Back Nicho ecolochico AN مثوى بيئي Arabic Nichu ecolóxicu AST Экалагічная ніша Byelorussian Екологична ниша Bulgarian इकोलॉजिकल निच Bihari Ekološka niša BS Nínxol ecològic Catalan تاقی ژینگەیی CKB Ekologická nika Czech

Ecological niche

The flightless dung beetle occupies an ecological niche: exploiting animal droppings as a food source.

In ecology, a niche is the match of a species to a specific environmental condition.[1][2] It describes how an organism or population responds to the distribution of resources and competitors (for example, by growing when resources are abundant, and when predators, parasites and pathogens are scarce) and how it in turn alters those same factors (for example, limiting access to resources by other organisms, acting as a food source for predators and a consumer of prey). "The type and number of variables comprising the dimensions of an environmental niche vary from one species to another [and] the relative importance of particular environmental variables for a species may vary according to the geographic and biotic contexts".[3]

A Grinnellian niche is determined by the habitat in which a species lives and its accompanying behavioral adaptations. An Eltonian niche emphasizes that a species not only grows in and responds to an environment, it may also change the environment and its behavior as it grows. The Hutchinsonian niche uses mathematics and statistics to try to explain how species coexist within a given community.

The concept of ecological niche is central to ecological biogeography, which focuses on spatial patterns of ecological communities.[4] "Species distributions and their dynamics over time result from properties of the species, environmental variation..., and interactions between the two—in particular the abilities of some species, especially our own, to modify their environments and alter the range dynamics of many other species."[5] Alteration of an ecological niche by its inhabitants is the topic of niche construction.[6]

The majority of species exist in a standard ecological niche, sharing behaviors, adaptations, and functional traits similar to the other closely related species within the same broad taxonomic class, but there are exceptions. A premier example of a non-standard niche filling species is the flightless, ground-dwelling kiwi bird of New Zealand, which feeds on worms and other ground creatures, and lives its life in a mammal-like niche. Island biogeography can help explain island species and associated unfilled niches.

  1. ^ Pocheville, Arnaud (2015). "The Ecological Niche: History and Recent Controversies". In Heams, Thomas; Huneman, Philippe; Lecointre, Guillaume; et al. (eds.). Handbook of Evolutionary Thinking in the Sciences. Dordrecht: Springer. pp. 547–586. ISBN 978-94-017-9014-7.
  2. ^ Three variants of ecological niche are described by Thomas W. Schoener (2009). "§I.1 Ecological niche". In Simon A. Levin; Stephen R. Carpenter; H. Charles J. Godfray; Ann P. Kinzig; Michel Loreau; Jonathan B. Losos; Brian Walker; David S. Wilcove (eds.). The Princeton Guide to Ecology. Princeton University Press. pp. 3 ff. ISBN 9781400833023.
  3. ^ A Townsend Peterson; Jorge Soberôn; RG Pearson; Roger P Anderson; Enrique Martínez-Meyer; Miguel Nakamura; Miguel Bastos Araújo (2011). "Species-environment relationships". Ecological Niches and Geographic Distributions (MPB-49). Princeton University Press. p. 82. ISBN 9780691136882. See also Chapter 2: Concepts of niches, pp. 7 ff
  4. ^ Mark V Lomolino; Brett R Riddle; James H Brown (2009). "The geographic range as a reflection of the niche". Biogeography (3rd ed.). Sunderland, Mass: Sinauer Associates. p. 73. ISBN 978-0878934867. The geographic range of a species can be viewed as a spatial reflection of its niche Viewable on line via Amazon's 'look-inside' feature.
  5. ^ Mark V Lomolino; Brett R Riddle; James H Brown (2009). "Areography: Sizes, shapes and overlap of ranges". Biogeography (3rd ed.). Sunderland, Mass: Sinauer Associates. p. 579. ISBN 978-0878934867. Viewable on line via Amazon's 'look-inside' feature.
  6. ^ A Townsend Peterson; Jorge Soberôn; RG Pearson; Roger P Anderson; Enrique Martínez-Meyer; Miguel Nakamura; Miguel Bastos Araújo (2011). "Major themes in niche concepts". Ecological Niches and Geographic Distributions (MPB-49). Princeton University Press. p. 11. ISBN 9780691136882. We will make the crucial distinction between variables that are dynamically modified (linked) by the presence of the species versus those that are not. ... [Our construction] is based upon variables not dynamically affected by the species...in contrast to...those that are subject to modification by niche construction.

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