Interspecific Competition

Q: What are the two types of interspecific competition?

A: Exploitative competition (scramble) and interference competition (contest).

Q: Allelopathy

A: A form of interference competition involving exudations from roots, volatile airborne substances, or decomposed plant tissue.

Q: Understand the Competitive Exclusion Principle.

A: Two species with identical ecological requirements cannot occupy the same environment indefinitely.

Q: Discuss Gause's competition study involving protozoans.

A: Gause found that when two species were grown separately, each species experienced logistic growth. However, when the two species were placed together, one species grew logistically while the other species declined significantly

Q: Habitat

A: The place where an organism lives, two or more species can occupy the same habitat

Q: Niche

A: The organism's way of life in an ecosystem, No two species can have the same niche

Q: A fundamental niche

A: A species' niche in the absence of competitors

Q: Realized niche

A: The portion of the fundamental niche in which the organism lives, which is often smaller due to competition.

Q: Niche overlap

A: occurs when two or more species use the same resources in the same environment.

Q: Generalists

A: have broad niches (opposums)

Q: Specialists

A: have narrow niches (koalas)

Q: Niche compression

A: The shrinking of the realized niche in response to an increase in competitors

Q: Ecological release

A: The expansion of the realized niche as a result of reduced interspecific competition.

Q: How does the Werner and Hall experiment illustrate niche shift?

A: It showed that when a more competitive species is introduced, the less competitive species will adopt new behavior to reduce competition