The Living World: Ecosystem Structure: Ecological Niches
Vocabulary
Ecological niche -The totality of an organism's adaptions, its use of resources, and the lifestyle to which it is fitted.
Habitat - The local environment in which an organism lives.
Fundamental niche - The potential, idealized ecological niche of an organism.
Realized niche - The liftestyle an organism actually pursues and the resources it actually uses.
Limiting resource - Any environmental resource that, because it is scarce or at unfavorable levels, restricts the ecological niche of an organism.
Competition - The interaction among organisms that vie for the same resources (such as food or living space) in an ecosystem.
Intraspecific competition - Competition among individuals within a population.
Interspecific competition - Competition among species.
Resource partitioning - Coexisting species' niches differ from each other in one or more ways.
Habitat - The local environment in which an organism lives.
Fundamental niche - The potential, idealized ecological niche of an organism.
Realized niche - The liftestyle an organism actually pursues and the resources it actually uses.
Limiting resource - Any environmental resource that, because it is scarce or at unfavorable levels, restricts the ecological niche of an organism.
Competition - The interaction among organisms that vie for the same resources (such as food or living space) in an ecosystem.
Intraspecific competition - Competition among individuals within a population.
Interspecific competition - Competition among species.
Resource partitioning - Coexisting species' niches differ from each other in one or more ways.
This is an example of resource partitioning. Although these birds niches seem identical, they spend their time eating in different parts of spruces and other conifer trees. This idea was concluded by Robert MacArthur, in his study on five North American warbler species.
Adaptions determine the tolerance an organism has for environmental extremes. If a species cannot tolerate amy feature of the environment, it cannot live there.
An ecological niche is described by whether the species is a producer, consumer, or decomposer, whether it is a predator or prey, what species it competes with, and the kinds of symbiotic associations it forms.
An ecological niche consists of all the physical, chemical, and biological factors an organism needs to stay healthy and reproduce.
An ecological niche is defined by the species structural, physiological, and behavioral adaptions.
An ecological niche is described by whether the species is a producer, consumer, or decomposer, whether it is a predator or prey, what species it competes with, and the kinds of symbiotic associations it forms.
An ecological niche consists of all the physical, chemical, and biological factors an organism needs to stay healthy and reproduce.
An ecological niche is defined by the species structural, physiological, and behavioral adaptions.
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