NEETZoologyOrganisms and Populations
How is competition best defined?
Options
- AAs the process where both species benefit
- BAs the process in which both species have the same fitness
- CAs a process where the fitness of one species is lower in the presence of another
- DAs a process where one species benefits and the other is unaffected
Correct answer
C. As a process where the fitness of one species is lower in the presence of another
Step-by-step solution
Therefore, competition is best defined as a process in which the fitness of one species (measured in terms of its ‘r’ the intrinsic rate of increase) is significantly lower in the presence of another species. It is relatively easy to demonstrate in laboratory experiments, as Gause and other experimental ecologists did, when resources are limited the competitively superior species will eventually eliminate the other species, but evidence for such competitive exclusion occurring in nature is not always conclusive. St