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| Competitive Interactions |
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| Competitive interactions are seen more as a result of rivalry between two or more organisms, which depend on the same resource. There are two types of competitive interactions - |
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| a) Intraspecific is the struggle between the members of same spices. |
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| b) Interspecific is the struggle between the members of different species. |
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| Intraspecific struggle is the strongest struggle, and is more severe when the resource is scarce, as the members of species have to struggle for food, mate, territory etc. with individuals of its own population. |
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| Plants also show competition for space, light, water and minerals. |
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| Competition gets reduced by emmigration in animals and by dispersal of seeds and fruits in plants. |
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| Territoriality, seen generally in birds and mammals, decreases the chances of intraspecific competition. |
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| Significance of Competitive Interactions |
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| Intraspecific competition generally helps in maintaining the ecological balance between the available resource and the number of individuals of a species. |
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