Abstract

LEIBOLD, Mathew A  and  GEDDES, Pamela. The niche concept in metacommunities. Ecol. austral [online]. 2005, vol.15, n.2, pp.117-129. ISSN 1667-782X.

The science of ecology studies how biological systems interact with their environment. The niche concept lies at the heart of this study because it describes how organisms at different levels of organization interact with their environment at different spatio-temporal scales. However, because different definitions and different perspectives about this concept have existed, confusion has emerged. In this paper we review how such perspectives might be synthesized and we consider how niche relations influence species interactions in metacommunities. We contrast some of the resulting insights with previous work focused on local communities and we use this synthesis to discuss the possible importance of drift mechanisms that exist in the absence of niche differences among species.

Keywords : Neutral theory; Resource competition; Food webs; Community assembly; Dispersal.

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