Ecological Niche

Habitat of an organism is the place where it lives. Each habitat may have several minor variations
due to slight variations in one of the environmental factors. Smaller organisms occupy very
restricted areas in the habitat. Therefore, any one habitat is shared by several organisms, each
occupying at a particular area. Such specific regions in a habitat, where individual organisms live are
called microhabitat.

Niche

The term niche was coined by Joseph Grinnell in 1917. It literally means ‘a small place’. According to
Grinnell, niche is a subdivision of habitat; which corresponds to microhabitat. Thus in a particular
habitat shared by several species, each species is confined to its own microhabitat(niche),because no
two species in the habitat cannot occupy the same ecological niche indefinitely.

The concept of niche implies much more today. The niche of an organism refers to the functional
role it plays in the ecosystem. According to Odum, niche is the profession of an organism in the
community, while habitat is the address. Niche refers to the role of an organism in the community. It
includes the behaviour of the organisms in the community, its response to the environment and its
interactions with the members of the community.

There are three major aspects of Niche

1. Trophic Niche (Class I Niche) : Elton defined an animal’s niche as its place/status in the
community. It gives stress to the role played by an animal with community. It is also called
eltonian niche.Sometimes two species may live in the same habitat, but they occupy
different trophic niche because of differences in food habits. Eg: lion and deer live in the
same habitat of forest community, but they have different niches. Lion is a carnivore and
deer is a herbivore.

2. Species Niche (Class II Niche) : According to Colinvaux, niche is a specific set of

adaptations/capabilities that the animal posses in order to play their role effectively in the
community. Eg: Elephant, rabbit and deer are three types of organisms in the forest
community. All these are herbivores. But they occupy different niches. Elephant feed on
trees, deer feed on shrubs and rabbits feed on herbs and grasses. There cannot be more
individuals in a species than there are opportunities to practice its niche. The species niche,
therefore, sets an upper limit to population size. Both trophic niche and species niche
describes the profession of an animal, but view point is different.

3. Multidimensional or hypervolume niche (Class III Niche) : if niche is the property of the
species, it must be exercised in a suitable environment. The concept of species niche,
therefore allows the complementary concept of an environmental space, in which that
niche is exercised. Multi dimensional niche defines niche in terms of environment and
resources. According to Mac Fadyen, a niche is that set of ecological condition under which a
species can exploit its capabilities. Or in other words, a niche is a multidimensional
hypervolume of resources. Eg: Man occupies the herbivore niche in some region. He
occupies a carnivore niche in certain places. He occupies omnivore in most of the places.
Organisms that occupy the similar ecological niche in different geographical regions are
called ecological equivalents. Kangaroo of Australia and Bison of North America are
ecological equivalents. They are grazing herbivores on grasslands of different geographical
area.

By occupying different niche, animals escape from competition. Niche occupied by a species
is favourable to it because it provides a suitable substratum and microclimate to it.

Niche overlap and competition

In a community two dimensions are usually taken into consideration-Niche width and niche
overlap. Niche width is the sum total of different resources exploited by the organism.
Measurement of the niche width usually involves the measure of some ecological variables
such as food size or habitat space. Niche width may be narrow or broad. A narrow width
indicates a specialised species while broad width indicates that the species is a generalist
and can use wide range of resources.

Niche overlap indicates that two or more species use a portion of the available resources
such as food or space simultaneously. Niche overlap occurs when two species use the same
resource or other environmental variables. Overlap is complete when two species have
identical niches. There is no overlap if two niches are completely separated. Usually, niches
overlap only partially, with some resources being shared and others being shared exclusively
by each species.

According to Hutchinson, assuming that the environment is fully saturated and that niche
overlap is not possible for any period of time, hence competition exclusion must occur in
overlapping parts of any two niches. The competition will be so intense that only a single
species will survive in the niche space. However, in nature, niches often do not overlap yey
competition exclusion does not take place.

Gause’s Principle

Russian biologist G.F. Gause has postulated that stable populations of two or more species
cannot continuously occupy the same niche and in the course of time one will replace the
other. Since, this principle bears directly on the completion of competition, it is known as
competitive exclusion principle. According to this , one niche is filled by just one species.

Concept of guild

The term guild was first used by Root (1967). Guild is a group of co-existing species which
share a common niche. Many species living in sympatry divide a resource and they are called
guild. Each individual species in a guild avoids head on conflict with other species in the
guild. Yet, there must be some overlap between niches causing some competition for
resources, but it is silenced or muted.

For instance, monkeys, parrots or other birds that eat fruit in a forest can form guild. Ants ,
rodents or birds that eat seeds in a desert can form a guild.
Guild may serve to pinpoint the basic functional roles of the species. The guild is a
convenient unit for studies of interactions between species in a community. Guild help to
study community organization better by making it unnecessary to understand each and
every species as a separate entity.