Question

The Paramecium in Gause’s experiment were fed a diet of wild bacteria. An industrious general biology student repeated Gause’s experiment, but fed the organisms a mixture of bacteria contaminated with Amoeba. The resulting growth curves for the organisms in the mixed culture were the same as the growth curves in the pure cultures. Can you propose a scenario that might explain these results?

Answer 1

In the normal scenario the similar growth curves are not expected as both the species compete for the same resources which will result in competitive exclusion where one species is deprived of resources and thereby growth.

But in this case similar growth curves are observed.A possible reasons are

a) The partioning of resources between these species where the feeding time for both species is during different time of day.

b) A different niche may be occupied by both the species rather than feeding on the same area.

b)Either of the species may have evolved to use another resource[resent for growth .