Niche Theory

Question 1

What did Robert McCarther believe a niche was?

Answer 1

A resource

Question 2

What is Niche Modification or Niche Construction?

Answer 2

Niche Modification is when an organism changes its environment in order to alter the traits that that environment is selecting for. Several biologists have argued that niche construction is as important to evolution as natural selection.
For example: To escape predation, a Beaver would need to be fast, strong, or have some sort of defense mechanism, it has few of those. What it does is constructs a dam to create deep water where it may escape predation using the tools it has, which is swimming ability.

Question 3

What three things must be present for natural selection to occur?

Answer 3

1. There must be an overproduction of a species
2. There must be certain traits that allow individuals to survive.
3. These traits must be heritable.

Question 4

What is Autecology

Answer 4

the ecological study of an individual organism, or sometimes a particular species.

Question 5

What is a Niche Dimension?

Answer 5

Environmental variable along which a species niche is characterized, e.g., food size, and typically represented as the axis of a graph.

Question 6

When was the term “ecological niche” first used?

Answer 6

1910, Roswell Johnson published a paper on ladybugs and first coined the term. It meant a role or recess “cubbyhole”

Question 7

Ecological Equivalents

Answer 7

two organisms that live in different ecosystems but have the same niche. ex. Bison in North America and Wildebeasts in Africa.