SPECIES PACKING, AND WHAT COMPETITION MINIMIZES*,†
Abstract
Species competing exclusively for renewing resources are shown to obey simultaneous differential equations equivalent to the conditions for minimizing a certain quadratic form. In this sense competition acts to select species abundances giving the best least-squares fit in an expression [Formula: see text] Thus the number of species which can coexist competitively is limited mostly by the inequality of the interspecies competition coefficients and not appreciably by their magnitude. Seasonality and number of resources become the main factors limiting the number of coexisting species.
Footnotes
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↵ * This research was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation.
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↵ † The result of the present paper extends that of Mac Arthur and Levins to packing in non-uniform environments and that of Schoener by showing with what measures of resource production and utilization his heuristic scheme is valid.
