It was previously thought that during times of intense ecological stress, such as hurricanes and pollution, organisms engage in less competition in order to survive. However, scientists now believe that the level of competition, as gauged by observed microscopic organisms, remains relatively level. The researchers introduced disturbance with sound energy and then separated the organisms into different levels of competition, based on how many different species were in each system. The results of the study showed that species continued to compete even as disturbance levels were increased, when such competition often led to extinction.Scientists have been studying competition in other ways as well. Some have observed how systems of three species interact. In each case, one species is stronger than another, but is always eliminated by the third species. This suggests that the two stronger species will die out while the weakest competitor survives, and these results have been borne out in bacteria studies at LMU.Studying competition can help scientists understand extinction in ways that have eluded them for years. Understanding this could help humans in their own interactions with the world around them, especially as we see the ways in which we affect the environment through our waste processes and industries.Competition also has ties to evolution, as scientists have found that the rate at which new species appears goes down as the amount of competition goes up. Rather than bacteria, experiments in this area have studied related bird species and the ways in which they have changed (or remained the same). As scientists discover more about how we are affected by the species around us, we will be able to look forward to a fuller relationship with our environment.