Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Competition

Competition

When organisms require the same limited resources within an environment, they may have to compete for them. Competition is a net-negative interaction. Even if two competing individuals or populations do not interact directly, the overall fitness of both competitors is lowered as a result of not having full access to the limited resource.

Ecological Niches

Ecological Niches

All organisms have a position within an ecosystem. The complete set of living and nonliving factors—including food resources, climate, and terrain—that define the position of a given organism are collectively referred to as the organism’s ecological niche.

Predator-Prey Interactions

Predator-Prey Interactions

Predators consume prey for energy. Predators that acquire prey and prey that avoid predation both increase their chances of survival and reproduction (i.e., fitness). Routine predator-prey interactions elicit mutual adaptations that improve predator offenses, such as claws, teeth, and speed, as well as prey defenses, including crypsis, aposematism, and mimicry. Thus, predator-prey interactions resemble an evolutionary arms race.

What are Populations and Communities?

What are Populations and Communities?

Conservation of Declining Populations

Conservation of Declining Populations

Conservation of declining population focuses on ways of detecting, diagnosing, and halting a population decline. The approach uses methods to prevent populations from going extinct.

Symbiosis

Symbiosis

Symbiotic relationships are long-term, close interactions between individuals of different species that affect the distribution and abundance of those species. When a relationship is beneficial to both species, this is called mutualism. When the relationship is beneficial to one species but neither beneficial nor harmful to the other species, this is called commensalism. When one organism is harmed to benefit another, the relationship is known as parasitism. These types of relationships often...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Generalized Lotka-Volterra systems with quenched random interactions and saturating nonlinear response.

Physical review. E·2026

Same author

Linking complex microbial interactions and dysbiosis through a disordered Lotka-Volterra model.

eLife·2026

Same author

Polymer conformational entropy as the driver of complex coacervation.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026

Same author

Modeling postdisturbance empirical patterns in a forest ecosystem.

Physical review. E·2025

Same author

Space-filling discrete helices.

The Journal of chemical physics·2025

Same author

Entropy of self-avoiding branching polymers: Mean-field theory and Monte Carlo simulations.

The Journal of chemical physics·2025

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Oct 11, 2025

Monitoring Intraspecies Competition in a Bacterial Cell Population by Cocultivation of Fluorescently Labelled Strains

Monitoring Intraspecies Competition in a Bacterial Cell Population by Cocultivation of Fluorescently Labelled Strains

Published on: January 18, 2014

Effective Resource Competition Model for Species Coexistence.

Deepak Gupta^1,2, Stefano Garlaschi¹, Samir Suweis¹

¹Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia Galileo Galilei, Università degli Studi di Padova, via Marzolo 8, 35131 Padova, Italy.

Physical Review Letters

|December 3, 2021

Summary

This study introduces a new consumer-resource model explaining species coexistence in homogeneous environments, challenging traditional niche theory. The model reveals conditions for biodiversity and predicts population size distributions, supported by simulations and empirical data.

More Related Videos

Experimental Protocol for Manipulating Plant-induced Soil Heterogeneity

Experimental Protocol for Manipulating Plant-induced Soil Heterogeneity

Published on: March 13, 2014

Coincubation Assay for Quantifying Competitive Interactions between Vibrio fischeri Isolates

Coincubation Assay for Quantifying Competitive Interactions between Vibrio fischeri Isolates

Published on: July 22, 2019

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Oct 11, 2025

Monitoring Intraspecies Competition in a Bacterial Cell Population by Cocultivation of Fluorescently Labelled Strains

Monitoring Intraspecies Competition in a Bacterial Cell Population by Cocultivation of Fluorescently Labelled Strains

Published on: January 18, 2014

Experimental Protocol for Manipulating Plant-induced Soil Heterogeneity

Experimental Protocol for Manipulating Plant-induced Soil Heterogeneity

Published on: March 13, 2014

Coincubation Assay for Quantifying Competitive Interactions between Vibrio fischeri Isolates

Coincubation Assay for Quantifying Competitive Interactions between Vibrio fischeri Isolates

Published on: July 22, 2019

Area of Science:

Ecology
Theoretical Ecology
Biodiversity Studies

Background:

Traditional niche theory struggles to explain high biodiversity in homogeneous environments.
Existing ecological models often fail to account for spatial effects driving species coexistence.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop a consumer-resource model that explains species coexistence in resource-limited, homogeneous environments.
To investigate the conditions favoring biodiversity and species colonization.
To analytically determine population size distributions for coexisting species.

Main Methods:

A coarse-graining procedure was applied to a consumer-resource model to introduce effective spatial effects.
The model was analyzed to identify conditions for species coexistence and colonization.
Analytical calculations were performed to derive population size distributions.

Main Results:

The model demonstrates that spatial effects, derived from coarse-graining, promote species coexistence.
Two distinct phases were identified based on the relationship between surviving species and resource numbers.
Conditions for successful species colonization of existing communities were established.
Analytical predictions of population size distributions were derived.

Conclusions:

The developed model provides a novel explanation for biodiversity in homogeneous ecosystems, extending beyond traditional niche theory.
The findings highlight the importance of effective spatial dynamics in maintaining species coexistence.
The study offers a framework for understanding community assembly and population dynamics in resource-limited environments.