Niche Definition

Niche is the functional role and position of a species in its environment that
describes how the species responds to the distribution of resources and
competitors or predators.
 Like habitat, the niche is also determined by both the biotic and abiotic factors of
the particular environment.
 However, a niche represents the interactions of a population with these factors
and its effect on the environment and other organisms within the environment.
 For example, a population in an environment utilizes the resources and breeds to
produce more organisms which then increases the resources for the predators.
 The term ‘ecological niche’ is commonly used while dealing with living beings as
it involves the interaction of the organisms with the ecosystem.
 Niche is a part of the habitat of an organism and deals with what it does in the
habitat to survive.
 Niche involves the flow of energy from one species to another, and thus it is
important to understand how a species eats or interacts with other organisms.
 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.
Key Differences (Habitat vs Niche)

Basis for
Habitat Niche
Comparison

Niche is the functional role and

A habitat is a natural environment
position of a species in its
where a particular organism lives
environment that describes how the
Definition and utilizes the resources of that
species responds to the distribution
place for their survival, food,
of resources and competitors or
shelter, protection, and mating.
predators.

A habitat might have one or more A niche is a unit that doesn’t have
Composed of
niches. further components.

A habitat deals with the effect of
temperature, climate, and similar
Deals with
factors on the survival of an
organism.
A niche deals with the flow of
energy from one species to another
and its interaction with the abiotic
factors.

A niche is specific to a species and

A habitat might support more
Species only supports a single species of
than one species at a time.
organisms.

Niche is the activities and

Habitat is a physical space
Nature interactions a species has with other
occupied by species.
species and the environments.

Habitat represents the address of Niche represents the profession or

Represents
an organism. occupation of an organism.

Niche is specific to a particular

Specificity Habitat is not specific to species.
species.

Habitat is a superset that

What is it? Niche is a subset of a habitat.
contains other components.

Size Habitat is larger in size. A niche is smaller than a habitat.

Trophic level Habitat doesn’t indicate the Niche defines the trophic level of a
 trophic level of a species in an
species in an ecosystem.
ecosystem.

Habitat of an organism remains Living beings might change their

Changes the same for a longer period of niche within a shorter time like
time. seasons.

Niche is a result of the habitat and

Habitat of a species might
Influence rarely affects the habitats of the
influence its niche.
species.

The five major types of habitat

The three major types of niche;
include; forests, grasslands,
Types spatial or habitat niche, trophic
deserts, mountains, and polar
niche, and multidimensional niche.
regions, and aquatic habitats.

Grasslands, lakes, mountains, Birds in New Zealand, niches

Examples deserts, etc., are some examples occupied by pandas are some
of habitat. examples of niches.

Examples of Niche
Birds in New Zealand
 Because New Zealand is an island separated from the rest of the world, it is utilized by some unique plants and
animals as a niche.
 It includes few animals that are capable of flying or swimming, considering the distance of this place from the rest
of the world.
 Historically, in the absence of animals, the native animals like flying birds of the place filled these niches.
 The flying birds were the first known predators of this place. However, due to the absence of land animals, these
birds eventually flew down on the land to fill up the niche, eventually becoming flightless.
 Large birds like the Giant Moa grew up to 12 ft in height and about 500lb in weight, in the place of large mammals.
 Birds like Kiwi live on land occupying niches of small mammals like mice and moles, feeding on seeds and insects.
 The common birds present in New Zealand are South Island takahē, the Kakapo Parrot, and the Giant Moa.
Panda bears
 Panda bears have specialized niches where they have a limited diet, primarily feeding on bamboo.
 Pandas do not move very far to reserve the very little energy they gather from such bamboos.
 In order to preserve the available energy, they do not indulge in interspecific or intraspecific competition.
 These are also no natural predators and they reproduce about once in two years to keep the population small in
order to avoid the competition.
 Their niche is specialized, which is why it is also highly sensitive to human activities.
 They feed and live mostly around the bamboo trees which are increasingly destroyed by humans for farmland or
mining.
 These are now mostly limited to temperate or humid bamboo forests of South Western China.
 hypervolume", where the dimensions are environmental conditions and
resources, that define the requirements of an individual or a species to
practice "its" way of life, more particularly, for its population to persist.[2]
The "hypervolume" defines the multi-dimensional space of resources (e.g.,
light, nutrients, structure, etc.) available to (and specifically used by)
organisms, and "all species other than those under consideration are
regarded as part of the coordinate system."
 iii) Multidimensional or hyper-volume niche:


 In 1957, G. E. Hutchinson suggested that niche could be visualised as a

multidimensional space or hyper-volume. Within this, the environment
permits an individual species to survive indefinitely. This niche concept of
Hutchinson is designated as multidimensional or hyper-volume niche. In this
case the niche can be measured, mathematically manipulated and
represented in climo-graphs.


 Concept of Ecological Niche:

 The ecological niche concept was first formally defined by Hutchinson in
1957. According to him, the activity range of any species could be described
along all the dimensions (parameters) of the environment.


 These dimensions include physical and chemical parameters such as

temperature, humidity, salinity, oxygen concentration etc. and biological
factors such as prey species, resting backgrounds against which an individual
may escape detection by predators and so on.


 Each of these dimensions are represented as dimension in space. Supposing

there are ‘n’ number of dimensions, then the niche would be described in n-
dimensional space. As it is not possible to visualize a space of more than
three dimensions, the multidimensional aspect could only be represented
mathematically and statistically, and then depicted by their essence
physically or graphically (by set of independent axis).

 A graphical representation of a biological activity to a single environmental
gradient representing the distribution of a species activity along one niche
dimension is given in Fig. 4.50a. It depicts the degree to which the
environment can support that species in relation to a particular parameter.


 Fig. 4.50b shows two dimensions where the species niche may be depicted as
a hill, with contours representing the various levels of biological activity. A
three dimensional aspect can be visualised as a cloud in space whose density
conveys niche utilisation (Fig. 4.50c).


 Pictorial Representation of Niche Dimensions



 As an example of the above, the blue-grey gnatcatcher’s (Polioptila caerulea)

feeding niche is represented on a two-dimensional graph (4.51a). The length
of its prey is represented along the horizontal axis and the height above the
ground at which the blue-grey gnatcatcher feed is shown along the vertical
axis.


 ADVERTISEMENTS:


 The contour lines on the figure represents the frequency with which the
birds fed at a particular height and on a particular length of the prey. The
data of the Fig. 4.51a is represented as a three-dimensional volume in Fig.
4.51b. Here, the feeding niche of the birds is represented as a hill. The peak
of the hill shows where the birds are most likely to be found.


 As such, other axes such as ambient temperature, risk from predation at

different times of the year and so on, could be added to the above figure. It
almost becomes impossible to represent graphically the niches where more
than two or three environmental variables are involved. However, computers
can easily hold and analyse the data.


 Feeding Niche of the Blue Grey Gnatcatcher and Three Dimensional Hill


 The total resource space or niche space available to a community is

represented as the n-dimensional volume, where the niche of all the species
fit or where the niche of each species occupies a part. All the n-dimensions
of a species niche is difficult to identify and measure.


 However, niche relationship within biological communities can be

characterised by observing the patterns of resource utilisation and micro-
habitat preferences on one or a few niche dimensions. When the preferences
of individuals are plotted on a line representing the resource (or condition),
a frequency distribution of utilisation (or tolerance) is obtained for each
species (Fig. 4.52).


 In this figure the utilisation of resource by individuals of two species m and n

are plotted. Some individuals of both the species m and n utilise much more
of the resource or some that utilise less. The distribution of each species is
characterised by the location of its peak, its breadth and its light.


 The extent of the variety of resources used (or the extent of conditions
tolerated) by the individuals in the population is represented by the width in
the figure and is referred to as the niche breadth. Sometimes the term niche
width, used in place of niche breadth, is used to represent the standard
deviation of the distribution of the resource used.


 Some individuals of species m, showing a higher utilisation of the resource

than the average for their population, overlaps in their utilisation of resource
with some individuals of species n having lower than average utilisation
(represented in the Fig. 4.52 by the shaded region). Such overlap (or
 similarity) of utilisation of resources (or tolerance of conditions) is called
niche overlap.


 Positions of Two Species



 Such niche overlaps indicate the intensity of competition between species in

the community for a particular resource. If the two peaks (Fig. 4.52) of the
distribution of species m and n are moved closer together, the niche overlap
will increase.


 When the curves of m and n totally overlap or when m = n, the utilisation

of the resources by the two species (m and n) is said to be identical. When
such a situation does occur, one would expect that competitive exclusion
would eliminate one of the species from the system.


 If the two species—in spite of the similarity in their use of resource—still

coexist, then it is called limiting similarity. Sometimes species may be too
similar to coexist on one axis, they then differ in their resource utilisation.
Such a situation is referred to as niche complementarity.


 Species which occupy similar niches in different geographical regions are

called ecological equivalent species. They tend to be closely related
taxonomically in contiguous regions but often differ in noncontiguous regions.
In different floral and faunal regions, the species composition of communities
differs widely.


 Whenever physical conditions are similar (regardless of geographical

locations), similar ecosystems develop equivalent functional niches. A
grassland ecosystem thus develops whenever there is a grassland climate, but
the species of grass and grazers may be quite different. For example, the
 kangaroos of the Australian grassland are the ecological equivalents of the
kbison and pronghorn of the North American grassland.


 Fundamental and realised niches:



 In 1958, Hutchinson introduced the terms fundamental niche and realised

niche. Fundamental niche is the niche that an organism would occupy in the
absence of competitors and predators. When the fundamental niches of two
species overlap (Fig. 4.52), then the two species are said to be competing
with one another.


 However, in nature, two species do not overlap or compete for food, even if
they eat the items of the same size, as they can look for them in different
places. Most well-integrated communities like coral reef, climax forest etc.
are made up of species with non-overlapping niches.


 Realised niche is referred to as the role an organism actually plays in the

community. Hutchinson viewed that the outcome of inter-specific
competition would lead either to extinction or the development of
differences allowing coexistence. In nature, the realised niche of an organism
is smaller than its fundamental niche.


 Niche and species diversity:



 In the species concept discussed above, the discussion included two species
only. If the concept is expanded by taking more than two species (which
occurs in a natural community), then some fundamental ideas about the
mechanisms regulating diversity in the community can be uncovered.


 Addition of species increases the species richness and the community

accommodates them in three possible ways:

 1. The original species and the added ones could maintain the same niche
widths and overlaps and in such case the total niche space has to be
increased. Fig. 4.53B depicts the increase by extending the niche axis line
which implies the addition of new resource types. This could increase the
biodiversity through increased resource diversity.


 Accommodation of More Species



 2. Without increasing the resource diversity the added species could be

accommodated by increasing the niche overlaps (Fig. 4.53C). This would lead
to a decrease of the average productivity of each species, due to increased
sharing of resources.


 3. Without increasing niche overlap the added species could be

accommodated by increasing species specialisation within a community’s
niche space (Fig. 4.53D). Here also the average productivity would decrease
as each species would have access to a narrower range of resource. Increase
in species richness without a change in resource diversity is called species
packing.


 Species adaptation and diversity:



 Discussion of ecological niche are not limited to resources and physical

conditions only. Predation avoidance is also important to population
processes. Niche discussion do constitute areas of predator escape along
which species may escape from getting noticed. Such niche space that is
defined by adaptations (including behaviour) of prey organisms and help
them to avoid predation is called escape space.


 When many prey species using the same mechanism to escape predation and
occupying portions of densely populated niche space, they become very much
susceptible to predators having appropriate learning behaviour.

 This would result in increased mortality. However, those organisms having
unusual adaptation for predator escape would be strongly selected. Thus,
predation pressure would diversify prey and make them uniformly
distributed within available escape space.


 Advantages of Ecological Niche:

 1. Animals can escape competition by occupying different ecological niches.


 2. The ecological niche occupied by a species is favourable to it as it furnishes

a suitable substratum and microclimate.


 3. Segregation of organisms into niches avoids confusion of activities in the

community and gives a more orderly and efficient life pattern for each
species.


 4. Segregation of different species in a particular niche results in full

exploitation of all available resources.