BIOL 1070 Lecture Notes - Ecological Niche, Niche Construction, Understory
8 Mar 2014
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Document Summary
Abiotic variables: non-living factors that affect organism ability to survive and reproduce. Includes temperature, chemical products, water, atmosphere and light. Light is an important abiotic variable in a forest ecosystem as it is the main supply of energy for organisms. Plants convert light energy into chemical energy in photosynthesis which is then stored as biomass. Plants adapt to high or low light conditions, with shade tolerant plants dominating the understory of forest canopies. Plants use a protein to sense season changes while insects use lights to differentiate flowers when harvesting nectar (pollination of plants). Niche: environmental space which is the space that an organism occupies confined by the environmental variables the species responds to. Ecological niche is defined as a set of biotic an abiotic conditions where a species is able to maintain population sizes. Fundamental niche: all the possible dimensions in which a species can survive in principle.
