Topic: Population interactions: mutualism, competition, predation, parasitism· Ecology and Environment

Gause's principle of competitive exclusion states that :

1. More abundant species will exclude the less abundant species through competition.

2. Competition for the same resources excludes species having different food preferences.

3. No two species can occupy the same niche indefinitely for the same limiting resources.

4. Larger organisms exclude smaller ones through competition.

Doubtly Asked 30 Oct 2026 NEET UG 2016 Phase 1 Practice test neet Save WhatsApp Report

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Answer: 3. No two species can occupy the same niche indefinitely for the same limiting resources.

Key idea: Gause's principle says that two closely related species competing for the same limiting resources cannot coexist for long.

In his experiments on Paramecium, one species was eliminated when both used the same food. So no two species can occupy the same niche indefinitely. Option (3) states this.

Options (1) and (4) wrongly link exclusion to abundance or body size. Option (2) is also wrong: species with different food preferences can coexist, which is called resource partitioning.

Doubtly AI · 30 Oct 2026 AI-generated · not yet verified Report

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Gause's principle of competitive exclusion states that :

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