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Coexistence theory attempts to explain the paradox of the plankton-- how can ecologically similar species coexist without competitively excluding each other?. Coexistence theory is a framework to understand how competitor traits can maintain species diversity and stave-off competitive exclusion even among similar species living in ecologically similar environments.
The best-known example is the so-called "paradox of the plankton". [6] All plankton species live on a very limited number of resources, primarily solar energy and minerals dissolved in the water. According to the competitive exclusion principle, only a small number of plankton species should be able to coexist on these resources.
Another macroevolutionary aspect of speciation is the rate at which it successfully occurs, analogous to reproductive success in microevolution. [ 2 ] Speciation is the process in which populations within one species change to an extent at which they become reproductively isolated , that is, they cannot interbreed anymore.
Mutualism involves a close, mutually beneficial interaction between two different biological species, whereas "cooperation" is a more general term that can involve looser interactions and can be interspecific (between species) or intraspecific (within a species). In commensalism, one of the two participating species benefits, while the other is ...
Species also interact with other species that require the same resources. Consequently, interspecific competition can alter the sizes of many species populations at the same time. Experiments demonstrate that when species compete for a limited resource, one species eventually drives the populations of other species extinct.
The mutualistic interaction term represents the increase in population growth of one species as a result of the presence of greater numbers of another species. As the mutualistic interactive term β is always positive, this simple model may lead to unrealistic unbounded growth. [ 25 ]
One or both species involved in the interaction may be obligate, meaning they cannot survive in the short or long term without the other species. Though mutualism has historically received less attention than other interactions such as predation, [ 18 ] it is an important subject in ecology.
Speciation is the evolutionary process by which populations evolve to become distinct species.The biologist Orator F. Cook coined the term in 1906 for cladogenesis, the splitting of lineages, as opposed to anagenesis, phyletic evolution within lineages.