Mates
When do individuals compete?
When resources are limiting
What are the two types of ways individuals compete?
Indirect
Interference
Examples of indirect competition
Exploitation/scramble (depleting/using the resource first)
Pre-emptive (using/depleting space)
Examples of interference competition
Overgrowth - species growing over another and depriving the other of light
Chemical - production of toxins
Territorial - behaviour of fighting in defense of space
Encounter - transient intercations directly over a specific resource
What should happen to K when there is interspecific competition?
It should decrease
What is measured for effect of competition?
Change in population growth
What did Georgy Gause measure?
Competitive exclusion principle
What does intraspecific competition act on?
The carrying capacity NOT population rate
What is the competitive exclusion principle?
No two species can share the same resource - One will always be better at exploiting a resource and will out-compete the other
No two species can occupy the same niche
Two species cannot coexist when they have identical needs of a limited resource
On a graph, when is there coexistence?
When the isoclines cross and an equillibrium forms
