Structural+Features+of+Communities

Competitive exclusion principle: If two species are so similar that they occupy the same ecological niche (e.g. are competing for the same limited resources), then one of the species will develop an advantage that will allow it to gain the limited resources and drive the other species to extinction. Bottom line: two species cannot occupy the same ecological niche.
 * 36.2**

Ecological Niche: A population's role in its community (its use of the biotic and abiotic resources of its habitat and its own role in recycling nutrients). Ex.