competitive exclusion principle

The ecological principle that when two species compete for the same critical resources within an environment, one of them will eventually outcompete and displace the other. Also called Gause's law.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Mentioned in

Gause's law

References in periodicals archive

We assumed that there might be differences in selection of prey allowing the two species to successfully coexist in the same place if the competitive exclusion principle (Hardin, 1960) were operating.

Comparison of diets of two syntopic lizards, Aspidoscelis marmorata and Aspidoscelis tesselata (Teiidae), from the northern Chihuahuan Desert of Texas

Evidence for the applicability of the competitive exclusion principle to viruses has been reported by Clarke et al.

Frequency-dependent selection in mammalian RNA virus

Ecologists recognize this as the competitive exclusion principle. Moreover, students observe that species -- whether plant, animal or restaurant -- engage in both interspecific and intraspecific competition, competing with other brand-name chains as well as with nearby franchises of their own chain.

Eco-tutelage: teachers experiment with eclectic efforts at ecological erudition

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