Competition (biology)

About: Competition (biology) is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 11601 publications have been published within this topic receiving 483777 citations. The topic is also known as: biological competition & species competition.

Behavioural Ecology : An Evolutionary Approach

Abstract: Part 1 Natural selection and life histories: evolutionary models in behavioural ecology evolution of life histories human behavioural ecology Part 2 Exploitation of resources: decision-making competition for resources interactions between predators and prey Part 3 Sexual selection and reproductive strategies: sexual selection parental investment mating systems Part 4 Co-operation and conflict: co-operative breeding in birds and mammals conflict and co-operation in insects communication

Community Structure, Population Control, and Competition

Abstract: In summary, then, our general conclusions are: (1) Populations of producers, carnivores, and decomposers are limited by their respective resources in the classical density-dependent fashion. (2) Interspecific competition must necessarily exist among the members of each of these three trophic levels. (3) Herbivores are seldom food-limited, appear most often to be predator-limited, and therefore are not likely to compete for common resources.

Competition and Biodiversity in Spatially Structured Habitats

Abstract: All organisms, especially terrestrial plants and other sessile species, interact mainly with their neighbors, but neighborhoods can differ in composition because of dis- persal and mortality. There is increasingly strong evidence that the spatial structure created by these forces profoundly influences the dynamics, composition, and biodiversity of com- munities. Nonspatial models predict that no more consumer species can coexist at equilibrium than there are limiting resources. In contrast, a similar model that includes neighborhood competition and random dispersal among sites predicts stable coexistence of a potentially unlimited number of species on a single resource. Coexistence occurs because species with sufficiently high dispersal rates persist in sites not occupied by superior competitors. Co- existence requires limiting similarity and two-way or three-way interspecific trade-offs among competitive ability, colonization ability, and longevity. This spatial competition hypothesis seems to explain the coexistence of the numerous plant species that compete for a single limiting resource in the grasslands of Cedar Creek Natural History Area. It provides a testable, alternative explanation for other high diversity communities, such as tropical forests. The model can be tested (1) by determining if coexisting species have the requisite trade-offs in colonization, competition, and longevity, (2) by addition of propagules to determine if local species abundances are limited by dispersal, and (3) by comparisons of the effects on biodiversity of high rates of propagule addition for species that differ in competitive ability.

Competition, Disturbance, and Community Organization: The Provision and Subsequent Utilization of Space in a Rocky Intertidal Community

Abstract: An understanding of community structure should be based on evidence that the growth and regulation of the component populations in the community are affected in a predictable manner by natural physical disturbances and by interactions with other species in the community. This study presents an experimental evaluation of the effects of such disturbances and competitive interactions on populations of sessile organisms in the rocky intertidal community, for which space can be demonstrated to be the most important limiting resource. This research was carried out at eight stations on the Washington coastline which have been ranked according to an exposure/desiccation gradient and subjected to comparable manipulation and observation. Physical variables such as wave exposure, battering by drift logs, and desiccation have important effects on the distribution and abundance of many of the sessile species in the community. In particular, wave exposure and desiccation have a major influence on the distribution patterns of all the algae and of the anemone Anthopleura elegantissima. The probability of damage from drift logs is very high in areas where logs have accumulated along the intertidal. Log damage and wave exposure have complementary effects in the provision of free space in a mussel bed, as wave shock enlarges a patch created by log damage by wrenching the mussels from the substratum at the periphery of the bare patch. Competition for primary space results in clear dominance hierarchies, in which barnacles are dominant over algae. Among the barnacles, Balanus cariosus is dominant over both B. glandula and Chthamalus dalli; B. glandula is dominant over C. dalli. The mussel Mytilus californianus requires secondary space (certain algae, barnacles, or byssal threads) for larval settlement, but is capable of growing over all other sessile species and potentially is the competitive dominant of space in the community.