In a community with limited resources, the less vigorous species are eliminated due to

Answer Details

When resources such as food, water, space, or light are limited in a community, organisms must compete for those resources. This is known as competition, and it is one of the key ecological interactions that shapes community structure.

In such situations, species that are better adapted to exploit the available resources - those that are more vigorous, reproduce faster, or use resources more efficiently - tend to survive and increase in population. Less vigorous species, which are less competitive, gradually decline and may eventually be eliminated from the community. This outcome is consistent with the competitive exclusion principle (Gause's principle), which states that two species competing for exactly the same limited resource cannot coexist indefinitely; the inferior competitor will be outcompeted.

Disease, while it can reduce populations, is not specifically triggered by limited resources in the way competition is. Drought is a specific environmental event, not a general ecological process of elimination. Natality refers to the birth rate in a population and describes population growth, not the elimination of species.