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Recent theoretical and field work on communities of interacting species has employed various forms for estimating the competition matrix elements, α i j , from utilization coefficients p i a (which measure the relative utilization of the path resource category by the ith species). Some little—known properties of these forms are discussed. When more than one resource dimension is involved, there is in general no substitute for measuring the species' full multidimensional utilization functions; a critical discussion is given of the estimation of such multidimensional competition coefficient α i j by products of one—dimensional coefficients.
Robert M. May (Thu,) studied this question.