The ecological meaning of niche comes from the meaning of niche as a recess in a wall for a statue, which itself is probably derived from the Middle French word nicher, meaning to nest. The term was coined by the … See more

The Hutchinsonian niche is an "n-dimensional hypervolume", where the dimensions are environmental conditions and See more

Contemporary niche theory (also called "classic niche theory" in some contexts) is a framework that was originally designed to reconcile different definitions of niches (see Grinnellian, … See more

Two ecological paradigms deal with the problem. The first paradigm predominates in what may be called “classical” ecology. It assumes that niche space is largely saturated with … See more

In 1927 Charles Sutherland Elton, a British ecologist, defined a niche as follows: "The 'niche' of an animal means its place in the biotic environment, … See more

In ecology, niche differentiation (also known as niche segregation, niche separation and niche partitioning) refers to the process by which competing species use the environment differently in a way that helps them to coexist. The competitive exclusion principle See more

Some competing species have been shown to coexist on the same resource with no observable evidence of niche differentiation and in “violation” of the competitive exclusion principle. One instance is in a group of hispine beetle species. These … See more