Competition and Predation

What is Competition and Predation?

Within Biology, which covers cells, the human body, genetics, evolution, plants and ecosystems: the science of living things, this topic explains Competition and Predation. Biology topics show how living things work, from the cell up to whole ecosystems, with models you can explore step by step.

Check that you can explain Competition and Predation in your own words and give one example from everyday life. If you can do that, you have understood the core idea.

Understanding Competition and Predation helps you explain how living things stay alive and respond to their surroundings, which is central to biology exams.

Competition and Predation in detail

Organisms compete for resources: animals for food, water, mates and territory, and plants for light, water, space and minerals. Competition may be within a species (intraspecific), which is often the strongest, or between different species (interspecific).

In a predator-prey relationship, the populations rise and fall in cycles, with the predator number following the prey number with a delay. More prey allows predators to increase, which then reduces the prey, and predator numbers fall. Introduced species can outcompete native ones. These interactions help to regulate populations in a stable ecosystem.

How the interactive helps you understand Competition and Predation

Watch the population model in the interactive. Use any sliders or buttons it offers to change the values and see how the population model responds.

Before you change anything, predict the result. Then change one value at a time and check whether your prediction was right. This is a quick way to build a correct mental model of Competition and Predation.

Real-life uses and examples

• Explain how Competition and Predation helps a living thing stay alive, using a plant or animal example.
• Connect Competition and Predation to health, food and medicine in everyday life.
• Use Competition and Predation to interpret a diagram, graph or microscope image from a practical.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Using everyday words, such as “energy” or “bad”, without their scientific meaning.
• Listing the steps of a process without saying how one step causes the next.
• Learning the definition without testing it. Use the quiz and the interactive to check that you can apply the idea.