Open AccessBook
Ecological Niches: Linking Classical and Contemporary Approaches
Jonathan M. Chase,Mathew A. Leibold +1 more
- 01 Jul 2003
1.3K
TL;DR: Jonathan M. Chase and Mathew A. Leibold argue that the niche is an ideal tool with which to unify disparate research and theoretical approaches in contemporary ecology and develop a framework for understanding niches that is flexible enough to include a variety of small- and large-scale processes.
read more
Abstract: Why do species live where they live? What determines the abundance and diversity of species in a given area? What role do species play in the functioning of entire ecosystems? All of these questions share a single core concept - the ecological niche. Although the niche concept has fallen into disfavour among ecologists in recent years, Jonathan M. Chase and Mathew A. Leibold argue that the niche is an ideal tool with which to unify disparate research and theoretical approaches in contemporary ecology. Chase and Leibold define the niche as including both what an organism needs from its environment and how that organism's activities shape its environment. Drawing on the theory of consumer-resource interactions, as well as its graphical analysis, they develop a framework for understanding niches that is flexible enough to include a variety of small- and large-scale processes, from resource competition, predation and stress to community structure, biodiversity and ecosystem function. Chase and Leibold's synthetic approach should interest ecologists from a wide range of subdisciplines.
read more
Chat with Paper
AI Agents for this Paper
Find similar papers on Google Scholar, PubMed and Arxiv
Write a critical review of this paper
Analyze citations of this paper to find unaddressed research gaps
Citations
Analysis of spatial niche structure in coexisting tidepool fishes: null models based on multi-scale experiments
Seiji Arakaki,Mutsunori Tokeshi +1 more
TL;DR: This study demonstrates that niches of intertidal fishes may experience modifications under the influence of species interactions and that null models based on controlled experiments can greatly facilitate the deciphering of such changes in niche structure.
20
Competition among plant species that interact with their environment at different spatial scales.
TL;DR: Models to explore the implications of such scale asymmetries when species compete for multiple depletable resources that are heterogeneously distributed in space across two patches show that integration created new opportunities for local coexistence, but eliminated some opportunities for regional coexistence.
Unsuitable habitat patches lead to severe underestimation of dynamics and gene flow in a zooplankton metapopulation.
TL;DR: It is concluded that low pH and Ca(++) result in unsuitable colonization conditions in two-thirds of the untreated pools, resulting in a much more dynamic picture of this Daphnia metapopulation than previously believed, with colonization rates and gene flow three to five times higher.
Habitat representativeness score (HRS): a novel concept for objectively assessing the suitability of survey coverage for modelling the distribution of marine species
TL;DR: In this paper, a habitat representativeness score (HRS) was calculated to assess the minimum number of evenly-spaced parallel north-south surveys required to adequately survey two study areas with differing levels of environmental heterogeneity for all available combinations of four habitat variables.
20
Realized niche and spatial pattern of native and exotic halophyte hybrids
TL;DR: The study suggests the ecological niche dimension concept is an important tool for understanding species roles in ecosystems, incorporating many ideas from the individual to ecosystem levels.
20
References
•Book
Resource competition and community structure
David Tilman
- 01 Jan 1982
TL;DR: This book builds a mechanistic, resource-based explanation of the structure and functioning of ecological communities and explores such problems as the evolution of "super species," the differences between plant and animal community diversity patterns, and the cause of plant succession.
5.9K
Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes
Imre Lakatos
- 01 Jan 1976
TL;DR: For centuries knowledge meant proven knowledge, proven either by the power of the intellect or by the evidence of the senses as discussed by the authors. But the notion of proven knowledge was questioned by the sceptics more than two thousand years ago; but they were browbeaten into confusion by the glory of Newtonian physics.
5.8K
Are there general laws in ecology
TL;DR: It is argued that ecology has numerous laws in this sense of the word, in the form of widespread, repeatable patterns in nature, but hardly any laws that are universally true.
The Niche Concept Revisited: Mechanistic Models and Community Context
TL;DR: The niche concept is reviewed using “mechanistic” models of community theory to identify two distinct components; the “impact” niche describing instantaneous per—capita effects of species on the environment and the "requirement" niche describing the responses of species to the environment.
697
Who rules in science? : an opinionated guide to the wars
James Robert Brown
- 01 Jan 2001
TL;DR: In this article, the role of reason in science has been discussed and discussed in the context of science with a social agenda, and the role role of science in the Democratization of science is discussed.
137