In ecology, scramble competition refers to a situation in which a resource is accessible to all competitors. However, since the particular resource is finite, scramble competition may lead to decreased survival rates for all competitors if the resource is used to its carrying capacity. Scramble competition is defined as " finite resource is shared amongst the competitors so that the quantity of food per individual declines with increasing population density". A further description of scramble competition is "competition for a resource, inadequate for the needs of all, but, partitioned among contestants, so that no competitor obtains the amount it needs and all would die in extreme cases." Researchers recognize two main forms of intraspecific competition, where members of a species are all using a shared resource in short supply. These are scramble competition. Contest competition is a form of competition where there is a winner and a loser and where resources can be attained or not at all. Contest competition sets up a situation where "each successful competitor obtains all resources it requires for survival or reproduction".

Here "contest" refers to the fact that physical action plays an active role in securing the resource. Contest competition involves resources. Contests can be for a ritual objective such as territory or status, losers may return to the competition another day to try again. In scramble competition resources are limited. Contest competition is the result of aggressive social domains, including hierarchies or social chains. Conversely, scramble competition is what occurs by accident when competitors want the same resources; these two forms of competition can be interwoven into one another. Some researchers have noted parallels between intraspecific behaviors of competition and cooperation; these two processes can be evolutionarily adopted and they can be accidental, which makes sense given the aggressive competition and collaborative cooperation aspects of social behavior in humans and animals. To date, few studies have looked at the interplay between contest and scramble competition, despite the fact that they do not occur in isolation.

There appears to be little understanding of the interface between contest competition and scramble competition in insects. Much research still needs to be conducted concerning the overlap of contest and scramble competition systems. Contests can arise within a scramble competition system and conversely, scramble competition "may play a role in a system characterized by interference". Population can be affected by scramble competition. Intraspecific competition leads to a decline of organisms. For example, the more time that an individual spends seeking food and reproduction opportunities, the less energy that organism has to defend oneself against predators, resulting in a "zero-sum game". Competition is a density dependent effect, scramble competition is no exception. Scramble competition involves interactions among individuals of the same species, which makes competition balanced and leads to a decline of population growth rate as the amount of resources depletes; the Ricker Model, is used to model scramble competition.

It was formulated to study the growth of salmon populations and is given by the equation Pn+1 = R = Pner, where Pn is the population at the nth time period, r is the Malthusian growth rate, k is the carrying capacity of the population. The Ricker model, a few other well-known population models, can be explicitly derived from individual-level processes assuming scramble competition and a random distribution of individuals among resources; some researchers have noted that in certain species, such as the horseshoe crab, males are most successful at mating when they are able to practice scramble competition polygyny where they do not defend their territory but rather mate and move on, thus providing the highest likelihood of species survival and reproductive prowess. There are many examples of scramble competition within the environment. For example, cows grazing in a grassland could be operating under a scramble competition; this illustration of cows eating grass is scramble competition because there are limited resources, there is only so much grass to be eaten before all the food resource is depleted.

Additionally, there is no way that others can limit the amount of resources or the access to resources that the other cows receive. Another example of scramble competition is forest defoliators. If their larvae can find shelter and food survival is possible, but when all the foliage is destroyed the population decreases, their synchronized life cycle increases competition for specific resources this affects their ability to receive resources including food and shelter due to the overwhelming population increase at certain times of the year. Scramble competition can be seen with the example of red spotted newts. Charles Darwin first explored the concept of "sexual dimorphism" which states that, "most sexually dimorphic species are the most polygynous" which would enable males to "outcompete other males through female choice, combat, or scrambles to encounter females would be favored by selection, sexual dimorphism would result"; the key to red-spotted newts increased success in scramble competition is the newts enhanced or strengthened tailfins.

Another example of scramble competition is the success of small beetles over large beetles. While larger beetles, similar to larger animals in general, te

The Alliance Colony was a Jewish agricultural community, founded on May 10, 1882, in Pittsgrove Township, in Salem County, New Jersey, United States. It was named after the Alliance Israélite Universelle of Paris and was funded by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society of New York and Philadelphia and The Baron De Hirsch Fund. Following the assassination of Tsar Alexander II, numerous pogroms targeting Russian Jews prompted many families to move emigrate. Many began their lives in America in tenements on Manhattan's Lower East Side; as the numbers of Jewish people in America increased there was a strong desire to leave the confinement and crowded conditions in the cities. Some Jewish thinkers and community leaders proclaimed that recent Jewish immigrants ought "to become tillers of the soil and thus shake off the accusation that we were petty mercenaries living upon the toil of others." They settled in communities across the country, but many wished to continue living in predominately Jewish areas.

These immigrants recognized that self-sufficiency would be paramount to their survival, which led them into agriculture. Alliance was founded by a core group of 43 settlers but many more followed and, by the end of the first summer, there were 60-70 families living in the colony; the land, settled consisted of 40 acres per family on farmland that needed to be cleared and farmed. The immigrant colony members had little knowledge of agriculture and had difficulty farming the sandy South Jersey soil but received training from their neighbors; the HIAS paid workers weekly during the period. Alliance was supported by local politicians who arranged for 1,000+ army tents for the community for shelter until permanent housing could be built; the Alliance Colony was a farming community but included various craftsmen, such as cabinetmaking and masonry. A clothing factory was established, still in existence. In 1901, there were 151 adults at 345 children, 27 of whom were married. There were 78 farms worth $135,250.

The community owned 1,886 acres of land. Alliance focused on education, building several well recognized schools as well as four synagogues--at least one of which still is in operation--as well as a Jewish cemetery. All of the Jewish Agricultural Societies of the late 19th century and early 20th century have faded away. Remnants of Alliance Colony exist today, the cemetery is still in use for the Jewish communities in Cumberland and Salem Counties and is well maintained, the home of Moses Bayuk, the founder of the colony is still standing and there are plans to turn the property into a cultural center and museum; the last known survivor of the Alliance Colony, Lillian Greenblatt Braun, celebrated her 100th birthday in 2005. She died on October 20, 2015 at the age of 110; the Jewish Federation of Cumberland, Gloucester & Salem Counties is working on building a Jewish Heritage Center on the property to commemorate the community's history, the history of Jews in America and their participation in farming.

The old Tifereth Israel synagogue, built in vernacular style in 1889 and disused in 1996, is one of the few surviving 19th-century synagogues in the United States. In 2017, William Levin, a descendant of Moses Bayuk, his wife Malya Levin, publicly launched the Alliance Community Reboot project, in an effort to renew the agricultural life of the old Alliance Colony, they began a collaboration with local Jewish farmer Nathan Kleinman of the Experimental Farm Network, who planted various heritage grains and other heirloom plants on one of the fields owned by the Levins, close to the old Tifereth Israel synagogue. They plan to expand operations over the coming years. People who were born in, residents of, or otherwise associated with the Alliance Colony include: Stanley Brotman, a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. Joseph B. Perskie, Associate Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court from 1933 to 1947. George Seldes, an American investigative journalist, foreign correspondent, editor and media critic best known for the publication of the newsletter In Fact from 1940 to 1950.

Gilbert Seldes, an American writer and cultural critic