This refers to a form of
ecological competition wherein a number of species compete for a resource that
is limited in supply, which in turn lowers the survival chances of all the
competing species. Since there is no limit placed on the exploitation of the
resource, it may be used up aggressively by all the species that have free
access to it. This, in turn, might cause most, or even all, species in need of
the resource to go without enough of it to sustain themselves. Scramble
competition can lead to mass extinction even when the competition for a
resource is limited exclusively to the members of only a particular species.
There are many examples of
scramble competition within the environment. For example, cows grazing in a
grassland could be operating under a scramble competition. This illustration of
cows eating grass is scramble competition because there are limited resources,
there is only so much grass to be eaten before all the food resource is
depleted. Additionally, there is no way that others can limit the amount of
resources or the access to resources that the other cows receive.
Credit: The Hindu Explains
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