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.