What is the difference between exploitative competition and interference competition?
Explain and give an example of each. Answer: Exploitative competition (indirect competition) is when competing individuals or species indirectly impact each other negatively as they separately consume a resource. A couple examples are trees vying for the same nutrients and sunlight, with one eventually crowding out the other, and different types of fish competing for the same territory. Interference competition (direct competition) is when individuals aggressively defend their use of resources which causes harm to another individual. An example is the Salvia genus of sage which uses chemicals to inhibit the growth of other plants. c. Give an example of exploitative and interference modes of competition for intraspecific and interspecific types of competition. Answer: Exploitative/intraspecific – an organism overgrazing on land shared by multiple users. Interference/intraspecific – a territorial animal. Exploitative/interspecific – canopy plants taking available sunlight. Interference/i
