Barrons AP Environmental Science

(Marvins-Underground-K-12) #1

  1. (C) Coexistence between direct competitors is not possible (i.e., when two
    species use the same resource in the same way, the stronger competitor will
    dominate and survive over the other). Resource partitioning is the process
    whereby similar species exploit the limited resources in an ecological area
    without one species driving the other into extinction (e.g., one species may
    forage in the treetops while another forages on the ground). Similar species
    may evolve traits that allow each to exploit a distinct subset of the same
    resource, and, through natural selection, each species adopts a pattern of
    resource usage that isn’t competitive.

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