Hutchinsons ecological niche for individuals

Abstract

We here develop a concept of an individualized niche in analogy to Hutchison’s concept of the ecological niche of a population. We consider the individualized (ecological) niche as the range of environmental conditions under which a particular individual has a fitness expectation of ≥1. We address four specific challenges that occur when scaling the niche down from populations to individuals: (1) We discuss the consequences of uniqueness of individuals in a population and the corresponding lack of statistical replication. (2) We discuss the dynamic nature of individualized niches and how they can be studied either as time-slice niches, as prospective niches or as trajectory-based niches. (3) We discuss the dimensionality of the individualized niche, that is greater than the population niche due to the additional dimensions of intra-specific niche space. (4) We discuss how the boundaries of individualized niche space can to be defined by expected fitness and how expected fitness can be inferred by marginalizing fitness functions across phenotypes or environments. We frame our discussion in the context of recent interest in the causes and consequences of individual differences in animal behavior.

How Individualized Niches Arise: Defining Mechanisms of Niche Construction, Niche Choice, and Niche Conformance

“…An example that illustrates the adaptive value of both niche choice and niche conformance is provided by the variable coloration of grasshoppers (Rowell 1972 ). A green-brown color polymorphism is widespread across a large number of species (Schielzeth 2020 [ https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.31.016915 ; preprint: not peer reviewed]) and must therefore be maintained by balancing selection favoring alternative phenotypes. Interestingly, some species are able to conform their body color to the background of the habitat (Rowell 1972 , Dearn 1990 ), whereas others search out microhabitats to achieve a phenotype–environment match (Heinze et al 2021 ).…”

Whether intelligentization promotes regional industrial competitiveness: Evidence from China

“… Wherein, M i represents the comprehensive ecological niche of the industry or the ecological niche of a certain dimension, and W i represents the weight corresponding to the index i . Many scholars in biology argue that multiple dimensions of ecological niche act together, in other words, the subject species itself faces a multi-dimensional environment [ 112 – 114 ]. Drawing on this concept, holding that industrial competition also happens in a multi-dimensional situation, this article determines the four competitiveness dimensions: the Basic Dimensions ( Bas ), the Structure Dimension ( Cons ), the Potential dimension ( Pote ), and the Innovation Dimension (Inno ).…”