The role a plant or animal plays in its community. What it eats, its predators, physical tolerances, etc define the niche of an organism. Two species cannot live stably in the same habitat if they occupy identical niches.
Is all of the physical, chemical and biological conditions required by a species for survival, growth and reproduction. Two further abstractions of this concept are the fundamental niche and the realized niche.
(nitch) [L. nidus: nest] • The functioning of a species in relation to other species and its physical environment.
The total of a specie's way of living in a particular environment at a particular time.
An organism’s place and function in the environment, defined by its utilization of resources.
lifestyle unique to a species of plant or animal. Includes food chain, relationship to habitat, adaptations to ecosystem, and daily and seasonal activities.
(ecology) the status of an organism within its environment and community (affecting its survival as a species)
a role an organism plays in its community, including its habitat and its interactions with other organisms
a very complex description of the way in which a species of microbe lives in its world and habitat
The functional role and position of a species (population) within a community or ecosystem, including what resources it uses, how and when it uses the resources, and how it interacts with other populations.
The role an organism occupies and the function it performs in an ecosystem; closely associated with feeding.
describes the role of the animal within its community. It considers what the animal does in relation to the food chain, plant and animal associations and energy flow. The niche might be compared to an occupation.
total way of life or role of a species in an ecosystem. It includes all physical, chemical, and biological conditions a species needs to live and reproduce in an ecosystem. See fundamental niche, realized niche.
A term with alternative definitions, not all of them synonymous. To state two: (i) the 'occupation' or 'profession' of an organism or species; or (ii) the range of conditions, resource levels and densities of other species allowing the survival, growth and reproduction of an organism or species. Hence, if each condition, resource or other species is seen as a dimension, the niche is an -dimensional hypervolume.
In ecology, a niche is a term describing the relational position of a species or population in an ecosystem. More formally, the niche includes how a population responds to the abundance of its resources and enemies (e. g., by growing when resources are abundant, and predators, parasites and pathogens are scarce) and how it affects those same factors (e.g., by reducing the abundance of resources through consumption and contributing to the population growth of enemies by falling prey to them). The abiotic or physical environment is part of the niche because it influences how populations affect, and are affected by, resources and enemies.
