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Niche Wars Lab Report

The document discusses an experiment that explores the principle of competitive exclusion through a simulation of rabbits competing for lettuce in a shared habitat. In the simulation, four rabbit species (Red, Brown, White, Black) compete for one food source (lettuce). The control group had a limited food supply, while the experimental group had a more abundant food supply. The results showed that on average the control group had 2-3 surviving rabbit species, while the experimental group with more lettuce had 3-4 surviving species, supporting the idea that increased resources allows for more species to coexist by reducing competition for limiting resources.

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163 views4 pages

Niche Wars Lab Report

The document discusses an experiment that explores the principle of competitive exclusion through a simulation of rabbits competing for lettuce in a shared habitat. In the simulation, four rabbit species (Red, Brown, White, Black) compete for one food source (lettuce). The control group had a limited food supply, while the experimental group had a more abundant food supply. The results showed that on average the control group had 2-3 surviving rabbit species, while the experimental group with more lettuce had 3-4 surviving species, supporting the idea that increased resources allows for more species to coexist by reducing competition for limiting resources.

Uploaded by

AmyDali
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Abstract

The principle of competitive exclusion, or Gause's law, states that two species in the

same ecological niche cannot coexist unless In this experiment I will explore the

Introduction

The ecological niche is one of the most basic concepts in ecology. A species's ecological

niche can be defined as the interactions within its environment that allows the species to survive

and reproduce. This can include its abiotic and biotic interactions with the environment. The

niche concept is used to make predictions about how well a species will do in its environment

and can give us information on the possible relationships within it. When two species with the

same limiting resources reside in the same niche, there is a “struggle for existence.” This idea is

known as the principle of competitive exclusion, where two species requiring the same limiting

resource cannot coexist. This is because one of the species will ultimately outcompete the other

as it will be better adapted to the environment. If one of the species does not modify their niche,

one will go extinct.

Species can only coexist if their niche differences are substantial enough to counteract

their relative fitness differences. (Gallego et al. 2019). Two species can also potentially coexist

in the same community if there is some overlap in their niches or if they have enough resources.

The availability of food plays an important role in the survival of a species. Species that are

competing for the same food source can only survive if the food source is abundant enough to

support reproduction and energy intake.


Methods

The experiment was conducted using the Simbio Virtual Biology Lab software. This

software provides simulation-based virtual labs that allow the exploration of concepts and

theories without stepping into a physical science lab. This virtual lab provided a simulated niche

with four different species of rabbits. These species were Red, Brown, White, and Black rabbits.

Within this niche, there was one food source, lettuce. The simulation allowed control over the

characteristics of the rabbits and the amount of food available. The parameters of each rabbit

were kept the same and can be seen in the image below (Figure 1.)

Figure 1.

There were two groups of experimental rabbits, the control group and the experimental

group. The control group was provided with 5 initial pieces of lettuce and 5 additional pieces of

lettuce. The lettuce was placed in the middle of the habitat. Data was collected from 7 different

trials. The experimental group was provided with an abundance of lettuce, as there were 10
initial pieces of lettuce and 10 additional pieces of lettuce. Data was again collected from 7

different trials. The simulation ran for 100 weeks in each trial.

Results

The results show that on average the control group had about 2-3 survving species. This

can be seen in Figure 2. below. The experimental group had an average of 3-4 surviving species

(Figure 3.) From this data we can conclude that doubling the amount of available lettuce allowed

for a higher number of surviving species.

Figure 2.

Figure 3.
Discussion

This is important because it can give information about whether or not a species will

coexist with another in the same habitat.

Literature Cited

Gallego, Irene et al. “Size differences predict niche and relative fitness differences between

phytoplankton species but not their coexistence.” The ISME journal vol. 13,5 (2019): 1133-1143.

doi:10.1038/s41396-018-0330-7

Badali, Matthew, and Anton Zilman. “Effects of niche overlap on coexistence, fixation and

invasion in a population of two interacting species.” Royal Society open science vol. 7,2 192181.

19 Feb. 2020, doi:10.1098/rsos.192181

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