Q.Explain interspecific competition and competitive release, with reference to Gause's principle.

[!TLDR] Interspecific competition occurs when species compete for the same limited resource; competitive release is the expansion of a suppressed species' niche once a competitor is removed. …

Interspecific competition arises when two or more species require the same limited resource — food, space, light, nesting sites — such that each species' growth, survival or reproduction is reduced by the other's presence.

Gause's principle (the competitive exclusion principle) states that two species competing for exactly the same limiting resource in the same way cannot indefinitely coexist in the same habitat — eventually, the more efficient competitor will exclude the other, unless the species diverge in their resource use (niche differentiation).

Competitive release describes what happens when a superior competitor is removed from a habitat (naturally or experimentally): the previously suppressed, competing species often rapidly expands to exploit the resources and space it had been excluded from. This expansion of a species' realised niche once competitive pressure is lifted demonstrates that many species, under competition, occupy a considerably narrower niche than they are physiologically capable of using — their full potential niche is revealed only once competitors are removed. …

• Confusing competitive exclusion (a competitor being driven out) with competitive release (w …