competitive exclusion

Coined by Russian biologist George Gause.

competitive exclusion (countable and uncountable, plural competitive exclusions)

1. (biology) The principle that states that two species who are very similar, and compete for the same resources, cannot coexist indefinitely, as the one with the slight advantage will outperform the other and eventually drive it into extinction.
   • 2016, Kaj-Kolja Kleineberg & Marián Boguñá, Competition between global and local online social networks, Nature

     In ecology theory, the principle of competitive exclusion states that multiple species in competition for the same resource cannot coexist, as even the slightest advantage of one species over the other is successively amplified; a mechanism referred to as “rich get richer” or preferential attachment. This eventually leads to the extinction of the inferior species.