Niches at Higher Level: The same idea as SL, with different species: the koala, lions and cheetahs, and water voles hunted by mink.
Practise this as you read
- List the parameters of a named species' niche.
- Explain a change in a niche by its cause.
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Where it lives, and how it lives: A niche is the whole way a species lives. Its habitat is only the place.
The points to remember
- A niche is the set of abiotic and biotic conditions and resources a species depends on.
- It is the species' role in the ecosystem: all its interactions with living and non-living things.
- It covers everything that affects its growth, survival and reproduction, including how it gets food.
- A habitat is only where it lives.
- Many species share a habitat, but each species has its own niche.
Remember it as: Habitat: where it lives. Niche: how it lives there.
Habitat
- The place, or kind of environment.
- Shared by many species.
Niche
- All its conditions, resources and interactions.
- Particular to one species.
Real example: giraffes and zebras share the same habitat, the African savanna. But giraffes browse high in acacia trees, while zebras graze grass: different niches.
Write 'role', not 'job': Describe a niche as the species' role or all its interactions. 'Its job' is not accepted.
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To describe a niche, list its parameters for one named species.
The parameters of a niche
- Conditions: the range of temperature, pH, salinity, dissolved oxygen or sunlight it can live in.
- Food: what it eats and how it gets it (hunting, grazing, filtering, diving).
- Resources: water, nest sites, shelter, space.
- Interactions: its predators, prey, competitors, parasites and partners.
- Timing: when it is active (day or night) and when it breeds.
- Disturbance: how much disturbance it can stand.
Remember it as: Conditions, food, resources, other species, timing.
Reading it: the koala depends on a few kinds of eucalyptus for food and water. Where those trees are cleared, or heatwaves dry their leaves, koalas cannot survive.
Name the species: A niche answer with no named species cannot get full marks. Each condition must fit that species.
Papers give fact files of two species and ask you to compare their niches, or to explain a change.
Comparing niches, and niches that change
- To compare niches, give a similarity ('both ...') and a difference ('..., whereas ...').
- Different niches let species share a habitat, so more niches means more species can live there.
- A niche shrinks when a competitor, predator or disease arrives, or when food or nest sites are lost.
- A niche can also change when conditions change, e.g. warmer water.
- Species with a broad niche (varied food, many places to live) recover faster after a disaster.
Remember it as: Both ... whereas ... : one of each.
Comparing: both hunt grazing mammals on the savanna, whereas lions hunt large prey in groups at night and cheetahs hunt small gazelles alone by day.
Real example: a niche that shrank: American mink, escaped from fur farms, can follow water voles into their burrows. In Britain, water voles fell by about 90% and now live mainly in dense reed beds and places without mink.
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How this comes up: Paper 2, Section B (a): distinguish niche and habitat, or outline four conditions of a named species' niche [4]. Paper 1: compare two species' niches from a fact file [3].
A conservation poster says that giant pandas need more than just a forest to live in.
Distinguish between the terms niche and habitat with reference to a named species.
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