Growth of Niche Concept and Types of Niches | Essay
Essay on the Growth of Niche Concept and Types of Niches !Although Steere (1894) appreciated the niches in his explanation of the way bird species within a genus were segregated on different islands in the Philippines, the term and concept were really first developed by American ornithologist Joseph Grinnell (1917, 1924, 1928). image source: inman.com ADVERTISEMENTS: In his study of California thrashers and other birds he suggested that the niche be regarded as the ultimate distributional or spatial unit occupied by just one species, or subspecies, to which that species is held by structural and instinctive limitations, such as climatic factors, kind and amount of food, suitable nesting sites and cover.Thus, he considered the niche as a subdivision of habitat (Udvardy, 1957) or microhabitat (Odum, 1971), or habitat (Smith, 1977).…