Theoretical and experimental foundations

Abstract

Growth of a single population on a single resource is the basic building block of resource competition theory, which is constructed by expansion of simple growth models to represent many species. Assuming first that there is competition for a single abiotic resource, the quantity R _i * can be computed, which is the resource availability at equilibrium when a single species i grows in the absence of competing species. When several species compete this quantity is critical, and a simple rule governs competitive outcomes. At equilibrium, the species with the lowest R _i * competitively excludes all others.