Ecological Niches
- The place where a species lives is known as its habitat
- Species will occupy a specific niche within a habitat
- The term niche can be defined as
The role of a species within its habitat
- The role of a species includes
- What it eats
- Which other species depend on it for food
- What time of day a species is active
- Exactly where in a habitat a species lives
- Exactly where in a habitat a species feeds
- No two species can fill the same niche within a habitat; if this ever happens the two species will be in direct competition with each other for resources, and one of the two species will out-compete the other, causing it to die out in that particular habitat
- It can sometimes seem as though species are occupying the same niche, but there will still be subtle differences in their role; e.g. they might feed at different times of day, or have different food sources
Feeding niches diagram
Feeding location is an example of a feature that may differ between niches
Adaptation to ecological niche
- Species can only survive in habitats in which they are well adapted to their niche; they must be adapted to a habitat's:
- Abiotic factors, e.g.
- Plants must have enough light for photosynthesis in order to produce carbohydrates
- Aquatic organisms must be able to absorb enough oxygen from the surrounding water for respiration
- Biotic factors, e.g.
- A prey organism being camouflaged to avoid predation
- A plant growing fast enough to outcompete nearby plants for sunlight
- Abiotic factors, e.g.