WHAT IS BIOLOGICAL COMPETENCE? - BIOLOGY - 2025

The biological competition is the rivalry between the various types of living beings with respect to the territory, resources, peer play, enter other goods. It is one of the many symbiotic relationships that exist in nature between organisms of the same or different species.

A biological community consists of a set of populations of different species that interact with each other within a particular area. Community ecologists investigate the nature of interactions between species and the consequences of those interactions.

Some of these interactions are predation, parasitism and biological competition, which can be intraspecific or interspecific.

Intraspecific competition

Intraspecific competition is a form of competition between members of the same species. An example of intraspecific competition are trees from the same population that grow very close to each other, thus competing for sunlight and soil nutrients.

Thus, biological competition is generated for certain limited resources, which generates a selective pressure on these organisms, which tend to adapt to these conditions, either by growing taller or developing longer roots.

Interspecific competition

In contrast, interspecific competition is a form of biological competition between different species that inhabit the same ecological area (ecological niche).

An example of interspecific competition occurs between lions and tigers competing for similar prey. Another example is a rice paddy farm with weeds growing in the field.

Inter-agency competition can also be classified according to the mechanism used, for example: competition by interference and competition by exploitation.

Competition by interference

In many other cases, competition takes the form of interference. Here, individuals interact directly with each other, and one individual will prevent another from exploiting resources within a portion of the habitat.

This type of competition is observed between animals that defend territories, between sessile animals (that do not move) and between plants that live on rocky shores.

Competition for interference can be intraspecific or interspecific. For example, two deer fight for access to a harem of deer. Any one of the deer, alone, could easily mate with all the deer, but they cannot do so because the matings are limited to the "owner" of the harem.

An example of direct competition between different species is the rivalry between a lion and a tiger competing for the same prey.

This kind of competition is also called competitive competition, since certain dominant individuals obtain an adequate supply of the limited resource at the expense of other individuals in the population; that is, dominant individuals actively interfere with other individuals' access to resources.

Competition for exploitation

Competition for exploitation is a type of indirect competition between organisms, in contrast to interference competition in which the interaction between competing individuals is direct.

In competition for exploitation, competition between organisms results in the depletion of the quantity of resources, which limits the availability of these for other organisms even though there is no direct interaction.

Similar to competition by interference, competition by exploitation applies to both intraspecific and interspecific competition.

An indirect type of competition between the same species is exhibited by bears competing for food in the same niche. The bear that catches fish in the river affects the fish disposition for the other bears along the same river at different points. In this case, there is no direct interaction, but there is still competition between them for food.

This indirect competition also occurs in interspecific competition. An example is the competition for light between trees of different species and other smaller plants in the same ecological area in the forest.

Apparent competition

Although competition for interference and exploitation is perceived as a function of resource limitation, the result of apparent competition results from a third factor indirectly mediated by the distribution of apparently competitive species.

This competition occurs when the first group of prey species increases in number, which results in an increase in the number of predators in the niche.

This increase in the number of predators also means that there are more predators looking for the other group of prey species in the area.

An example of this competition is competition between nettle aphids (prey A) and grass aphids (prey B) in the area. Both organisms are preyed upon by coccinellids (predatory beetles).

The increase in the grass aphid population attracted more beetles to the area, resulting in increased predation of nettle aphids.

References

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