Species Competition
Interspecific competition occurs when two or more species seek the same limited resource. In the 1930s, Russian biologist G. F. Gause devised a set of elegant laboratory experiments that provide the basis for our formal understanding of competition. Gause grew two different species of the single-celled Paramecium—P.aurelia and P. caudatum – -separately and together. Populations of both species always increased more rapidly when they were grown alone. When grown together, populations of both species grew more slowly. Eventually, P. aurelia totally displaced P. caudatum . The results of his experiments with Paramecium species, along with similar experiments he performed on other organisms, led Gause to form this postulate: two species that directly compete for essential resources cannot coexist; one species will eventually displace the other. This postulate has come to be known as the competitive exclusion principle.
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