Ecological Niche
Biomes, Ecosystems, and Habitats | National Geographic Society
Definition
Niche is the role of a species in its environment including responses to resources, competitors, and predators.
- As for the Habitat, biotic and abiotic factors define the niche.
- However, a niche is the interactions of a population with these factors and its effects.
- Niche is a part of the habitat. It describes what organisms do.
- Niche depends on the flow of energy within an ecosystem.
- If a niche is left vacant, it can then be filled by some other species. However, some organisms might create a unique niche for themselves, which reduces the competition for resources with other species.
- However, it is also important for species to be able to adapt to changes in the ecosystem to protect themselves from extinction. For this reason, many species usually adapt or evolve to thrive under a wide range of environmental conditions.
- The type and number of variables that define an ecological niche vary from species to species, and the relative importance of these variables may also vary according to the geographical and biotic contexts.
- The full range of biotic and abiotic factors utilized by species for survival form the fundamental niche, and the factors that limit the population like competition and predations are called limiting factors.
- Based on the interactions of species with the physical and biological world, niches are of three types; spatial or habitat niche, trophic niche, and multidimensional niche.
- The spatial or habitat niche is the physical area within the habitat that a species occupies.
- Trophic niche is the trophic level occupied by the species in the food chain or ecological chain.
- The multidimensional niche consists of the concept of fundamental niche and the limiting factors.
For a contrast with the notion of habitat, see: Habitat vs Niche- Definition, 14 Major Differences, Examples (thebiologynotes.com)
Trappes, Rose. “Defining the Niche for Niche Construction: Evolutionary and Ecological Niches.” Biology & Philosophy 36, no. 3 (2021): 31. https://doi.org/10/gmskzw.
For a discussion, see:
Polechová, Jitka, and David Storch. “Ecological Niche.” In Encyclopedia of Ecology, edited by Brian Fath, 2nd ed., 72–80. 2008. Reprint, Oxford: Elsevier, 2019.
Cf. ecotope: the smallest spatial object or component of a geographical landscape so defined for measurement and statistical modelling.
On the brief introduction to the evolution of the ecological niche, see:
Losos, Jonathan B., ed. The Princeton Guide to Evolution. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014.
Sultan, Sonia E. Organism and Environment: Ecological Development, Niche Construction, and Adaption. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.
Properties and the Measurement of Niches
Loke, Lynette H. L., and Ryan A. Chisholm. ‘Measuring Habitat Complexity and Spatial Heterogeneity in Ecology’. Ecology Letters, 2022. https://doi.org/10/gqp4p2.
The Ecological Niche of Humans
An article showing evidence of early, persistent and large-scale ecological changes emanating from the activities of Humans from The Late Pleistocene also known as Upper Pleistocene is currently defined as the time between c. 129,000 and c. 11,700 years ago.
Boivin, Nicole L., Melinda A. Zeder, Dorian Q. Fuller, Alison Crowther, Greger Larson, Jon M. Erlandson, Tim Denham, and Michael D. Petraglia. “Ecological Consequences of Human Niche Construction: Examining Long-Term Anthropogenic Shaping of Global Species Distributions.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113, no. 23 (2016): 6388–96. https://doi.org/10/f8qmfk.
For a comment on this article, see:
Ellis, Erle C., Peter J. Richerson, Alex Mesoudi, Jens-Christian Svenning, John Odling-Smee, and William R. Burnside. “Evolving the Human Niche.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113, no. 31 (2016): E4436–E4436. https://doi.org/10/gfvhrp.
Dupré, John, and Daniel Nicholson. ‘A Manifesto for a Processual Philosophy of Biology’. In Everything Flows: Towards a Processual Philosophy of Biology, edited by Daniel J. Nicholson and John Dupré, 3–45. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.
Humans Engineering Niches
Shahab, Robert L., Simone Brethauer, Jeremy S. Luterbacher, and Michael H. Studer. ‘Engineering of Ecological Niches to Create Stable Artificial Consortia for Complex Biotransformations’. Current Opinion in Biotechnology 62 (2020): 129–36. https://doi.org/10/grqhsx.
Description and Measurement
Needs to be in 3D
Gámez, Siria, and Nyeema C. Harris. ‘Conceptualizing the 3D Niche and Vertical Space Use’. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 2022. https://doi.org/10/gqkx4t.
And as multi-dimensional hypervolumes.
Lu, Muyang, Kevin Winner, and Walter Jetz. ‘A Unifying Framework for Quantifying and Comparing N-Dimensional Hypervolumes’. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 12, no. 10 (2021): 1953–68. https://doi.org/10/gk75nh.
Holt, Robert D. ‘Bringing the Hutchinsonian Niche into the 21st Century: Ecological and Evolutionary Perspectives’. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106, no. Supplement 2 (2009): 19659–65. https://doi.org/10/dqmfh7.
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