Q.The species facing competition might evolve mechanism that promote co-existence rather than exclusion. Evaluate the statement.
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Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →When two species compete for a limited resource, they can either exclude one another (competitive exclusion) or evolve differences in resource use (resource partitioning) that reduce direct competition, allowing them to co-exist in the same habitat.
Gause's Competitive Exclusion Principle states that two closely related species competing for exactly the same limiting resource in the same habitat cannot co-exist indefinitely — the competitively superior species will eventually eliminate the other. However, in nature, closely related and ecologically similar species are very often found living together in the same habitat.
This is possible because, under the selective pressure of competition, such species evolve ways to avoid direct, complete competition — a phenomenon called resource partitioning. If two species compete for the same resource, they may evolve to use slightly different resources, or use the same resource but at different times, in different ways, or in different parts of the habitat, thereby reducing the niche overlap between them.
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