NEETZoologyOrganisms and Populations
What can be concluded about competition in laboratory experiments?
Options
- ALaboratory experiments cannot simulate natural competition
- BCompetition is easily demonstrated in laboratory experiments with limited resources
- CLaboratory experiments always show co-existence of competing species
- DLaboratory experiments are irrelevant to understanding competition in nature
Correct answer
B. Competition is easily demonstrated in laboratory experiments with limited resources
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