Competition is one of the most important factors controlling the
distribution and abundance of living creatures. Sperm cells racing
up reproductive tracts, beetle larvae battling inside single seeds,
birds defending territories, and trees interfering with the light
available to neighbours, are all engaged in competition for limited
resources. Along with predation and mutualism, competition is one
of the three major biological forces that assemble living
communities. Recent experimental work, much of it only from the
last few decades, has enhanced human knowledge of the prevalence of
competition in nature. There are acacia trees that use ants to
damage vines, beetles that compete in arenas for access to dung
balls, tadpoles that apparently poison their neighbours, birds that
smash the eggs of potential competitors, and plants that associate
with fungi in order to increase access to soil resources. While
intended as an up-to-date reference work on the state of this
branch of ecology, the many non-technical examples will make
interesting reading for those with a general interest in
nature.
Greatly expanded from the first prize-winning edition, there are
entirely new chapters, including one on resources and another on
competition gradients in nature. The author freely ranges across
all major taxonomic groups in search of evidence. The question of
whether competition occurs is no longer useful, the author
maintains; rather the challenge is to determine when and where each
kind of competition is important in natural systems. For this
reason, variants of competition such as intensity, asymmetry and
hierarchies are singled out for particular attention. The book
concludes with the difficulties of finding general principles in
complex ecological communities, and illustrates the limitations on
knowledge that arise out of the biased conduct of scientists
themselves.
Competition can be found elsewhere in living systems other than
ecological communities, at sub-microscopic scales in the
interactions of enzymes and neural pathways, and over large
geographic areas in the spread of human populations and contrasting
ideas about the world. Human societies are therefore also examined
for evidence of the kinds of competition found among other living
organisms. Using an array of historical examples, including
Biblical conflicts, the use of noblemen's sons in the Crusades, the
Viking raids in Europe, strategic bombing campaigns in the Second
World War, and ethnic battles of the Balkans, the book illustrates
how most of the aspects of competition illustrated with plants and
animals can be extended to the interactions of human beings and
their societies.
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