Given below are two statements: Statement I: Gause's "Competitive Exclusive Principle" states that two closely related species competing for the same related species competing for the same resources cannot co-exist indefinitely and competitively inferior one will be eliminated eventually. Statement II: In general, carnivores are more adversely affected by competition than herbivores.
In the light of the above statements, choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Explanation:
Statement I is correct. Gause’s Competitive Exclusion Principle says two species competing for the same limited resources cannot coexist indefinitely; one will be excluded due to competition. This is the idea of competitive exclusion. Statement II is false as per NCERT: in general, competition affects herbivores more because plant resources are often patchy and limited, leading to stronger interspecific competition among herbivores. Carnivores typically have more dispersed prey and may face less direct competition for a single resource, so they are not described as being more adversely affected by competition in the NCERT context. Therefore, only Statement I is true, making option 4 correct.
🧠 Did You Know?
Gause conducted experiments with Paramecium species to illustrate competitive exclusion, showing that two species with identical needs could not stably coexist.
💡 NCERT Memory Line:
Competitive Exclusion Principle states two species competing for the same resource cannot coexist indefinitely.
If '8' Drosophila in a laboratory population of '80' died during a week, the death rate in the population is ___________ individuals per Drosophila per week.
