Ecology Lecture 5

Competition.

Interspecific: Different species

Intraspecific: Same species 

Resource competition: for the same limiting resource e.g. nest site.

Interference competition: direct competition e.g. by fighting.

Niche theory

Competititive exclusion principle (Gause’s Principle)

Competitive exclusion principle: If two competing species coexist in a stable environment then they must have different realized niches (‘niche differentiation’)

Character displacement

‘A measureable physical difference between two species which has arisen by natural selection as a result of the selection pressures on…