Ecological competition is an interaction in which individuals or populations adversely affect each other’s growth, survival, or reproduction by utilizing the same limiting resources within an ecosystem. It is typically classified as intraspecific (within a species) or interspecific (between species) and can be exploitative, where organisms indirectly compete through resource depletion, or interference, involving direct antagonistic behaviors. Competition shapes community structure, species niches, and adaptive trait evolution, and is a central process in population dynamics models such as Lotka–Volterra formulations. Its intensity and outcomes depend on resource availability, environmental heterogeneity, and species-specific functional traits.
In many primate species, males are much larger than their female counterparts, which is generally attributed to male competition for mates (sexual selection). But bigger bodies may not just be about alpha males defeating ...
Brush-tailed rock-wallaby populations have dwindled for more than a century due to historical hunting for the European fur trade and competition and predation from introduced species. New research shows terrain complexity ...
Plants & Animals
May 11, 2026
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As climate change intensifies, scientists are becoming increasingly concerned about how animals will cope with a more unpredictable world. One way to gain insight is by studying how animals have already responded to natural ...
Plants & Animals
May 6, 2026
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Snow leopards, leopards, and Himalayan wolves all share similar stomping grounds in Nepal's Lapchi Valley in the Himalayas. A recent study, published in PLOS One, has taken a closer look at how these apex predators have found ...
Climate-driven disturbances such as marine heat waves are rapidly reducing coral cover and degrading reef ecosystems worldwide. Using a mathematical model, a research team led by Subhendu Chakraborty at the Leibniz Center ...
Ecology
Mar 25, 2026
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A new QUT-led study has found both grazing mammals and plant-eating insects together play a major role in maintaining the health of Australia's endangered grassy woodlands. The three-year study, conducted in lowland grassy ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 24, 2026
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Many of the most damaging invasions do not simply subtract species; they fundamentally remodel the environment, altering habitats, rewiring interactions, and shifting processes in ways that species lists alone cannot reveal.
Ecology
Mar 12, 2026
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An evolutionary "arms race" for light and space led to the early domestication of wheat, according to new research that could offer fresh insights into crop design. The study led by Dr. Yixiang Shan and Professor Colin Osborne, ...
Evolution
Feb 20, 2026
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An ecosystem is not a still life. Even where everything looks stable—a woodland, a lake, the soil—the internal "bookkeeping" keeps changing: how many individuals belong to which species, and for how long. Some populations ...
Evolution
Feb 18, 2026
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Research led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) sheds new light on how mountain birds adapt to changes in climate. Scientists know that species diversity changes as you go up a mountain, but it is not clearly understood ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 6, 2026
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