Q. On the rocky sea coasts of Scotland, the larger and competitively superior barnacle Balanus dominates the intertidal area and excludes the smaller barnacle Chathamalus from that zone. Which kind of interaction is being depicted by this example?
Solution:
Competition in the broadest sense refer to the interaction of two organisms striving for the same resource. Competition amongst the individuals of same species for one or more common resources is intraspecific competition, and between in the organism of different species is interspecific competition. Surely intraspecific competition is more acute because all organisms of the same species have similar requirements for food, space, light, water, shelter, mate etc. When Darwin spoke of the struggle for existence and ‘survival of the fittest in nature’, he was convinced that interspecific competition is a potent force in organic evolution.
Competition can take two forms:
(a) Competitive exclusion
(b) Competitive co-existence
Example of Competitive exclusion- On the rocky coast of Scotland, the large and competitively superior barnacle Balanus dominates the intertidal area and excludes the smaller barnacle Chathamalus from that zone.
Competition can take two forms:
(a) Competitive exclusion
(b) Competitive co-existence
Example of Competitive exclusion- On the rocky coast of Scotland, the large and competitively superior barnacle Balanus dominates the intertidal area and excludes the smaller barnacle Chathamalus from that zone.