Download Niche

Community Ecology
Niche
Competitive Exclusion Principle
Community Ecology:
Niche
What is a Niche?
• Every organism has a niche in life.
• A niche is the role an organism has in an
ecosystem.
– Niche is “what the organism does”
– Niche includes “where an organism lives”
Other ways to think about it.
• An organism’s habitat is like its
address.
• An organism’s niche is like its job.
–Includes what it does.
–Includes the conditions it lives it.
Two Examples
(space, food, interactions, role)
The Saguaro Cactus
Lion
Distribution of Assassin Bugs in
Brazil
Another way to look at it!
• Two species competing for the same
resources cannot coexist.
• When one species has even the slightest
advantage over another, then the one will
dominate in the long term.
• One will overcome the other, leading to
the extinction of the other or a shift to a
different niche.
Flour Beetles
Two salamander species
Data Analysis Worksheet
Closure
• Objective: Explain the principle of competitive exclusion
Please fill out the exit ticket!
Bellwork
• Objective: Explain the principle of competitive exclusion
In your own words, explain what
the word, niche, means.