Lilian, Andreea, Sanjna

Biology Exam

1.2. Briefly outline the concept of the ecological niche and apply it to the limpets. (Use the
given material on the next page and your scientific speculations.)

Ecological niche describes the role and the position of an organism in an ecosystem, encompassing the
environmental conditions an organism requires as well as the interactions with other species. It is
distinguished between two types of niches:
A fundamental niche is a niche of an organism given that there are no limiting factors on the environment or
limiting resources the organism can use. Only intraspecific competition between individuals of the same
species takes place.
Therefore the organisms in the species are able to make, maximum use of both biotic and abiotic factors. It
defines a set of conditions and sources under which the species can survive, grow and reproduce.
In contrary, the realised niche is where the species actually lives; smaller than the corresponding
fundamental niche of the species and is considered as a subset. Different species interact and compete for
resources in an interspecific competition.

This can be applied to the limpets which often live on hard surfaces clinging tightly with their „muscular
foot“ (see M1). They can be found in saltwater as well as in freshwater.
The graph M2 shows the maximum length and the biomass in relation to the density of individuals.
In the figure one can see that with increasing density the length of the limpets decreases while the biomass
stays approximately constant from 400 limpets per m^2 to 1200 limpets per m^2.

This indicates that the growth is density-dependent limited by the available space resulting in a smaller size
whereas the biomass stays constant.
Besides, density-independent factors such as competition can be applied. As the competitive-exclusion
principle states, two or more species occupying the same ecological niche are in direct interspecific
competition for essential biotic and abiotic factors. Therefore, long-term coexistence is not possible leading
to the extinction of one species or in a different specialisation. This would be an explanation for the different
physical appearance and adaptations throughout the years. It is probable that saltwater limpets were
repressed from their original habitat and acquired the ability to live in freshwater