Today we are going to discuss a great rule of our environment, competitive exclusion principle and we will discuss the concept of ecological niche.
In our environment a number of different organisms grow at a very high rate but their requirements like food, shelter and other resources are limited so it is sure that the organisms have to compete with each other for their requirements.
But all organisms can not secure their requirements equally so some organisms easily meet their requirements but some have to compromise their requirements for other stronger organisms so all organisms can not exist together in this competition.
Gause states this environmental rule that if two species compete for the same resources then it is not possible to coexist the two species and this rule is known as Gause’s law.
If a species is not able to adapt in their niche then other species must come to remove them who will take over the natural resources and the species who can not adapt will become extinct with time.
For example in a forest if the number of a carnivorous species increase suddenly then food deficiency will occur and to get food all the species have to face tough competition and this competition become much harder for those species who are very weak than that of other carnivores then there are strong possibility to become extinct the weaker species.
This situation when one stronger species wins over another weak species and replaces them is known as competitive exclusion.
The competition for meeting their requirements can be of different types, interspecific competition and intraspecific competition and a very common example of competitive exclusion is replacement of grey squirrel with the red squirrel in Britain and this competition was due to the deficiency in hazelnuts.
Table of Contents
Different Types of Competition:
Interspecific Competition:
When different species take part in the competition for their resources then the competition is known as interspecific competition and in this competition the stronger species win over the weak species and the weak species have to compromise their resources which sometimes lead to extinction of that weak species.
Intraspecific Competition:
Most of the cases the members of a species are involved in competitions because they have to use similar resources, so here the competition is also very high and it causes reduction of members in a species.
Interference:
In this case the organisms fight for their resources face to face, for example suppose an animal got a prey and when other animals also fight with the animal for this food is known as interference.
Exploitation:
In major cases some strong animals consume so much resources that no resources are left for other organisms which lead to an indirect competition among the organisms and it is known as exploitation.
Due to Insufficiency in natural resources only those organisms living in the environment who can win in the struggle for natural resources and this phenomenon cause selection of superior species over time and inferior ones become extinct with time and this is a very important factor for evolution.
But in nature there are different ways to bypass the competition and give equal opportunities to all organisms so that the competition can be minimised as much as possible.
Every organism has a special position in an ecosystem which is known as niche and due to this niche different organisms can enjoy the natural resources in different levels without facing a fight for natural resources.
For example food habits of different animals are different which prevents to interfere one animal on the resources of other animal, for example some birds eat on insects while some birds prefer to eat seed and gain so naturally competition among the two species of birds can be removed automatically.
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