SZL202: BASIC ECOLOGY

Habitat and Niche

Introduction
Habitat
The place in which an organism lives out its life. The type of environment where an organism
normally lives
Habitat structure
The physical structural aspects of a habitat. The structure of habitats may be characterized by such
measures as complexity, heterogeneity, regularity, stratification of the habitat.
Microhabitat
Locations within a habitat where organisms may carry out important aspects of their lives, such as
places for harvesting food, nesting, or taking shelter.
Ecotone
A zone of transition between two different habitats that may contain a community of organisms
distinct from either habitat.
Community
An ecological term referring to a set of species that occur in the same location that have the
potential to affect each other either directly or indirectly.
Community structure
The web of potential biological interactions among members of a community that may be
characterized in terms of diversity, complexity, hierarchy, and stability.
Ecological niche
The role a species plays in a community; its total way of life. Encompasses all aspects of a species’
way of life, including
• Its role in the ecosystem (herbivore, carnivore, producer etc)
• Its tolerance limits (e.g. soil pH, humidity) – its limiting factors
• Its requirements for shelter, nesting sites etc., all varying through time.
– Physical home or habitat.
– Physical and chemical environmental factors necessary for survival.
– How the species acquires its energy and materials. All the other species with which it interacts.
Limiting Factors of a niche
• Amount of water
• Amount of nutrients
• Temperature
• Amount of space
• Availability of mates
Biotic and Abiotic Factors
• Biotic factors refer to any biological influence on an organism. Includes all other living organisms
in the ecological community.
• Abiotic factors refer to any physical, non-living influence on an organism.
• Both biotic and abiotic factors determine survival and growth of an organism as well as ecosystem
productivity. The combination of all the factors that describe where in a habitat an organism can
live describes the organism’s “fundamental niche.”
Niche overlap
The proportion of available resources that are shared by two species. Usually used in the context of
a single resource that limits population growth.

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Niche breadth
Niche breadth refers to the range of resources that a species utilizes/uses for its survival. It
determines the geographical area it can occupy.
Habitat
A habitat is simply where an organism can be found in nature. The place in which an organism
lives out its life. The type of environment where an organism normally lives (e.g. a stoney stream, a
deciduous temperate woodland, bottomland hardwood swamp, a bayou). Within each ecosystem
there are habitats of various sizes. A habitat is a place with populations. All the populations living
in the same place at the same time interact, forming a community. Such community also interacts
with the non-living world around it, thus forming an ecosystem. The habitat must provide the
organisms with food, water, temperature, oxygen and other resources they need. Among
populations in the same habitat different processes may occur, such as cooperation, symbiosis, but
also competition and predation.
Habitat descriptions include geographical information and often refer to the dominant species
present (e.g., grassland, coral reef). Niche descriptions for a species usually begin with the main
food items consumed. Habitats are described in terms of geography, geology, climate, as well as
by other species commonly found within the same habitat.
The habitat concept is very closely related to another concept used to characterize species, the
niche. The niche of an organism can best be described as its role in the community of organisms
around it. Among the many traits that may comprise a niche are the physical and climatic
characteristics that an organism can tolerate, and the resources required for the species to persist,
such as food and shelter.
An ecological community is a suite of species that occur in the same location that at least have the
potential to interact and affect each other either directly or indirectly. These effects are usually
measured in terms of population growth or changes in the density of individuals. Different
communities of organisms will generally reside in different habitats. If most species in one
community have little chance of affecting the populations of other species in a different
community, then these communities probably occur in different habitats. Generally, one habitat
type will gradually give way to another creating a zone of transition. Communities in the transition
zone may be qualitatively different from communities that occur within one habitat type or another.
Usually, some measure of density or population growth is plotted, and the portion of the gradient
that is occupied by the species is referred to as the habitat breadth of the species.
The niche is a more abstract term than the habitat. It encompasses all possible interactions that a
species has with the environment and other species in the community. Like a habitat, a niche is
often defined by axes, and there are multiple axes that can be compared. The most common type of
axes used to characterize a niche include those that define environmental tolerances and resource
requirements. Humidity, sunlight, temperature, wind exposure, and pH are examples of
environmental axes that help to define a niche. Resource axes may include food resources (insects,
seeds, bacteria, nutrients), space requirements (breeding sites, refuges, foraging zones). In practice,
ecologists focus on a subset of niche dimensions that are the most important in determining the role
of a species in the community. Among these are food resources that are essential for survival.

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These factors limit the population size of the species and therefore determine the distribution and
abundance of the population.
The most basic components of a niche (a) type of food consumed (mostly insects, berries at some
times of the year), (b) microhabitat preference (beneath shrubby vegetation), (c) physical traits and
behaviors used in gathering food (a long beak thrashed through the top layers of soil and leaves),
and (d) resources required for shelter and breeding (dense shrubs for night roosting and nesting).
These four basic factors allow one to characterize the basic niche of most animals, and most
animals differ with respect to one or more of these factors. An analogous set of core niche
dimensions may be constructed for plants, which tend to partition niche space along resource axes
such as available light, soil moisture, and various soil nutrient gradients. Important niche
dimensions for marine organisms may include temperature, substrate type, salinity, pH, and
exposure to waves. The resources that a species would use if it were isolated from all potential
competitors is part of its fundamental niche. The realized niche is a subset of the fundamental
niche that includes the resources actually consumed by the species in nature. The difference
between the realized and fundamental niche can be attributed to competition from other species in
the community.

Classic example - interaction between barnacles – Chthamalus and Semibalanus. Chthamalus lives
in the intertidal zone. Semibalanus lives in the subtidal zone
If Semibalanus is removed Chthamalus also utilizes the subtidal zone. Semibalanus is unable to live
in the intertidal zone due to dessication.
Semibalanus excludes Chthamalus from the subtidal zone through its rapid growth - undercuts or
crushes Chthamalus. The realized niche is smaller than the fundamental niche for Chthamalus
In nature, either there are fewer of these suboptimal resources available because of competitors, or
each species deliberately chooses a narrower range of resources to consume to avoid competition.
The effect of competition on realized niches can be seen by comparing island and mainland
communities. Islands usually support fewer species than equivalent mainland habitats. It has been
shown for many kinds of species that in these species-poor island communities, species tend to eat
a wider array of foods and therefore have wider niches. This agrees with the expectation based on
niche theory: there are fewer potential competitors on islands, and therefore there is less resource

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overlap with other species acting to constrain their niches.
Competitive Exclusion Principle/Gause's Principle
No two species can occupy the same niche at the same time.
1. Resource Partitioning – Coexistence
No two species can coexist on the same limiting resource. Species avoid competition by
partitioning resources and habitats among themselves. When species coexist through utilization of
different types of resources or different ranges of a limiting resource it is called “Resource
Partitioning” or “Niche Partitioning”
2. Reducing Niche Overlap
When species with largely overlapping niches are allowed to compete, their niches may focus on a
different part of the resource spectrum.
3. Interspecific competition
Natural selection can reduce niche overlap, interspecific competition may still restrict the size and
distribution of competing populations. Example: Chthamalus & Semibalanus barnacles of the
Scottish intertidal zone. Specialization into two separate niches.

Species under continual competition will sometimes evolve because of selection against those
individuals that suffer the most severe competition. Finches in the Galapagos Islands feed on seeds
and their beak size determines the size of seeds they can eat. When found on different islands
(allopatric) the beak sizes are similar. When found on the same island (sympatric) they have

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divergent beak sizes - greater difference when sympatric than when allopatric is called “Character
Displacement”.
Competition for seeds is highest on intermediate sized seeds – one species specializes on large
seeds, the other on small seeds
4. Intraspecific competition
Intraspecific competition is usually intense since individuals of the same species have nearly
identical niches. If resources are limited, this is a major factor controlling population abundance,
distribution, and density.
A species’ role in the ecosystem can often be partly described by the way it captures energy.
Autotrophs
Organisms that synthesize their own complex, energy rich, organic molecules from simple
inorganic molecules. Autotrophs can also be called “producers.”
Consumers
Organisms that obtain complex, energy rich, organic compounds from the bodies of other
organisms (dead or alive). Consumers can also be called heterotrophs. There are primary
consumers, secondary consumers, tertiary consumers etc.
Detritivores
Heterotrophs that ingest dead organic matter. (e.g. earthworms, woodlice, millipedes).
Saprobes
Heterotrophic organisms that secrete digestive enzymes onto dead organic matter and absorb the
digested material. (e.g. fungi, bacteria). Saprobes can also be called decomposers.