TASK COURSE ANIMAL ECOLOGY

NICHE OVERLAP

By:
Group 2
Firda Rosetty

(120210103115)

Muhammad Roy Fayzal

(120210103069)

Aprilia Lindyanasari

(120210103053)

Bella Rhea Laviva S.

(120210103038)

EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM BIOLOGY

FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY JEMBER
2015

PREFACE
Praise be to Allah SWT thank God for the abundance of blessings, mercy, guidance,
and His grace so that I can finish the preparation of the paper entitled "niche overlap". This
paper is one of the tasks assigned in the course of Animal Ecology at the Biology Education
Program.
In writing this paper, the authors feel there are still many shortcomings, both in
technical writing and creative, given the ability of mine. Therefore, criticism and suggestions
from all parties is expected by the completion of manufacture of the authors of this paper.
In writing this paper, the authors would like to thank profusely on the parties who
assist in completing this paper, particularly to the lecturers who gave the task and guide the
authors in order to accomplish this task.

Jember, 31 March 2015

author

DAFTAR ISI
COVER.................................................................................................................i
PREFACE............................................................................................................. ii
DAFTAR ISI........................................................................................................ iii
1. INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................1
1.1 Background.................................................................................................1
1.2 Formula of Problem....................................................................................2
1.3 Purpose.......................................................................................................2
2. BASIC THEORY............................................................................................ 3
2.1 Definition of Ecological Niche................................................................... 3
2.2 Factors Affecting on the Present of Ecological Niche................................ 4
2.3 Dimension of Niche................................................................................... 5
2.4 Niche Overlap............................................................................................ 7
3. CLOSING .................................................................................................... . 11
2.1 Conclusion ............................................................................................11
2.2 Suggestion..............................................................................................11
DAFTAR PUSTAKA .........................................................................................12

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
The habitat of an organism is the place where it lives, or the place where one would go
to find it. While ecological niche is the term more wide, the meaning is not just including
in physic space that placed by the organism but also the functional act in ecosystem, like
the position of trophic and also the position of them in gradient of temperature, humidity,
pH, and another condition of their present. Ecological niche is the position or status of an
organism within its community and ecosystem resulting from the organisms structural
adaptations, physiological responses and specific behavior. The ecological niche of an
organism depends not only on where it lives but also on what it does. By analogy, it may
be said that the habitat is the organisms address, and the niche is its profession,
biologically speaking.
Ecological niches is more recent concept and is not so generally understood outside
the fields of ecology. It is however a very important concept. Joseph Grinnell (1917 and
1928) use word niche that mean as united concept of main distribute or origin, in where
each type could defensible by limiting instinctive and its structural. Grinnell give opinion
that ecological niche mostly in scope words of micro habitats, or spatial niche. So niche
decipherable as the position some organisms in ecosystem including the morphology
adaptation, structure and function. So that niche overlap decipherable as the position of
organism that intersect with another organism in ecosystem by habitat size and the food.
Charles Elton in England was one of the first to begin using the term niche in the sense
of the functional status of organism in its community; it has gradually become generally
accepted as it become clear that niche is by no means a synonym for habitat.
Niche overlaps occur if there are two organisms use natural resource or environmental
factor in same thing. Perfect overlap occurs if there are two organisms have identic niche,
and will not occur overlap if the niche or the position between two organisms separate
perfectly. Commonly intersect of position (niche overlaps) just partly where the natural
resource present partible and use by two organisms together. But when each of organisms
have the position (niche) that have relationship with each other so the competition may be
occur.

Competition refers to their interaction of two organisms striving for the same thing. In
ecology, interspecific competition is any interaction between two or more species
populations which adversely affects their growth and survival. Any case in which negative
terms are substituted in the population equations of both populations due to action of the
other population is a case of competition. In terms of observed growth curves, if the
curves of two populations are both steeper when they are separate than when they are
interacting, competition of some sort is operating. Because of competition, only one
species tends to occur in an ecological niche at the same time or place.
1.2 Formula of Problem
Based on description of background, so the formula of problem in this paper as
follow:
a. What is the type of niche?
b. What is the component of niche?
c. What is the relationship between niche overlap and competition?
1.3 Purpose
Based on description of background and formula of problem, the purpose in this paper
as follow:
a. Understanding the type of niche
b. Understanding the component of niche
c. Understanding the relationship between niche overlap and competition

CHAPTER II
BASIC THEORY
2.1 Definition of Ecological Niche
Ecological niches is more recent concept and is not so generally understood outside
the fields of ecology. Udvardy (1959) ascribed the first use of the term niche to Grinnell
(1917, 1924, and 1928). Grinnells conception of niche was that it constituted the
functional role and position of the organism in the community. As such, he considered it
essentially a behavioral unit, although he also stressed the niche as the ultimate
distributional unit, thereby including spatial features of the physical environment in his
meaning of niche. Later, Elton (1927) defined the niche of an animal as its place in the
biotic environment, its relations to food and enemies (his italic), and also as the status
of an organism in its community. He further stated that the niche of animal can be
defined to a large extent by its size and food habits. Others, such as Dice (1952), have
used the term to refer to a subdivision of the habitat: thus Dice states the term (niche)
does not include, except indirectly, any consideration of the function the species serves in
the community. These two separate meanings in use for term niche were clearly
distinguished by Clarke (1954), who referred to the term as the functional niche and the
place niche. Clarke noted that different species of animal and plants fulfill different
functions in the ecological complex, and that the same functional niche may be filled by
quite different species in different geographical regions.
Without doubt the most influential modern treatment of niche is that of Hutchinson
(1957a). Using set theory he treats the niche somewhat more formally and defines it as
the total range of conditions under which the individual (or population) lives and replaces
itself. Hutchingstons examples for niche coordinates are non-behavioral, and have thus
emohasized the niche as a place in space, rather like microhabitat, or the habitat niche
of Allee et al (1949) this emphasis is unfortunate to the extent that it tends to exlude the
behavioral niche from consideration. Hutchingtons distinction between the
fundamental and the realized niche is one of the most explicit statements that an animals
potential niche is seldom fully utilized at a given moment in time or place in space. This
distinction has proven useful in clarifying the role if other species, both competitors and
predators, in determining the niche of an organism.

The habitat of an organism is the place where it lives, or the place where one would go
to find it. While ecological niche is the position or status of an organism within its
community and ecosystem resulting from the organisms structural adaptations,
physiological responses and specific behavior. The ecological niche of an organism
depends not only on where it lives but also on what it does. By analogy, it may be said
that the habitat is the organisms address, and the niche is its profession, biologically
speaking (Odum, 1959: 27).
It has been suggested that the concept of niche is so broad as to be vague and
ambiguous. Because of this, Weatherley (1963) suggested that the definition of niche be
restricted to the nutritional role of the animal in its ecosystem, that is, its relations to all
the foods available to it. Some other ecologist prefer, however, to leave the term niche
defined rather broadly and, when necessary, to subdivide it into components, such as the
food niche and the place niche.
Ecological niches is the term more inclusive that include not only in space physically
which occur by organisms, but also the functional role in community and also the
position of the organisms in the different environmental condition. Ecological niche is the
specific grouping between physics factor (micro habitat) and biotic relevancy (role) that
needed by some type of organism for life activity and the existence that chronically in
community.
2.2 Factors Affecting on the Present of Ecological Niche
1.
2.

The position placed by some species in food net (trophic niche).

Temperature range, humidity, salinity that accepted by each species in the habitat

3.

(multidimensional niche).
Place or space of life the habitat niche.

4.

Each factor is the part of each in species, commonly in tolerance range. So, every
organisms can hold up some specific range from temperature, humidity, pH and
salinity.

2.3 Dimension of Niche

Hutchinson defines an organisms niche as an n-dimensional hypervolume
enclosing the complete range of condition under which that organism can successfully
replace itself. All variables relevant to the life of the organism must be included, and all
must be independent of each other. An immediate difficulty with this model of the niche
is that not all environmental variables can be nicely ordered linearly. In order to avoid
this problem and to make the entire model more workable, Hutchinson translated the ndimensional hypervolume formulation into a set theoretic mode of representation.
Unfortunately, the fitness density attributes of the n-dimensional model are lost in the
conversion to a set theory model (Pianka, 1999: 192).
Dimensions niche is the tolerance to varying conditions (moisture, pH,
temperature, wind speed, water flow, and so on) and the need for natural resources varies.
Hutchinson suggest that niche can be thought of as a multidimensional space or
environment hypervolume which allows an individual or type of life without limits.
Hutchinson niches, which can be marked as a multidimensional niches or hypervolume,
can be responsible for the measurement and mathematical manipulation (Odum, 1993:
292).
Hutchinson (1957) in Begon, et al (1986) have developed a multidimensional
concept of ecological niches (dimensional or hipervolume). Niches can be thought of as a
multidimensional space, where the environment allows something individual or type of
life without limits. Each animal have tolerance range of an environmental factor, such as
the temperature of a dimension. In animal life is affected by not only the environmental
factors alone, but many environmental factors simultaneously. Environmental factors that
affect or limit the life of the organism not only environmental conditions such as
temperature, light, humidity, salinity but also the availability of resources needed for
animals (food and a place to make a nest for the animals).

Kind of Niche
The kind of niche is divide into :
a) Fundamental Niche
b) Realize Niche
Hutchinson designates the entire set of optimal conditions under which a given

organismic unit can live and replace itself as its fundamental niche, which can then be
represented as a set of points in environmental space. The fundamental niche thus refers
to a hypothetical idealized niche which the organism encounters no enemies such as

competitors and predators and in which its physical environment is optimum. In contrast,
the actual set of conditions under which an organism exists, which is always less than
equal to the fundamental niche, is termed the realize niche. The fundamental niche has
also been called the precompetitive or virtual niche, whereas the realize niche is the
postcompetitive or actual niche (Pianka, 1999: 192).
Hutchinson (1957) have distinguished between fundamental niche (fundamental
niche) with a real niche (Realize niche). Principal niche is defined as a group of
conditions that allow the physical condition of the population still live while real niche is
defined as a group of conditions that are occupied by the physical condition of a
particular organism organism simultaneously (Mcnaughtoun and Wolf, 1998: 70).
Fundamental niche is thus, the maximum possible a species can have and utilize.
This is a niche, where he does not have to worry about the limited nature of food
resources or about predators. This niche provides him with a comfortable environment in
which, the species can mate and reproduce without any stress. While the realized niche is
a subset of fundamental niche, and forces a species to live and adapt to the present
conditions (Pilarski, 2014).

2.4 Niche Overlap

In ecology, a niche is a term with a variety of meanings related to the behavior
of a species living under specific environmental conditions. The ecological niche
describes how an organism or population responds to the distribution of resources and
competitors (for example, by growing when resources are abundant, and when predators,
parasites and pathogens are scarce) and how it in turn alters those same factors (for
example, limiting access to resources by other organisms, acting as a food source for
predators and a consumer of prey). "The type and number of variables comprising the
dimensions of an environmental niche vary from one species to another [and] the relative

importance of particular environmental variables for a species may vary according to the
geographic and biotic contexts (Rory, 1984).
Niche overlap occurs when there are two units of organisms that use the same
resources as well as other variables that exist in the environment. Overlap happens
perfect if two units are identical organisms have a niche, while overlap will not occur if
the have k2 different niches. Usually, it's a niche overlap divided. Some resources were in
for-for and other resources used exclusively by each-each unit of an organism.
Hutchinson conduct simple research on niche overlap and assume that the environmental
condition was full or solid so that there is no tolerance for niche overlap not occur within
a certain time during the period, so as occurs in part overlap competition of these two
niche (Smith, 1990).
Statistics were introduced into the Hutchinson niche by Robert Mac Arthur and
Richard Levins using the 'resource-utilization' niche employing histograms to describe
the 'frequency of occurrence' as a function of a Hutchinson coordinate. So, for instance, a
Gaussian might describe the frequency with which a species ate prey of a certain size,
giving a more detailed niche description than simply specifying some median or average
prey size. One advantage in using statistics is illustrated in the figure, where it is clear
that for the narrower distributions (top) there is no competition for prey between the
extreme left and extreme right species, while for the broader distribution (bottom), niche
overlap indicates competition exists between all species. For such a bell-shaped
distribution, the position, width and form of the niche correspond to the mean, standard
deviation and the actual distribution it self (Jonathan, 2003).

Image1: Where three species eat some of the same prey, a statistical picture of
each niche shows overlap in resource usage between three species, indicating where
competition is strongest
The term adaptive zone was coined by the paleontologist George Gaylord
Simpson to explain how a population could jump from one niche to another that suited it,
jump to an 'adaptive zone', made available by virtue of some modification, or possibly a
change in the food chain, that made the adaptive zone available to it without a
discontinuity in its way of life because the group was 'pre-adapted' to the new ecological
opportunity (Dolph, 2000).
A niche is a very specific segment of ecospace occupied by a single species. On
the presumption that no two species are identical in all respects (called Hardin's 'axiom of
inequality') and the competitive exclusion principle, some resource or adaptive dimension
will provide a niche specific to each species. Species can however share a 'mode of life'
or 'autecological strategy' which are broader definitions of ecospace. For example,
Australian grasslands species, though different from those of the Great Plains grasslands,
exhibit similar modes of life (Colinvaux, 1969).
Once a niche is left vacant, other organisms can fill that position. For example,
the niche that was left vacant by the extinction of the tarpan has been filled by other
animals (in particular a small horse breed, the konik). Also, when plants and animals are
introduced into a new environment, they have the potential to occupy or invade the niche
or niches of native organisms, often outcompeting the indigenous species. Introduction of
non-indigenous species to non-native habitats by humans often results in biological
pollution by the exotic or invasive species (Colinvaux, 1969).
Niche by Grinnell (1917, 1924, 1928) is an organism functional role and
position in the community. According to Elton (1972) niche is defined as a place
associated with food and competition and also the status of the organism in the
community. According to the niche of the animal can be defined in a broader range
according to size and food. According to Odum (1959), the definition of ecological niche
is the position or status of the structure of the organism adaptation, psychological
responses, and specific behaviors. The niche according Keindegh (1980), which is a
special position in a community population of species. So niche (niche) can be
interpreted as a position of organisms in an particular ecosystem tied with morphological
adaptations, structural, and functional. Thus niche overlap can be interpreted as a position

or positions organisms overlap with other organisms in the ecosystem in terms of the size
of the habitat and food (Pianca, 1999).
Competition is one form of interaction between two or more individuals when
the supply of the necessary resources are limited. The role of a species in a community
called ecological role (niche). An ecological role consists of the ways a species interact in
the environment, including certain factors such as what to eat or what it is used for
energy, predators that prey, the amount of heat, light or humidity is needed, and
conditions that can reproduced. The competition is divided into two, namely intraspecific
and interspecific competition. Intraspecific competition between organisms are the same
in the same land while interspecific competition is competition only between different
species of organisms in the same land (Pianca, 1999).

CHAPTER III
CLOSING
3.1 Conclusion
From the description of the contents of the paper above it can be concluded that:
1.

Niches are part of a habitat called microhabitat.

2.

Niche overlap ie a position or positions of organisms that overlap with other

organisms in the ecosystem in terms of the size of the habitat and food.

3.

all sorts of things from the niche overlap is an included Niche, Equal overlap.
Unequal Overlap, Abuting niche, niche Disjunct.

4.

Competition is the relationship that occurs when individuals compete for resources
that limit their growth and survival.

5.

The existence of niche overlap, the competition will be more frequent and the result
is only one species that can survive in a niche that is contradictory space.

3.2 Suggestions
Hopefully with this paper can be useful for anyone, and to add to the perfection
of the contents of this paper we expect suggestions san input from all parties.

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