Habitat dan Relung Ekologi

The habitat is defined as a specific place occupied by an organism. It can also be occupied by the population or community. It may occur in the biotic or abiotic environment. The habitat is a combination of many factors. The habitat refers to a large area which can be pond, desert, grassland and woodland. It can be small like a bark of tree or burrow. The organism known as tubifex lives in the running and fresh water which is rich in the organic matter. The larva of chironomous has no oxygen but lives in the water. The malarial parasites live a dual life and live in the red blood cells and liver. Some organisms like hilsa can live in the fresh as well as marine water. They can adapt according to the environmental factors. The habitat consists of microhabitat and they are specific due to the presence of environmental factors.

A microhabitat described the precise location within a habitat where a species is normally found. It is a small, often highly specialized and effectively isolated location. The term microhabitat generally applies to invertebrates which do not forage widely.

Example: within a woodland habitat, woodlice may be found in the microhabitat provided beneath the bark of the rotting wood.

Niche, in ecology, all of the interactions of a species with the other members of its community, including competition, predation, parasitism, and mutualism. A variety of abiotic factors, such as soil type and climate, also define a species’ niche. Each of the various species that constitute a communityoccupies its own ecological niche. Informally, a niche is considered the “job” or “role” that a species performs within nature.

Two lichen species flourishing on separate areas on a rock face. Each survives within its own ecological niche.

Niche are Range of conditions, resource levels, and densities of other species within which an organism or species can survive and reproduce. Niche related to the behavior of a species living under specific environmental conditions
• Fundamental Niche. the largest niche in which a species could persist in the absence of adverse interactions with other species(not necessarily overlapping with realized niche - algae associated in lichen have an entirely shifted niche than alone)
• Realized Niche. the (generally smaller) niche volume occupied by a species in the presence of interspecific interactions