BioConcepts

apparent competitionapparente Konkurrenz (ger.)

• Two prey species are competing against each other through sharing the same natural enemy. The growth of one prey species can lead to the growth of its natural enemy which can then lead to the decrease of the other prey species.
  category competition

  1977

  It is argued that alternate prey species in the diet of a food-limited generalist predator should reduce each other's equilibrial abundances, whether or not they directly compete. Such indirect, interspecific interactions are labeled apparent competition

  Holt, R.D. (1977). Predation, apparent competition and the structure of prey communities. Theor. Pop. Biol. 12, 197-229: 197.