A Community Perspective on the Multidimensional Niche
Journal of Animal EcologyPublished 1 October 1990
Matthew K. Litvak, Roger I. C. Hansell
Citations29
SJR quartileQ1
SJR score1.70
SNIP1.49
Generate an AI Snapshot to get a quick, structured summary of this paper.
Study Snapshot
ObjectiveStudy objective
MethodsResearch methodology
PopulationPopulation studied
Sample sizeSample sizes
OutcomesStudy outcomes here
ResultsStudy results comes here
LimitationsResearch study limitations comes here
A concise AI-generated summary of the paper will appear here once you click Generate AI Snapshot.
TL;DR
A procedure that allows for a community perspective on the niche which is not limited to an analysis by pairs is described and used to investigate the niche in a community of cyprinids.
Abstract
SUMMARY (1) Previous research into resource partitioning/competition has generally been limited to a pairwise inspection due to available methodologies. Here we describe a procedure that allows for a community perspective on the niche which is not limited to an analysis by pairs. (2) Multivariate statistical analyses, such as principal component analysis and principal coordinate analysis, can be used to create independent axes of resource utilization for a community. The niche hypervolume for each species is calculated from the product of the ranges of resource exploitations on each axis. This product defines a niche which is an n-dimensional rectangular parallelepiped (or n-box). (3) Formulas for the calculation of the intersection and total community niche hypervolume are presented. Minor modifications of these formulas allow for the calculation of the levels of intersection, where levels of intersection refer to how much a species' or community's space is overlapped, and by how many species. (4) We used these procedures to investigate the niche in a community of cyprinids.
Keywords
Agricultural and Biological SciencesEnvironmental Science
Journal of Business and Economic StatisticsAn Introduction to Multivariate Statistical Analysis
9,232 Citations1986Robb J. Muirhead, T. W. Anderson
EcologyNonsynchronous Spatial Overlap of Lizards in Patchy Habitats
1,748 Citations1970Thomas W. Schoener
The first observation may be related to the first in the following way: nonsynchronous spatial overlap could dictate relatively great resource overlap for species coinhabiting patchy or edge areas, requiring great differences between the species in prey size in addition to those in climatic habitat.
The AukThe Niche-Relationships of the California Thrasher
1,652 Citations1917Joseph Grinnell
The seemingly impossible was made a practical certainty, for the keeper of a bantam found the body of a screech owl with the claws of one foot firlnly imbedded in theBody of the bantam.
Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative BiologyCONCLUDING REMARKS OF THE CHAIRMAN
679 Citations1950Carl R. Stern
EcologyHabitat Structure, Patchiness, and Avian Communities in North American Steppe Vegetation: A Multivariate Analysis
501 Citations1980John T. Rotenberry, John A. Wiens
This work examined the effect of variation in several measures of both horizontal and vertical patchiness in vegetation distribution on bird distribution and abundance, then integrated these measures into a smaller subset of variables using Principal Component Analysis (PCA).
The Meaning and Strategic Use of Factor Analysis
444 Citations1988Raymond B. Cattell
EcologyMicrohabitats in a Forest‐Floor Small Mammal Fauna
362 Citations1978Raymond D. Dueser, Herman H. Shugart
This study examines microhabitat configurations for 3 small mammal species occupying second—growth mesic forest on Walker Branch Watershed in eastern Tennessee with reference to recent theories of habitat selection, ecological, specialization and resource partitioning in equilibrium faunas.
EcologyA Multivariate Statistical Approach to the Hutchinsonian Niche: Bivalve Molluscs of Central Canada
275 Citations1971Roger H. Green
The use of multiple discriminant analysis to identify the significant and independent ecological factors separating species distributions is proposed and discussed and a generally applicable measure of environmental heterogeneity based upon this type of analysis is proposed.
EcologyHabitat Selection of Breeding Birds in an East Tennessee Deciduous Forest
220 Citations1974Stanley H. Anderson, Herman H. Shugart
Bird populations were sampled on Walker Branch Watershed, a primarily deciduous forest located in Anderson County, Tennessee, to test for differences in abundance categories of each bird species with respect to 28 habitat variables and indicated that some bird species were distributed to specific habitat variables.
EcologyNiche Pattern in a Forest‐Floor Small‐Mammal Fauna
154 Citations1979Raymond D. Dueser, H. H. Shuggart
The niche pattern observed for this community is consistent with an inference of competitive coexistence, and measures of niche position, niche breadth and population abundance are incorporated into an analysis of community "niche pattern".
EcologyCommunity Structure in Sympatric Rodents
151 Citations1976Robert T. M’Closkey
The data show that permanent residents are more different from one another in body size and structural habitat than pairs in which at least one species is a seasonal resident, and increased similarity in body sizes and microhabitat structure may not favor year-round coexistence in some pairs of species.
CopeiaSpatial and Temporal Resource Utilization by Southeastern Cyprinids
111 Citations1981John A. Baker, Stephen T. Ross
The effects of grazing and browsing fishes on the zonation of corals in Guam and the effects of fish grazing on coral distribution are studied.
Journal of Applied EcologyThe Niche in Competition and Evolution.
106 Citations1988P. Calow, Wallace Arthur
This book attempts to synthesise two widely-investigated topics: polymorphism and between-species competition; the author's view being that multiple-niche coexistence and multiple- niche polymorphism together represent a common means of coexistence of competitors.
EcologyMultivariate Niche Analysis with Temporally Varying Environmental Factors
87 Citations1974Roger H. Green
The multiple discriminant model is analogous to the Hutchinsonian niche model; its use is illustrated with artificial data, and it is then applied to data from a benthic stream community to demonstrate heterogeneity of niche sizes, and separation of species' niches in space and in time by different environmental factors related to substrate type and water depth.
The American NaturalistThe Habitat Volumes of Scarce and Ubiquitous Plants: A Test of the Model of Environmental Control
68 Citations1989Mark A. Burgman
This study tests Brown's environmental-control model by examining the expected relationship between the ubiquity of species in samples and the realized edaphic habitat volumes of these species, confirming the predictions of the model and suggesting that scarce plants do not have restricted environmental tolerances but, rather, fill their habitat space more sparsely.
The American NaturalistA Partial Analysis of the Niche
40 Citations1967Bassett Maguire
A method by which the niche hypervolume concept may be used to construct a model useful in the analysis of ecological processes and the proposed indices of versatility and their use in ecological analysis are valid and appropriate is suggested.
Journal of Animal EcologyThe Spatial Distribution of Ants' Nests on Ramsey Island, South Wales
39 Citations1981C. Patrick Doncaster
It is concluded that the dispersion and density of nests are broadly determined by the pattern of habitats on Ramsey and the factors influencing them, particularly exposure, moisture and rabbit grazing.
Environmental Biology of FishesNiche relations within an Ozark stream cyprinid assemblage
38 Citations1987David L. McNeely
This result suggests that interspecific niche overlap is greater upstream than in more downstream locations, and is interpreted to mean that environmental stability and resource partitioning interact in structuring the Spring Creek cyprinid assemblage.
Transactions of the American Fisheries SocietyA Discriminant Functions Analysis of Sunfish (Lepomis) Food Habits and Feeding Niche Segregation in the Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana Estuary
36 Citations1978Wayne J. Desselle, Michael A. Poirrier +2 more
Differences in discriminant function scores appeared to be due to interspecific feeding niche segregation in sunfish species studied in the Lake Pontchartrain estuary.
OikosNiche Overlap and Competition in an Insular Small Mammal Fauna: A Test of the Niche Overlap Hypothesis
29 Citations1982John H. Porter, Raymond D. Dueser
A positive correlation between niche overlap and competition is reported, rather than the negative relationship predicted by the hypothesis, which may reflect a decrease in the average strength of interaction between species as diversity increases,rather than a competition-mediated decrease in niche overlap.
Canadian Journal of ZoologyInvestigation of food habit and niche relationships in a cyprinid community
24 Citations1990Matthew K. Litvak, Roger I. C. Hansell
Study of the gut contents of a cyprinid community by means of frequency occurrence and back-predicted biomass data indicated that Pimephales promelas has a benthic food habit, consuming a high proportion of detritus and associated invertebrates.
Canadian Journal of BotanyA multivariate analysis of the niches of plant populations in raised bogs. II. Niche width and overlap
16 Citations1977E. A. Johnson
The results of a principal components analysis are used to define the ecological niches of the plant populations in raised bogs and richness is shown to be positively related to increased environmental complexity and predictability.
Canadian Journal of BotanyA multivariate analysis of the niches of plant populations in raised bogs. I. Niche dimensions
14 Citations1977E. A. Johnson
By comparing the principal component analysis study of the vegetation with the principal components analysisStudy of the physical environment (peat) using transformation analysis, their very similar but non-linear relationship is demonstrated.