BIO 2129 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Publication Bias, Niche Differentiation, Character Displacement
1 Nov 2016
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Document Summary
Competitive exclusion can drive one of two strong competitors extinct (according to limited similarity) May species have sufficient phenotypic plasticity to alter their resource usage. Groups of similar species have large niche overlap. This is how real organisms get around competition. They go to different places in the environment to acquire their resources. This experiment studies how the different species use their environments i. e. two different species of birds spend time in different parts of trees. Getting around negative impacts of competition is essential to some species to survive. Over time, niche partitioning can lead to character displacement. Niche partitioning is a plastic response, character displacement is an evolutionary response so there must be a genetic implications. If an individual can more successfully reach certain parts of its niche, it will survive more than others. All the finches evolved from a single common ancestor that somehow made it to the isolated island.
