Two species of buttercup are found in a field in north dakota, and they tend to flower at approximately the same time in early spring. when some ecology students decide to conduct an experiment in community dynamics, they selectively remove one species from the field by hand-picking all emergent plants. when the one species is removed, the other species shows a significant increase in its population size the next season. this study demonstrates

Resource partitioning

Explanation:

Resource partitioning is a phenomenon that allows organisms competing for the same resources in the same ecological niche to coexist.

According to competitive exclusion principle, organisms (be it the same or different species) competing for the same resources in the same environment cannot coexist indefinitely, one will eventually have to give way.

However, with resource partitioning, limited resources are divided among organisms in such a way that competition is excluded.

The two species of buttercup demonstrated the phenomenon of resource partitioning. They shared resources so as to excluded intra-specific competition within the niche. Hence, when one of the species was removed from the niche, the other species thrived because more resources became available for its use.