User:Zeen Aleaf/Kill the Winner hypothesis
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The competition specialist, or “winner”, is often described as having the most biomass, but this is somewhat of a misunderstanding. More appropriately, the "winner" is the fastest growing.[1] Their abundance and activity increase when the population competes for a shared limiting resource (e.g. phosphate) and wins. The resource can exist as a free form or something that needs to be sequestered from biomass. Competition specialists (predators, grazers, parasites) are expected to dominate in oligotrophic environments, where competition is largely an ecological constraint.[2] The increased abundance and activity of the “winner” also increases viral predation.
Defense specialists, tend to invest resources in avoidance strategies that may result in reduced growth and reproduction of the population; hence, the “loser” does not increase viral predation. Defense specialists are expected to dominate in eutrophic environments where competition is less of a selective pressure.[2]
Thus, when competition specialists are found in what, at least theoretically, appear to be uncharacteristically low abundances in oligotrophic environments, the principles of KtW apply.