When studying the behavior of animals in natural conditions, it is important to understand the effect of the effects of behavior on the ability of an animal to survive. The consequences of a specific type of activity depend mainly on the direct habitat of animals. In the conditions to which the animal is well adapted, the consequences of a type of activity can be useful. The same activity carried out in other conditions may be harmful. To imagine how in the process of evolution, animal behavior was formed, we need to understand the adaptation of animals to the environment.

Ecology - This is a natural science industry that studies the relationship between animals and plants with their environmental environment. It relates to all aspects of these relationships, including energy streams through ecosystems, physiology of animals and plants, the structure of animal populations and their behavior, etc. In addition to obtaining accurate knowledge about specific animals, the ecologist seeks to understand the general principles of the environmental organization, and here we will look at some of them.

In the process of evolution, animals are adaptable to specific environmental conditions, or habitat. Havings usually characterize, describing their physical and chemical signs. The type of plant communities depends on the physical properties of the medium, such as the soil and climate. Plant communities provide a variety of possible habitats, which are used by animals. The association of plants and animals in aggregate with concrete conditions of natural habitat forms an ecosystem. On the globe, there are 10 main types of ecosystems called biomami. In fig. 5.8 shows the distribution of the main terrestrial biomes of the world. There are also marine and freshwater biomes. For example, such a biome as savannais occupies large areas of Africa, South America and Australia and is a herbaceous plains with rarely growing trees in the tropical and subtropical areas of the globe. For Savannan, the rainy season is typically. At the upper end of the range of distribution of sediments, savanna is gradually replaced by tropical forests, and at the bottom end - deserts. In African savanna, acacia is dominated, in South American - palm trees, and in Australian - Eucalyptus. A characteristic feature of the African Savannah is a wide variety of vegetative hoofs, which ensure the existence of a variety of predators. In South America and Australia, the same niche are occupied by other species.

The combination of animals and plants inhabiting concrete habitat is called the community. The species forming the community are divided into producers, consversals and relyuznuts. Products are green plants that capture solar energy and turn it into chemical. Consumes are animals that eat plants or herbivores and thus indirectly in energy deeds depend on plants. Roduznuts - Uniformly mushrooms and bacteria, decomposing dead remnants of animals and plants to substances that can be used again by plants.

Niche This is the role of an animal in the community, determined by its relationships both with other organisms and with a physical environment. So, herbivore animals are usually feed on plants, and herbivore animals in turn eaten predators. Species that occupy this niche are different in different parts of the globe. For example, rabbits and hare in the northern hemisphere in the zones of a moderate climate in the northern hemisphere are occupied by rabbits and hares, in South America - Aguti and Temkashi, in Africa - Damanany and Belonogiy hamsters, and in Australia - Wallaby.

Fig. 5.8. Distribution of the main ground biomes in the world.

In 1917, the American ecologist Greennell (Grinnell) first advanced the theory of Niche, based on the study of the Californian crossbar (Toxostoma redivivum) - Birds, which nests in a thick foliage at an altitude of one or two meters above the ground. The location of the socket is one of the characteristics with which you can describe the animal niche. In the mountainous areas the vegetation necessary for nesting is available only in the environmental community, called chaparal.Harvesting of the mock, described by the physical characteristics of the environment, is determined partly and the reaction of the crossbar population to the situation in the niche. So, if the height of the nest above the ground is a decisive factor of salvation from predators, then a strong competition for places for nests at an optimal height will be observed in the population. If this factor would not be as decisive, then a larger number of individuals would be able to build nests in other places. On the conditions of habitat in this niche also affects the competition from other species for the nests, food, etc. Having a California mocking room is determined in part with the situation with niches, the distribution of other shrub species characteristic of chaparal, and the density of the mock itself. It is clear that if the density is small, birds nest only in the best places, and it affects the habitat of the species. Thus, the total interconnection of the crossbar with the conditions of habitat, which is often indicated by the term ecotop They are the result of complex interactions of the characteristic features of the niche, habitat and population.

If animals of different species use the same resources, characterized by some common preferences or limits of stability, then we are talking about overlapping the niche (Fig. 5.9). Overlapping NIS leads to competition, especially when resources are insufficient. The principle of competitive exception It states that two types with the same niches cannot exist in one place at the same time with limited resources. From this it follows that if two types coexist, there should be environmental differences between them.

Fig. 5.9. Overlapping niche. The fitness of the animal can often be represented in the form of a bell-shaped curve along a gradient of the medium, such as, for example, temperature. Overlapping niche (shaded region) takes place in the part of the gradient held by representatives of different types.

As an example, consider the relationship between the niches at a group of species of birds, "deep leaves", which feed on the oaks of the mountainous coast in Central California (Root, 1967). This group called guildthey are species that use the same natural resources in the same way. The niches of these species are largely overlapping, and therefore they compete with each other. The advantage of the guild concept is that in this case all competing species of this section are analyzed regardless of their taxonomic position. If you consider the diet of this guild of birds as an element of their habitat, it should be said that most of this diet should consist of arthropods collected from the leaves. This is an arbitrary classification, since any kind can be a member of more than one guild. For example, flat tit Parus Inornatus) belongs to the guild of birds bothering the leaves, based on its editorial behavior; In addition, it is also a member of the guild of birds, nesting in the voupels due to nesting requirements.

Fig. 5.11. Three types of food behavior in birds bumping leaves are represented as three sides of the triangle. The length of the line perpendicular to the side of the triangle is proportional to the number of time spent on this behavior. The sum of all three lines for each species is 100%. (Root, 1967.)

Although in this case five species of birds feed on insects, each type catches insects, differing in size and taxonomic position. Taxonomic categories of insects eaten by these five species overlap, but each type specializes in a specific taxon. The sizes of the victims are completely overlapped, but the average values \u200b\u200band dispersion they have different, at least in some cases. Root (Root, 1967) also found that for birds these species are characterized by three types of prescription behavior:

1) collecting insects from the surface of the leaves when the bird moves through a solid substrate;

2) collecting insects from the surface of the leaves with a soaring bird;

3) catching flying insects.

The share of time that is spent by each type of one or another method of mining is shown in Fig. 5.11. This example clearly demonstrates the process of environmental specialization in behavior. The behavior of each species affects the behavior of other species in such a way that members of this guild develop all possible types of edible behavior and all types of victim are used.

Competition often leads to the dominance of one type; This is expressed in the fact that dominant species have an advantage in the use of resources such as food, space and asylum (Miller, 1967; Morse, 1971). Based on the theory, it should be expected that the view that becomes in the subordinate position in relation to another should have to change the use of resources in such a way as to reduce the overlapping with the dominant species. Usually, at the same time, the subordinant look reduces the use of certain resources, thus reducing the width of the niche. In some cases, the subordinant view can expand the niche by including the previously unused resources either by subordinate other types in adjacent niches, or by more fully use the fundamental niche.

If the subordinant look and survives in competition with the dominant species, it means that its main niche is wider than a niche of the dominant species. Such cases are marked by bees and black frozards of the new light (Orians, Willson, 1964). Since the priority in the use of resources belongs to dominant species, subordinant species can be excluded from the niche space when resources are limited, the number of them is unpredictable, and the search for food require considerable efforts; And all this significantly reduces the adaptability of the subordinant view in the overlapping area. In such cases, we can expect subordinant species to be subjected to significant selection pressure and change their fundamental niches or by specialization, or having developed resistance to a wider range of habitat environment.

Adaptability of animal behavior

Naturalists and ethologists found numerous examples of amazing methods that animals are perfectly adapted to the conditions of habitat. The difficulty in explaining this kind of animal behavior is that it seems convincing only because various parts and observations are too well linked with each other; In other words, a good story may seem convincing simply because it is a good story. This does not mean that a good story cannot be truthful. In any correct explanation of the behavioral adaptation, a variety of details and observations and in fact, must be seen to each other. The problem is that biologists, as scientists, should evaluate the data, and good description - not always good data. As in court, the data should be more than thorough and must carry some elements of independent confirmation.

One way to obtain data indicating the adaptability of behavior is to compare related species that occupy various habitats. The classic example of this approach is the work of Esther Cullen (Ester Cullen, 1957) comparing the peculiarities of the nesting in the rocks (Rissa Tridactyla) and in nesting on earth gulls, such as ordinary (LAMS RIDIBUNDUS) sophisticated (Lams Argentatus). The moaer is nesting on rocky ledges, inaccessible to predators, and, apparently, evolved from the nesting chaps as a result of predators pressure. Maews inherited some features of the chaps nesting on Earth, such as partially masking eggs. Eggs of birds nesting on Earth are usually well masked for protection from predators, but in the mosques of eggs, eggs cannot perform such a function, since each nest is marked with a white litter. Adults and young seagulls, nesting on Earth, are neat and avoid defecates near the nest, so as not to show his location. Thus, it seems the most likely that the masking color of the eggs of Moevok is evidence that their ancestors nest on Earth.

Cullen (CULLEN, 1957) studied the breeding colony of the Moews in the Farnian Islands near the east coast of the United Kingdom, where they nest on very narrow oxides of the rocks. It found that neither terrestrial animals are attacked on their eggs, such as rats, no birds, such as silvery seagulls, which are often predatory on the eggs of birds nesting on Earth. Moeques eat mostly fish and do not devour eggs and chicks from neighboring nests, as they often make seagulls, nesting on Earth. Moeuc, apparently, has already lost most of the adaptation that protect other chaps from predators. For example, they not only do not mask the nest, - they also rarely make cries of anxiety and do not attack all the squash on predators.

Fig. 5.12. Red-legged Govorushki (Rissa Brevirostris), nesting on the rocky protrusions of the islands of profit in the Bering Sea

Moevok has many special adaptation to nesting on the rocks. They have a light body and severe fingers and claws that allow you to cling to ledges, too small for other seas. In comparison with seagulls, nesting on Earth, in adult moakes have a number of behavioral adaptation to rock habitat. Their behavior during fights is limited by the strict framework of stereotype in comparison with relatives, nesting on Earth (Fig. 5.12). They build a rather skillful cup-shaped nests using for this branch and Il, while the gulls nesting on Earth build rudimentary nests from grass or seaweed, without using π as cement. Moeuc chicks differ from the chicks of other chaps in many signs. For example, they remain in the nest for a longer period and spend most of the time, turning his head to the rock. They snatch the disgusting food right from the pharynx of parents, while most of the chaps pick it up from the ground, where it is thrown by adults. The chicks of nesting on Earth groans when fright run away and hide, and young moaes remain in the nest. For chicks, cryptic coloring and behavior are characteristic of the chicks, while the chicks of the moaes are not.

A comparison of species can shed light on the functionality of a particular type of behavior in the following ways: when any type of behavior is observed in one species, but not observed in another, this may be associated with differences in the methods of natural selection for these two types. For example, silvery seagulls remove the egg shell near the nest, in order to keep the nest disguise, since the inner white surface of the eggshell is well noticeable. The data that supports this hypothesis is obtained by monitoring monasters that do not remove the shell. As we have already seen, the predators are not attacked on the nests of Maewings and their nests and eggs are not masked. If the removal of the eggshell serves mainly to maintain the masking of the nest, then we are unlikely to find it in the moseys. However, if this serves other purposes, such as disease prevention, then we can expect that such behavior will be observed in the mosques. Makevs usually contain a nest very clean and throw out any foreign objects from it. Silver seagulls do not usually do this.

The above data will receive additional reinforcements if we can show that other related species under the same selection pressure appear similar adaptation. One such example leads Haleman (Hailman, 1965), who studied the vilished seagull in the rocks Lams Furcatus) In the Galapagos Islands. Haleman studied various types of behavior, which are determined by the possibilities to prevent the danger of flying from the cliffs. Willy seagulls nest and not on such steep rocks, like Moeuc, and not so high above the ground. Thus, it would be possible to expect that the corresponding adaptations of the wilotous choles will be intermediate between the adaptations of the moores and typical nesting on earth of the gulls. Wilotchy seagulls are exposed to more frequent attacks of predators than Maewings, and Haleman discovered some features of behavior that are obviously determined by this difference. For example, as mentioned above, the chicks of the moays are determined on the edge of the nest, thus making it very noticeable. The chicks of the seagulls are determined behind the edge of this edge. He found that for a number of signs, also associated with the intensity of predatoryness, wilotous seagulls occupy an intermediate position between the moaes and other seagulls. Thus, Haleman estimated those behavioral signs of viligate chas, which are adaptations to the presence of an existing space for the nesting and the presence of places for nests and nesting material. He then decided to evaluate the data on which Cullen hypothesis (CULLEN, 1957) was founded that the characteristic features of the mosques are the result of the pressure of the selection accompanying the nesting on the rocks. He chose 30 signs of the vylorous seagull and divided them into three groups, depending on the degree of similarity with the behavior of the Moj. Completed in general, this comparison confirms Callen hypothesis that the special features of the moaes are the result of the selection, which accompanies the nesting on the rocks.

The operation of the Crook (Crook, 1964) on almost 90 types of facilities (PLOCEINAE) is another example of such a comparative approach. These little birds are distributed throughout Asia and Africa. Despite the external similarity, various types of models differ significantly in a social organization. Some of them protect the large territory on which disguised nests are built, while others nest with colonies, in which the nests are well noticeable. Crook found that the species living in the forests lead a single lifestyle, feed on insects, the nests are masked on a large protected area. They are monogamous, sexual dimorphism is weakly expressed. Types dwelling in the savannah, usually semensoys, live by groups, nest colonially. They are polygamines, and the males painted brightly, and females - dim.

Crook believed that, since it is difficult to find food in the forest, it is necessary that both parents feed chicks, and for this parents must hold together throughout the breeding season. Insect density powered by forest birds is small, therefore a pair of birds should protect the large territory to ensure the appropriate supply of food chicks. The nests are well masked, and adult birds are dull painted, so that during their visits to the nest of the predators could not reveal its location.

In the savanna, seeds can be a lot in some places and is little in others, which is an example of spotted food distribution. Identification of food in such conditions is more efficient if the birds form groups to keep searching in a wide area. Places for nesting, protected from predators, rare in savannah, so many birds nest on the same tree. Complete nests to provide protection from solar heat, so the colonies are well noticeable. To protect against predators, nests are usually built high on prickly acacias or other similar trees (Fig. 5.13). The female itself is able to feed offspring, since food is relatively many. The male almost does not participate in it and cares for other females. The males compete for places for nests inside the colony, and everyone can attract a few females in this, while other males remain idle. In the colonial settlement of the facilities (Textor Cucullatus), For example, males steal the nesting material. Therefore, they are forced to constantly be near the nest to guard him. To attract the females of the male, it suits a complex "presentation", hanging out of the nest. If the male seeks success in courtship, the female enters the nest. Such drawing attention to the nest is typically for colonial facilities. In a very different way, the courting ritual in the species of birds living in the forest, from which the male chooses the female, cares for her at a noticeable distance from the nest and then leads to the nest.

Fig. 5.13. Colony of facilities PLOCEUS CUCULLATUS. Please note that a large number of nests are relatively not available for predators. (Photo Nicholas Collias.)

A comparative approach turned out to be a fruitful method when studying the relationship between behavior and ecology. With this method, birds were studied (Lack, 1968), hoofs (Jarman, 1974) and Primates (Crook, Gartlan, 1966; Glutton-Brock, Harvey, 1977). Some authors (Clutton-Brock, Harvey, 1977; Krebs, Davies, 1981) express critical comments on a comparative approach, nevertheless, it provides satisfactory data relating to evolutionary aspects of behavior, provided that appropriate measures have been taken to avoid substitution of concepts and Circling to each other evidence. Haleman (Hailman, 1965) considers a comparative method as suitable only in cases where the comparison of two animal populations makes it possible to draw conclusions with respect to the third population, which has not yet been studied by the time these conclusions are formulated. In this case, the hypothesis formulated as a result of a comparative study can be checked independently without the use of data obtained as a result of this study. It is not difficult to understand that if interrelated differences in behavior and ecology exist between two populations, it is still not enough to say that these features reflect the selection pressure resulting from differences in the habit of these two populations. Differences arising from mixing variables or due to comparison of inappropriate taxonomic levels can be avoided by a thorough statistical analysis (CLUTTON-BROKK, HARVEY, 1979; KREBS, Davies, 1981).



Introduction

In this paper, I want to introduce you to such concepts as an ecological niche, limiting factors, more about the law of tolerance.

Environmentalists? Českaya nig - a place occupied by the type of biocenosis, including the complex of its biosotic ties and requirements for the factors of the medium.

The concept of an ecological niche was introduced to designate the role that one or another plays the community. Under the ecosisha should be understood the lifestyle and, above all, the method of nutrition of the body.

Environmental niche is an abstract concept, this is a combination of all environmental factors, within which the existence of a species in nature is possible. This term was introduced in 1927 by Charles Elton. It includes the chemical, physical and biotic factors needed by the body for life, and is determined by its morphological adaptability, physiological reactions and behavior. In different parts of the world and in different territories there are species that are unequal in systematic relations, but similar ecology - they are called environmentally equivalent.

Environmental niche is a place occupied by the view (more precisely, its population) in the community (biocenosis). The interaction of this species (population) with the community partners in which it is included in the quality is articulated, determines its place in the cycle of substances caused by food and competitive biocenosis. The term "ecological niche" is proposed by the American scientist J. Grinell (1917). The interpretation of an ecological niche as the position of the type of supply chains of one or more biocenoses was given by the English ecologist C. Elton (1927). A similar interpretation of the concept of an ecological niche allows the quantitative characteristic of an ecological niche for each type or for its individual populations.

The limiting factor is a factor of the medium that goes beyond the endurance of the body. The limiting factor limits any manifestation of the body's vital activity. With the help of limiting factors, the state of organisms and ecosystems is regulated.

The law of tolerance of Shelford - in ecology - the law, according to which the existence of the species is determined by the limiting factors that are not only in a minimum, but also at the maximum. The law of tolerance expands the law of the minimum of the libid.

The law of the minimum of Y.Libiha - in ecology is a concept that the existence and endurance of the body is determined by the weakest link in the chain of its environmental needs.

According to the law of a minimum, the vital possibilities of organisms limit those environmental factors, the amount and quality of which are close to the necessary organism or ecosystem minimum.

Ecological niche

Any type of organisms is adapted for certain conditions of existence and cannot arbitrarily change the habitat, food diet, power, time of reproduction, asylum, etc. The whole complex of relations to such factors determines the place that nature has identified this body, and the role he has to play in a universal process. All this is united in the concept environmental niche.

Under the environmental niche, the body of the body is in nature and the whole image of its livelihoods, its life status, enshrined in his organization and adaptations.

At different times, a different meaning was attributed to the concept of an ecological niche. At first, the word "niche" was designated the main unit of the distribution of the form within the space of the ecosystem, dictated by the structural and instinctive limitations of this species. For example, proteins live on trees, moose - on Earth, some species of birds nest on the branches, others in the duplach, etc. Here, the concept of ecological niche is interpreted mainly as habitats, or a spatial niche. Later, the term "niche" was given the meaning of the "functional status of the body in the community." Basically, it concerned the place of this species in the trophic structure of the ecosystem: the type of food, time and place of food, who is a predator for a given organism, etc. Now it is called a trophic niche. It was then shown that niche can be considered as a hyperobility in a multidimensional space, built on the basis of habitat factors. This hyperoballing limited the range of factors in which this species may exist (hyperpriced niche).

That is, in a modern understanding of the ecological niche, at least three aspects can be distinguished: the physical space occupied by the body in nature (habitat), its attitude towards the factors of the medium and to the living organisms adjacent to it (communications), as well as its functional role in the ecosystem. All these aspects are manifested through the structure of the body, adaptation, instincts, life cycles, life "interests", etc. The body's right to choose its ecological niche is limited by a rather narrow framework, fixed by him from birth. However, his descendants can claim other environmental niches if appropriate genetic changes have occurred.

Using the concept of an ecological niche, the rule of competitive exclusion Gause can be rephrased as follows: two different types cannot occupy one ecological niche and even enter into one ecosystem; One of them should either die or change and take a new ecological niche. By the way, the intraspecific competition is often strongly reduced precisely because at different stages of the life cycle, many organisms occupy different ecological niches. For example, a tadpole is a vegetative animal, and adult frogs living in the same pond are predators. Another example: insects at the stage of the larvae and an adult individual.

On one territory in the ecosystem can live a large number of organisms of different types. These may be nearby species, but each of them is obliged to take its unique ecological niche. In this case, these species do not enter into competitive relations and in a certain sense become neutral to each other. However, often environmental niches of different types can overlap at least one of the aspects, for example, by habitat or nutrition. This leads to an interspecific competition, which is usually not a rigid nature and contributes to the clarity of the distinction of environmental niches.

Thus, the Ecosystems are implemented in the ecosystems, a similar ban on Pauli's ban in quantum physics: in this quantum system in the same quantum state, more than one fermion can be located (particles with a half-spin, type of electrons, protons, neutrons, etc. ). The ecosystems also quantize environmental niches, which seek to clearly localize in relation to other environmental niches. Inside this environmental niche, that is, inside the population, which occupies this niche, the differentiation of more private niches continues, which occupies each particular part, which determines the status of this individual in the life of this population.

Does such differentiation occur at lower levels of the systemic hierarchy, for example, at the level of a multicellular organism? It is also possible to distinguish various "types of" cells and smaller "Taurus", the structure of which determines their functional purpose inside the body. Some of them are stationary, their colonies form organs, the purpose of which makes sense only in relation to the body as a whole. There are also the moving simplest organisms living, seemingly their "personal" life, which nevertheless fully satisfies the needs of the entire multicellular organism. For example, the red blood calves make only the fact that they "know how": oxygen is associated in one place, and in another place it is released. These are their "ecological niche". The vital activity of each cell cell is built in such a way that, "living for yourself", it is at the same time working for the benefit of the whole organism. This work is not at all tired, just as we do not tire the process of food intake, or a beloved business (if, of course, all this is in moderation). Cells are arranged so that in a different way they simply cannot live, just as the bee cannot live without collecting nectar and pollen (probably it brings her some pleasure).

Thus, the whole nature "from the bottom of the back" seems to be permeated with the idea of \u200b\u200bdifferentiation, which in the ecology has undertaken to the concept of an ecological niche, which in a certain sense is similar to the organ or subsystem of a living organism. These "organs" are formed under the action of an external environment, that is, their formation is subordinated to the requirements of the overseystem, in our case - the biosphere.

The model is presented as a N-dimensional cube on the axes of which environmental factors are postponed. For each factor at the view there is a range in which it can exist (ecological valence). If we get the projection from the extreme points of the ranges of each axis of factors, we will get a N-dimensional figure where n. - the number of environmental factors meaningful. The model is mainly speculative, but allows you to get a good idea of \u200b\u200ban ecological niche. Hutchinson ecological niche can be:

• fundamental - determined by a combination of conditions and resources, allowing to support a viable population;
• implemented - The properties of which are due to competing species.

Advancement model:

1. The reaction to one factor does not depend on the effects of another factor;
2. Independence of factors from each other;
3. The space inside the niche is homogeneous with the same degree of favorable.

N-dimensional niche model

This difference emphasizes that interspecific competition leads to a decrease in fecundity and viability and that in the fundamental ecological niche may be such a part, which occupies the view as a result of interspecific competition is not able to live more and successfully multiply. This part of the fundamental niche of the species is absent in its implemented niche. Thus, the realized niche is always part of the fundamental or equal to it.

The principle of competitive exception

The essence of the principle of competitive exception, also known as principle Gause This is that each view has its own ecological niche. No two different types can take the same ecological niche. The Gause principle that was formulated in this way was criticized. For example, one of the well-known contradictions this principle is "planktonic paradox". All types of living organisms belonging to Plankton live in a very limited space and consume the resources of the same kind (mainly solar energy and marine mineral compounds). A modern approach to the problem of separating an ecological niche is indicated by several species that in some cases two species can separate one ecological niche, and in some such combination leads one of the types to extinction.

In general, if we are talking about competition for a certain resource, the formation of biocenoses is associated with the discrepancy between environmental niches and a decrease in the level of interspecific competition: p.423. With this embodiment, the rule of competitive exception implies spatial (sometimes functional) disagreement of types in biocenosis. Absolute displacement, with a detailed study of ecosystems, fix it is almost impossible: p.423

The law of constant V. I. Vernadsky

The number of living substances of nature (for a given geological period) is a constant.

According to this hypothesis, any change in the number of living substances in one of the regions of the biosphere should be compensated in any other region. True, in accordance with the postulates of species depletion, highly developed species and ecosystems will most often be replaced by an evolutionary lower level objects. In addition, the process of ruderalization of the species composition of ecosystems will occur, and the "useful" types will be replaced by less useful, neutral or even harmful.

The consequence of this law is the rule of mandatory filling of environmental niches. (Rosenberg et al, 1999)

Rule of mandatory filling ecological niche

Environmental niche can not be empty. If niche is empty as a result of extinction of some kind, then it is immediately filled with another species.

The habitat usually consists of separate sites ("spots") with favorable and unfavorable conditions; These spots are often accessible only temporarily, and they arise unpredictably both in time and in space.

Free sites or "bars" in habitats arise unpredictably in many biotopes. Fires or landslides can lead to the formation of waste in forests; The storm can bargain the open section of the sea coast, and the voracious predators anywhere can destroy potential victims. These liberated areas are invariably set out again. However, the most first settlers will not necessarily have those species that for a long time are able to successfully compete with other species and displace them. Therefore, the coexistence of transient and competitive species is possible for so long as uncomplicated areas appear with a suitable frequency. The transitional form is usually the first to populate a free plot, mastering it and multiplies. A more competitive species populates these areas slowly, but if the settlement began, over time, it wins the transitional appearance and multiplies. (Bigon, etc., 1989)

Ecological niche of man

Man as a biological view occupies its own ecological niche. A person can dwell in the tropics and subtropics, at altitudes up to 3-3.5 km above sea level. Currently, a person lives in significantly large spaces. The person expanded the free environmental niche due to the use of various devices: housing, clothes, fire, etc.

Sources and notes

Land
History of land	Earth Age Geological History of Earth Geochronological Scale Life History on Earth Farming Earth Paradox The Theory of the Giant Collision Chronology of Evolution
Geography and geology	Australia Asia Antarctica Africa Europe North America South America Atlantic Ocean Indian Ocean Northern Arctic Ocean Pacific Ocean Southern Ocean Atmosphere Hydrosphere Draft Continents Ground Bark Continent Core Mantle Ocean Structure Earth Supercontinent Tectonic Plate Figure Earth Kore
Environment Wednesday	Biological biodiversity biosphere Wildlife ( english) Climate Nature Natural Zone Conservation Biodiversity ( english) Ecological niche Ecology ecosystem
see also	Future Land Hypothetical Natural Earth Satellites Earth Day World Spirits Disaster Daily Rotation Ring Earth

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Sinecology studies the relationship between individuals of various species and their fitness to the conditions of the external environment. Ecologists found that the organisms included in living communities are tied to certain spatial coordinates, in which they interact with each other and parts of the biosphere: water, soil, atmosphere.

This place in biogeocenoses is called ecological niche. Examples considered in our article are designed to prove that it is inherent in each biological species and is a consequence of the interaction of the body with other individuals and environmental factors.

Environmental characteristic of type

Everything without exception in the process of phylogenesis is adapted to specific abyotic factors. They limit the habitat of the population. The way the community of organisms interacts with the conditions of habitat and with other populations is its environmental characteristic, whose name is an ecological niche. Examples of animals, the life cycle of which occurs in different spatial and trophic areas of biogerocenosis, are dragonflies related to the type of arthropod, insect class. Adults - Imago, being active predators, mastered the air shell, while their larvae are niads breathing with gills, are hydrobionts.

Characteristic of ecological niche species

The author of the classical labor "Basics of Ecology" Y. ODUU proposed the term "ecological niche", which it uses to study biotic bonds of the population at all levels of its organization. According to the scientist, the situation of the individual is wildlife, that is, its life status is an ecological niche. An example illustrating this definition - community of plants called pioneers. They possess special physiological and vegetative properties that allow them to be easily conquered free territories. These include drossing creeping, they form primary biocenoses, which change over time. ADUD called the place of the body in nature by its address, and the image of life is a profession.

Model J. Hutchinson

Refer to the definition of the term "ecological niche". An example illustrating it is a white-tailed deer, whose life cycle is associated with a sub-year space - thickets of perennial shrubs. They serve as an animal not only the power source, but also protection. Created by Hatchinson model of the hyperoballing section of the biogeocenosis is the cell of the life support of the population. In it, organisms can durable for a long time, avoiding the external environment. Studies of the scientist conducted by him on the basis of the created mathematical model provide ideas about the optimal borders of the existence of communities of living organisms in ecosystems.

Principle Gause

It is also called the rule of competitive exception and is applied to describe two forms of the struggle for the existence - intraspecific and interspecific, studied in the 19th century, Ch. Darwin. If populations have intersecting needs, for example, trophic (i.e., the total feed base) or spatial (overlapping habitats - the ranges), on which their number depends, the time of the coexistence of such communities is limited. This will ultimately lead to exile (displacing a less adapted population) and the resettlement of more adapted and rapidly breeding organisms of another species.

For example, an individual of the species gradually displaced the population of the black rat. They are currently small and dwell near the reservoirs. Three parameters characterize the concept of "ecological niche". An example explaining this statement considered by us earlier, namely: the view of the gray rats settled everywhere (spatial placement), it is omnivorous (food diet) and hunts both during the day and at night (separation of activity in time).

Another example characterizing the rule of competitive exception: the first settlers who came to Australia brought with them the population of European bees. In connection with the development of beekeeping, the number of these insects has increased dramatically, and they gradually displaced the native Australian bee from the areas of its permanent habitat, which put this appearance on the edge of extinction.

A similar case occurred with the populations of a home rabbit, brought with the same primer discovers of the continents. The abundance of food, wonderful climatic conditions and the lack of competition led to the fact that the individuals of this species began to capture the habit of other populations and multiplied in such quantities that crop crops began to exterminate.

Place of biological species in the ecosystem

We will continue to answer the question of what is an ecological niche. An example that gives the most complete answer - this is the life status of the plant clover meadow. His distribution area - Europe, North Africa, Central Asia. The populations are optimally growing on sufficiently moistened meadows, at temperatures +12 ... + 21 ° C. They form a long-term dispersion or forest litter and are produced in the nutrition chains of biogeocenosis.

Doctrine on ecological niche

The optimal and real space of the population existence

Recall that the combination of organisms with individuals of other populations and the conditions of the external environment is an ecological niche. An example of soil bacteria-saprofrofs that feed on a dead organic and purification of land, as well as improving its agrochemical properties, confirms the fact that the formation of a large number of biotic ties with other inhabitants of the soil: insect larvae, plant roots, mushrooms. The vital activity of soil bacteria directly depends on the temperature and humidity of the soil, its physico-chemical composition.

Other inhabitants are nitrifying bacteria-chemotrofas - form-resistant plants of plants of the bean family: alfaling, vika sowing, lupine. All listed parameters, both biotic and environmental conditions, are a realized ecological niche of bacteria. It is part of a potential (fundamental niche) of biogeocenosis, which is a complex of optimal conditions in which the view could exist indefinitely for a long time.

Rules of mandatory fill in the multidimensional section of the ecosystem

If biogeocenosis has been sharply exposed to extreme abiotic phenomena, such as fires, floods, earthquakes, or negative human activity, some of its sites become free, that is, the populations of plants and animals that have previously dwelling here. The emergence of new life forms - Sukzesia - leads to the change of the part of the biogerocenosis, the name of which is an ecological niche of plants. Examples of its settlement after a fire indicate that one-two-year-old grassy plants with high vegetative energy come to replace the largest forest: Cyprus, Ivan-tea, mother and-stepmother and others, that is, the liberated part of the space immediately populates new species.

In this article, we studied in detail such a concept as an ecological niche of the body. Examples considered by us confirm that it is a multidimensional complex adapted for optimal habitat of plant and animal populations.

Ecological niche - The view of the biogeocenosis, determined by its biotic potential and a set of factors of the external environment to which it is adapted. This is not only a physical space occupied by the body, but also its functional role in the community (position in the food chain), and its place relative to external factors.

In the structure of the ecological niches, 3 components are distinguished:

1. Spatial niche (habitat) - "address" of the body;
2. Trophic niche - characteristic features of nutrition and the role of the type in the community - "Profession";
3. Multidimensional (hyperpric) ecological niche - the range of all conditions in which a person or population lives and reproduces.

Distinguish fundamental (potential) nichewhich the body or the form could occupy in the absence of competition, predators in which the abiotic conditions are optimal; and implemented niche - The actual range of the conditions of the body's existence, which is less or equal to the fundamental niche.

The rule is obligatory to fill an ecological niche.
The empty ecological niche is always and necessarily is naturally filled. In saturated biogeocenoses, life resources are used most fully - all environmental niches are occupied. In unsaturated biogeocenoses, life resources are disposed of partially, they are characterized by the presence of free ecological niches.

Environmental duplication - The occupation of the freed ecological niche to another species capable of performing the same functions in the community as the disappeared view. It follows from this that knowing the distribution of species on ecological niche in the community and the parameters of each ecological niche can be described in advance the view that one or another niche can occupy.

Environmental diversification - The phenomenon of the separation of an ecological niche as a result of interspecific competition. It is carried out in three parameters:
- on spatial placement
- on the food diet
- on the distribution of activity in time.
Due to diversification, there is a displacement of signs - the individuals of two close species are more similar to among themselves in those parts of the ranges where they are found separately than in the sections of the joint residence.

Specifications of an ecological niche:
1. Width
2. Overlapping this niche with neighboring

Width of ecological niche - relative parameter that is evaluated by comparing with the width of an ecological niche of other species. Evuribionts usually have broader environmental niches than the uncoobion. However, the same ecological niche may have a different width of various directions: for example, according to spatial distribution, food relations, etc.

Overlapping ecological niche It occurs if various types of habitat use the same resources. The overlapping can be complete or partial, one or more of the parameters of the ecological niche.

If the ecological niches of the organisms of two species are very different from each other, then these species having the same habitat will not compete with each other (Fig. 3).

If environmental niches partially overlap (Fig. 2), their joint coexistence will be possible due to the presence of specific devices.

If an ecological niche of one species includes an ecological niche of another (Fig. 1), there is intensive competition, the dominant competitor will displace his opponent to the periphery of the adaptability zone.

Competition leads to important environmental consequences. In nature, each species is simultaneously exposed to interspecific and intraspecific competition. Internship in its consequences is the opposite of intraspecific, as it narrows the area of \u200b\u200bhabitats and the quantity and quality of the necessary medium resources.

Internal competition contributes to the territorial distribution of species, that is, the expansion of the spatial ecological niche. The end result is the ratio of interspecific and intraspecific competition. If interspecific competition is greater, the area of \u200b\u200bthis species decreases to the territory with optimal conditions and at the same time increases the specialization of the species.