Niche
Niche
- Definitions
- 1904 Grinnell: a distributional unit that describes where an organism lives
- 1927 Elton: an organisms functional role in a community
- 1958 Hutchinson: a n-dimensional hypervolume
- every point in a space that corresponds to where an organism can live
- Note the way definitions progess towards emphasizing connectivities and the uniqueness of habitats and organisms
- Important to remember that niche includes both biotic and abiotic factors
- Competitive Exclusion Principle: (Gause's Principle)
- No two species can inhabit the same niche
- Biotic and abiotic factors are arranged in such a way that species are utilizing resources in different ways
- Fundamental question: does this negate the concept of competition in nature?
Warbler Niche Structure

- Each species utilizes a different aspect of the tree's habitat to reduce competition with other species
- This allows multiple species to extract resources from the same location.
Ways to Create Multiple Niches in the same Habitat
- Temporal: noctural vs. diurnal animals, owls and hawks each feed on rodents but at different times
- Spatial: Warbler example, use different spaces within a habitat
- Functional: Extract different resources, woodpeckers eat insects, finches eat nuts
page revision: 7, last edited: 11 Nov 2009 02:05