DAT Ecology Practice Exam

The main idea here is how an organism uses the resources around it and the role it plays in its environment. The term that captures all the biotic and abiotic resources the organism utilizes is its niche. A niche includes what it eats, where it shelters, the conditions it can tolerate, and how it interacts with other organisms—essentially how it fits into the ecosystem.

This isn’t just about where the organism lives—the habitat. It also isn’t about the entire community and environment in a region—the ecosystem. And it isn’t about the planet as a whole—the biosphere. For example, a fox’s niche includes its diet, its denning sites, its activity pattern, and how it competes with others, all of which describe its unique role and resource use, not just its location.