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1) How does Leibig’s law of the minimum explain limits on population’s growth? (

ID: 217614 • Letter: 1

Question

1) How does Leibig’s law of the minimum explain limits on population’s growth? (Ch. 16) 2) If two species require the same limiting resource, what would you predict about their ability to coexist? (Ch. 16) 3) Compare and contrast exploitative competition and interference competition. (Ch. 16) 4) Under what conditions can two species competing for two resources coexist? (Ch. 16) 5) If one species provides a habitat as part of a mutualistic relationship, what is the probable effect on the abundance and distribution of the other species? (Ch. 17) 6) Explain how ants and acacia trees fulfill the definition of a mutualistic relationship. (Ch. 17) 7) If cleaner fish consume both parasites and scales from larger fish, what would determine whether the interaction is best categorized as mutualism or parasitism? (Ch. 17) 8) What might prevent a species in a mutualism from reaping the benefits from a partner without providing a benefit in return? (Ch. 17)

Explanation / Answer

Liebig's law of the minimum, often simply called Liebig's law or the law of the minimum, is a principle developed in agricultural science by Carl Sprengel (1828) and later popularized by Justus von Liebig. It states that growth is dictated not by total resources available, but by the scarcest resource (limiting factor). The law has also been applied to biological populations and ecosystem models for factors such as sunlight or mineral nutrients.

§ Leibig’s law of the minimum explain limits on population’s growth states that a population increases until the most limiting resource prevents further increase.

§ If two species require the same limiting resource, they will be unable to coexist whether the resource is renewable or nonrenewable.

§ Exploitative Competition causes the abundance of a resource to fall lower than other species can use. Allelopathy considered a form of interference competition because it allows a species to prevent its competitors from competing effectively.

§ Two species competing for two resources coexist when each species can persist at a lower level of one resource.

§ If one species A provides a habitat to the second species B as part of a mutualistic relationship, the probable effect on the abundance and distribution of species B, the Species B will not be able to survive outside the range of the species A.

§ Mutualistic Pseudomyrmex ferrugineus ants on an acacia plant. The ants love nectar from the plant's extrafloral nectaries. The biological term "symbiosis" refers to what economists and politicians usually call a win-win situation: a relationship between two partners which is beneficial to both.

§ Cleaner fish consume both parasites and scales from larger fish. The factor that determines whether the interaction is best categorized as mutualism or parasitism is if the cleaner fish caused reduced survival in the larger fish.

§ The partner reducing its benefits in response might prevent a species in a mutualism from reaping the benefits from a partner without providing a benefit in return.