NEETZoologyOrganisms and Populations
What did Gause’s experiments show about competitively superior species?
Options
- AThey will coexist indefinitely with the inferior species
- BThey will dominate and eliminate the inferior species when resources are limited
- CThey will always migrate to new areas
- DThey will never affect the distribution of other species
Correct answer
B. They will dominate and eliminate the inferior species when resources are limited
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. S