<Ol> <Li> Interference competition: occurs when an individual of one species directly interferes with an individual of another species . Examples include a lion chasing a hyena from a kill, or a plant releasing allelopathic chemicals to impede the growth of a competing species . </Li> <Li> Exploitative competition: This occurs via the consumption of resources . When an individual of one species consumes a resource (e.g., food, shelter, sunlight, etc .), that resource is no longer available to be consumed by a member of a second species . Exploitative competition is thought to be more common in nature, but care must be taken to distinguish it from apparent competition. Exploitative competition vary from complete symmetric (all individuals receive the same amount of resources, irrespective of their size) to perfectly size symmetric (all individuals exploit the same amount of resource per unit biomass) to absolutely size - asymmetric (the largest individuals exploit all the available resource). The degree of size asymmetry has major effects on the structure and diversity of ecological communities </Li> <Li> Apparent competition: occurs when two species share a predator . The populations of both species can be depressed by predation without direct exploitative competition . </Li> </Ol> <Li> Interference competition: occurs when an individual of one species directly interferes with an individual of another species . Examples include a lion chasing a hyena from a kill, or a plant releasing allelopathic chemicals to impede the growth of a competing species . </Li> <Li> Exploitative competition: This occurs via the consumption of resources . When an individual of one species consumes a resource (e.g., food, shelter, sunlight, etc .), that resource is no longer available to be consumed by a member of a second species . Exploitative competition is thought to be more common in nature, but care must be taken to distinguish it from apparent competition. Exploitative competition vary from complete symmetric (all individuals receive the same amount of resources, irrespective of their size) to perfectly size symmetric (all individuals exploit the same amount of resource per unit biomass) to absolutely size - asymmetric (the largest individuals exploit all the available resource). The degree of size asymmetry has major effects on the structure and diversity of ecological communities </Li> <Li> Apparent competition: occurs when two species share a predator . The populations of both species can be depressed by predation without direct exploitative competition . </Li>

An example of what a community ecologist would study is