Synonyms
Definition
The ecological niche corresponds to the sum total of unique ways in which a species is accommodated by and interacts with both biotic and abiotic factors in its surrounding ecology. Niches can be modeled as n-dimensional hypervolumes, whose dimensions correspond to the distribution of a species along abiotic and biotic gradients. Niches are idiosyncratic to species, with no two species sharing the same niche, although considerable overlap among niches can exist within a given ecosystem owing to competition.
Introduction
The term niche was first utilized in an ecological context by zoologist Joseph Grinnell (1917); however a rigorous quantitative definition of niche was not forthcoming until the 1950s. The concept has had a tumultuous history, having become unfashionable in ecology in the latter decades of the twentieth century owing to criticism from the philosophy of science and the rise of competing models. The concept has started to make a comeback in...
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References
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Woodley of Menie, M.A. (2018). Ecological Niche, The. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2116-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2116-1
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