Competitive Exclusion

• Two different species that need the same limited resource cannot occupy the same niche in the same habitat over a long period
• Usually the one species will outcompete the other, which could result in the emigration or even extinction of the other species; this is known as the principle of competitive exclusion
• This principle is also known as Gause's law, named after the Russian ecologist, Georgii Gause, who formulated this law based on laboratory experiments with two Paramecium species (Paramecium aurelia and caudatum)