Purchase Solution

Competition in an Ecosystem

Not what you're looking for?

Ask Custom Question

In nature, when resources are unlimited, a population will grow unchecked. When the density of that population reaches a certain number (called the carrying capacity), unrestricted reproduction ceases and competition begins. What are the different kinds of competition and what support can be used to differentiate them?

Purchase this Solution
Solution Summary

This solution describes the different types of competition organisms experience when resources are limited. It also discusses the impact of this competition on species survival and evolution.

Solution Preview

When there are unlimited resources in an environment, all species can coexist without much interaction. However, when any of those resources is in short supply, these species must fight each other in order to survive. In addition, individual species often fight amongst themselves for resources they need. This interspecific and intraspecific competition can play a large factor in the evolution of a species, as well as the environment in which it lives.
Interspecific competition occurs when two different species are fighting for the same resource. This could include a place to live (e.g. a nesting cavity in a tree), or the same food source (e.g. a clam being hunted by a crab and an octopus). As a result of limited resources, each ...

Purchase this Solution
Free BrainMass Quizzes
Feeding Babies

Do you know the science behind feeding babies? Test your knowledge with this quiz.

How Well Do You Know Your Body?

This quiz will assess the different systems of the human body. It will examine everything from the organs to the cellular processes that occur.

Breast Milk and Breastfeeding

How much do you know about breast milk and breastfeeding? Double check your knowledge level with this quiz!

BIOLOGY

Basics in biology

Cellular Respiration

This quiz is a review for cellular respiration.

View More Free Quizzes
Related BrainMass Solutions

  • Business Ecosystem

    According to Malthus: It is a moment when an expanding population exceeds supply of prerequisite natural resources, e.g., population increases exponentially which results in increasing competition for means of subsistence, food, shelter, etc.

  • Ecology, Organisms, and Ecosystems

    Define and give examples of intraspecific and interspecific competition. An ecosystem is a complete unit consisting of animals, plants, and the resources that sustain them. Landscapes are the physical features of the earth in a particular place.

  • Competition between different species

    If the environment was static and never-changing, then eventually an ecosystem would reach a perfect balance with each species in its own perfect niche. However, the environment is constantly changing.

  • Environmental studies

    Properly addressing the structure and function of an ecosystem requires an examination of its components and levels: individual, population, community, ecosystem, landscape, biome, and biosphere. An individual is a single member of a species.

  • Endangered Species and Land Management

    Problems with protecting only land, without understanding its interdependence on the ecosystem as a whole, results in inadequate protection.

  • pH of ecosystems

    One of the best (and most interesting, to me at least) examples of an ecosystem with an extreme pH is a peat bog. These are interesting and ecologically important for a number of reasons.

  • Energy Budgets in Ecosystems

    - Competition is an important factor in ecosystem. If more no of organisms are present in an population or species obviously there will be high competition for food. Because need will be same so without food (ENERGY) that organism cannot survive.

  • Natural resources for absolute human survival

    Marine ecosystem, for example, has less natural energy in comparison to rain forest ecosystem.

  • How are Ecosystems affected by natural and anthropogenic events?

    This solution is provided in an attached Word document.

  • Ecosystem

    67624 Ecosystem Ecosystems can change over time in a process known as natural succession. When an ecosystem is disturbed, both the physical (abiotic) and living (biotic) characteristics may be altered.

View More Related Solutions