An ecological niche is the role and position a species occupies within its environment, encompassing the full set of conditions and resources it needs to survive and reproduce as well as how it interacts with other organisms and its surroundings. The concept distinguishes between the fundamental niche—the complete r…
An ecological niche is the role and position a species occupies within its environment, encompassing the full set of conditions and resources it needs to survive and reproduce as well as how it interacts with other organisms and its surroundings. The concept distinguishes between the fundamental niche—the complete range of conditions under which a species could theoretically live—and the realized niche, the narrower set of conditions it actually occupies once factors such as competition and predation are taken into account. The niche concept is central to ecology because it helps explain how species coexist, how communities are structured, and how organisms partition resources to reduce direct competition. Understanding a species' niche is important for predicting how it may respond to environmental change, habitat alteration, or the arrival of competitors, and for guiding conservation and management. Within the study of Wildlife and ecosystems, niche concepts inform analyses of species distributions, habitat requirements, and interactions among the organisms that share an environment. This page brings together peer-reviewed, open-access research relevant to the ecological niche and to the broader study of how species relate to their environments and to one another within ecological communities.
2 peer-reviewed articles, ranked by relevance. Each links to its DOI.
The 2 articles above have been cited 33 times in the scholarly literature. Citation data via OpenAlex and Crossref, updated Jun 2026.
A sample of recent works citing this journal's research on Ecological Niche, linking to each citing work.