Habitat and Niche

Habitat is a natural living system of an organism which includes all abiotic factors and abiotic factors whereas “Niche” is a basic requirement that may be a particular place where an organism is required to survive and reproduce. Habitat and niche seems similar but they are differ from each other.habitat is an area where organisms live like we live in Asia, grasslands and rainforest of southeast Asia etc,but niche is a biological condition in an organism reproduce and survive.This is how we“distinguish between habitat and niche” and difference between habitat and niche properly.a niche is the physical and biological conditions in how organism can get resources to reproduce and survive.

Habitat means an environment where an organism or animal lives with all climate conditions and interacts with all the things. It is common to all the organisms whether it is plant or animal, if everyone lives in one habitat then it is common to all the organisms.

For example: Deserts, mountains, ponds, oceans, rivers, trees,etc.

Habitat has two components, i.e, biotic and abiotic components. There are mainly three types of Habitat; Terrestrial Habitat, Aquatic Habitat and Aerial Habitat.

Niche may be best described on the basis of the genetic setup of the species for its preference towards specific environmental conditions.

Niche World was first used by ”Grinnell(1917)”. According to Grinnell niche is a specific position which is occupied by a species in a habitat.

Habitat and niche

The environment in which an animal lives where it interacts with both biotic and biotic factors is called habitat.As an organism lives in a particular place, then it interacts with temperature, water, air, soil, these are all biotic factors. And together it interacts with pathogens, competitors , predators, So an organism interacts with many such biotic and abiotic factors when it lives in an environment,then it is called its habitat.

• Forest, desert, grassland, crop fields and gardens are some names of terrestrial habitat.
• Ponds, rivers, lakes etc where aquatic plants & animals live like fish, tortoise are known as aquatic habitats
• Aerial animals spend most of the time in the air.like birds, some insects etc.

Niche includes all the important things that an organism requires to survive and reproduce properly in a particular place. Niche is much more specific. So whatever parameters are required to organism to live as well as reproduce in a healthy way is called niche, all of them together is called niche.

For example:-

• Several trophic positions engaged by Darwin’s finches. 

Habitat and Niche

Habitat

Living place of an organism such as:-

• ponds and lakes for aquatic plants,
• for xerophytes the xeric environment,
•  tree trunks for epiphytes and lichens or rocks,
• substrates for lithophytes are defined as habitat.

Components of habitat

There are two components of habitat which are given below:-

1.Biotic components:- All living things are the biotic components. Eg:-

• “Plants and Animals”. 
• “Waste from living things and dead organisms.” 

2.Abiotic components:- Abiotic components are non living things.Eg:-

• Light, air, water
• Temperature, humidity, atmosphere, soil. 

Types of Habitat

Habitats are of mainly three types:-

1.Terrestrial Habitat

2.Aquatic Habitat

3.Aerial Habitat

1. Terrestrial Habitat

A terrestrial habitat is represented by forest or desert or grassland or Crop fields and Gardens. In a habitat several micro habitats can be differentiated.In a forest, microhabitats are ground vegetation, epiphytic vegetation, top canopy,Middle story, ground canopy,etc. Few names of terrestrial habitats are:-

• • Desert
  • Mountains
  • Grassland
  • Crop fields

• Gardens etc. 

In Terrestrial habitats, flora and fauna are distributed on the basis of pH, mineral availability, moisture content, humidity, rainfall etc. 

2. Aquatic Habitat

Ponds, rivers, lakes etc where aquatic plants & animals live like fish, tortoise are known as aquatic habitats. 

• Ponds, Few plants like “Hydrilla”, ” Lotus”, “hyacinth” etc live in ponds.
•  Rivers
• Sea, oceans, lakes

These are some aquatic habitat names.Habitat is usually represented by a larger area like aquatic habitat which means a pond,a pool, lake, spring river etc. 

A pond can be differentiated into subhabitate like surface water,Littoral waters, bottom muds, pelagic waters etc, 

Similarly oceans also have sub habitats like littoral zone, sublittoral zone, intertidal zone, bathyal zone, aphotic and euphotic zones organised with their vegetation. 

Some animals are well adapted to colonise in waters deficient in oxygen whereas some fishes always prefer fresh and clean well aerated waters.

3. Aerial Habitat

Organisms like bird, mosquitoes that are capable of doing their activities in the aerial environment are called aerial organisms and where they live are called aerial habitats. 

• Examples: 
• “Birds”, “bats”, and some “insects”.

Specific habitat is preferred by specific types of plants and animals. In aquatic forms some prefer stagnant waters while some prefer flowing waters. Some plants are attached with the soft mud while some are free floating or attached floating.

So,”Habitat” is an area where a species or an organism lives.

Niche

Niche includes functional area and these are some selected parameters only not all the parameters, which are these parameters includes three things one is abiotic factors second parameter is the behaviour of the organism and third parameter is the food habit, the food source these are three things major things which restrict an organism to live in a specific area.

The “habitat” together with function form the “niche” of the species.Different species of a habitat are thought to occupy a different niche which forms the basis of their resource preference. The concept of niche Includes “food relationship”, “Prey Predator relationship”, tolerance capacity towards specific abiotic components or environmental variables.In a community to niche dimensions usually considered are “niche width” and “Niche overlap”.

The sum total of different resources exploited by the organisms represents the niche size.

A plant niche comprises-

1. Habitat niche
2. Phenological niche
3. Life form niche and
4. Regeneration niche

Distinguish between habitat and niche

Habitat is the living place of any organism. Habitat and niche seem almost similar but basically these two have a very common difference.Basic requirements of an animal are called niche. Niche is not common to all organisms. It is specific for species. As every organism have some needs, if the organism is carnivorous, then it needs carnivorous(meat) food.Although the environment will have many trees and plants, but it will need meat to eat  because it is a carnivorous, it will eat only meat.if an organism needs 20 to 25 degree temperature to live If it will not be able to bear the temperature more than this, then that organism will be able to survive only on this particular temperature. So, these types of basic requirements of animals are known as niche.so habitat and niche have very common differences they seem similar but they are actually not same.

This is how we distinguish between Habitat and Niche. 

Conclusion

Habitat is an area or place where organisms live without any kind of alteration and interact with other factors, whereas ‘Niche’ is a particular condition or place where an organism is required to survive and reproduce properly. Habitat is usually represented by a comparatively larger area and the habitat together with function for the niche of the species.