Correct option is C
Introduction
· An ecological niche represents the specific functional role and position an organism occupies within its ecosystem, including its use of resources and relationships with other species.
· The concept helps explain how different species coexist in the same environment by partitioning resources to avoid direct conflict.
· It is often described as the "address" (habitat) plus the "profession" (niche) of a biological entity in its community.
Information Booster
· Fundamental niche is the correct answer as it refers to the full range of environmental conditions and resources a species can potentially occupy and use in the total absence of limiting factors like competition or predation.
· It represents the "theoretical" or potential area where a species could survive based solely on its physiological tolerances to abiotic factors like temperature, moisture, and food availability.
· In a fundamental niche, the species experiences no interspecific competition, allowing it to utilize the maximum possible breadth of its environment.
· This concept was largely popularized by G.E. Hutchinson, who defined it as an n-dimensional hypervolume where every point represents a combination of environmental variables that permit the species to persist indefinitely.
· In nature, species rarely occupy their entire fundamental niche because they are restricted by biological interactions with other organisms.
Additional Knowledge
· Realized niche describes the actual space and resources a species uses in the real world, which is always narrower than the fundamental niche due to the presence of competitors, predators, and pathogens.
· Habitat refers to the physical place or specific geographic area where an organism lives, such as a desert, a forest, or a pond, focusing more on the location than the functional role or resource use.
· Hyper volume niche (specifically the n-dimensional hypervolume) is a mathematical framework used to define the niche; however, it refers to the multidimensional space of environmental variables rather than the specific condition of "no competition."
· The difference between the fundamental and realized niche is often used to measure the intensity of competition in a community; the larger the gap, the more restricted the species is by its neighbors.