Download Habitat and Niche Study Guide Vocabulary Habitat Ecological niche

Habitat and Niche Study Guide
Vocabulary
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Habitat
Ecological niche
Questions
1. What is the difference between an organism’s habitat and its ecological niche?
A habitat is all of the biotic and abiotic factors in the area where an organism lives.
A niche includes all physical, chemical, and biological factors that a species needs to survive, stay
healthy, and reproduce.
2. Determine which ecological factors are a part of a lion’s niche and which are a part of a lion’s
habitat by placing the below items in the correct column.
trees
zebra
temperature
grass
sand
hunting behavior
savanna
other lions
Habitat
Food, other lions, trees, watering hole, wildebeest,
zebra, sand, temperature, grass, and savanna.
watering hole
wildebeest
Niche
All of the above plus hunting behavior.
3. Why can two (or more) species not occupy the same niche? What will happen if they do? This is
called the principle of ___________________.
Competitive exclusion principle states that when two species are competing for the same resources, one
species will be better suited to the niche – thus pushing the other species into another niche or extinction.
What are ecological equivalents?
Please explain what convergent evolution is and how it relates to ecological equivalents.
Convergent evolution occurs when two very different species end up “looking” and/or behaving like
one another due to the fact they occupy the same or similar niches in different places. For example,
the convergent evolution between marsupials in Australia and placental mammals. Another example
were the wings of birds and bats - the same forelimb structures were modified independently, in very
different ways (bats fly with their fingers while birds fly with their arms).