In ecology, the status of organism in the ecosystem, including its habitat and its effect on other organisms and the environment. It includes the physical or abiotic environment that covers factors such as soil type and climate, as well as how a species has adapted to living in its habitat. According to the principle of competitive exclusion, no two species can occupy the same niche in the same environment for a protracted period of time. A variety of different species can constitute a community, but each one occupies its own niche. Accordingly, niche is not synonymous with habitat: many species may share a habitat, but this is not the case with a niche. The principle should not be applied in a rigid fashion. For example, the coyote and fox occupy a similar niche in the grassland communities of North America. The origin of the term ‘niche’ as used in ecology is credited to the biologist Joseph Grinell (1877-1939). The notion of an ecological niche was applied to that of a developmental niche, a concept put forward by Charles M. Super and Sara Harkness in the 1980s, and particularly pertinent to the study of child development cross-culturally.
See Adaptation, Community (ecology), Competitive exclusion model, Ecology, Ecosystem, Environment, Environment of evolutionary adaptedness, Evolutionary niche theory, Habitat