What is a niche?

A key feature of modern niche concepts is that the ecological niche is defined relative to the organism at its centre. This is because organisms determine which environmental factors are significant components of their world, a perspective very much in line with niche construction theory.

Organisms actively modify their niches, and those of other organisms, through their activities and choices. However, niches have typically been construed as static rather than evolving. In order to devise a more dynamic niche concept, Odling-Smee et al. (2003) characterize an evolutionary niche as ‘the sum of all the natural selection pressures to which the population is exposed’, an approach well-received by ecologists (Chase & Leibold 2003). The evolutionary niche can be viewed as a dynamic (i.e. evolving) version of the more familiar ecological niche when the latter is characterized as an n-dimensional hypervolume of those conditions and resources relevant to the population (Hutchinson 1957).

How do organisms modify niches?

Organisms change their niches, by physically changing environments, or by relocating in space, thereby exposing themselves to new conditions. They may create novel niches by inceptive niche construction, by innovating. For example, the evolution of improved paper technology in Polistinae wasps apparently had massive effects on the geographic distribution, colony size and social complexity of these wasps (Hansell 1993).

Organisms can also buffer out some of the changes in their environments that are caused by other agents by counteractive niche construction. For instance, wasps regulate temperature in their nests by bringing droplets of water to cool the nest, or by stretching and contracting their abdomens in unison to warm the nest.

Through niche construction, organisms can influence and control some flows of energy and materials among trophically interconnected organisms, even without being part of those flows themselves. The modification of natural selection by niche construction may be direct, as occurs when animals construct artifacts, such as nests or dams. Conversely, organisms may only modify natural selection indirectly, or gradually, for instance through the slow accumulation in their environments of the by-products of their metabolisms, and detritus producing activities – which generates an ecological inheritance.

How does niche construction relate to ecosystem engineering?

Niche construction theory explores two interacting processes. The first is the modification of niches by the environment-altering and -selecting activities of organisms. The second is the subsequent evolution of one or more populations in response to selection altered by the first process. The environment-altering aspect of niche construction is broadly similar to the concept of ecosystem engineering in ecology (Jones et al. 1994, 1997).

Jones et al. drew attention to the comparative lack of ecological research dedicated to studying organisms that modulate the availability of resources and habitats in ecosystems. For instance, beavers’ dams have dramatic effects on the flows of energy and matter through river environments. Kelp are another example: their growth creates forests that provide habitat for countless other organisms.

Many species do influence energy flows, mass flows, and trophic patterns in ecosystems, by generating ‘engineering’ control webs based on mosaics of connectivity among species . Jones et al. have shown that engineering webs make significant contributions to the regulation of energy and matter flows in ecosystems, alongside webs of trophic interactions.

How are ecologists using niche construction theory?

Recent years have witnessed considerable efforts to operationalize the niche construction concept within ecology, and devise means for its investigation. These methods provide tools to explore how niche construction triggers ecological and evolutionary feedbacks, to detect the ecological signatures that it leaves, and to explore its effects on biodiversity.

Post  & Palkovacs (2009) illustrate how niche construction can generate eco-evolutionary feedbacks, and how these can be investigated.

Odling-Smee et al. (2013) describe some of the ecological and evolutionary impacts on ecosystems of niche construction.

Matthews et al. (2014) propose an operational framework to evaluate comparative and experimental evidence of the evolutionary consequences of niche construction, and suggest how such research can improve our understanding of ecological and evolutionary dynamics in ecosystems .

Brathen & Raivolainen (2015) show that species sharing a single trait or species belonging to a growth form can act as collective niche constructors, and be important predictors of species diversity in ecological communities. In tundra plant communities, forbs and grasses were the least abundant growth forms, yet they were the strongest positive predictors of species diversity.

Ware et al. (2019) propose a conceptual model that shows how feedbacks across levels of organization link theory associated with eco-evolutionary dynamics, niche construction and the geographic mosaic theory of evolution.

Coexistence, range expansion and adaptive radiation

Theoretical studies show that niche construction has important effects on species coexistence, range expansion and adaptive radiation.

Kylafis & Loreau (2011) introduce the concept of ‘ecological niche construction’, the process whereby an organism improves its environment to enhance its growth and persistence, which they argue is an important missing element of niche theory. In a model of two consumers that compete for one limiting resource and one predator, they show how niche construction modifies the traditional niche-deteriorating impacts of its agent or of competing species, and hence the potential for species coexistence. Thus niche construction can promote mutualism and niche partitioning, although under different conditions it can strengthen interspecific competition. The authors also show how niche construction strongly affects the realized niche of a species.

Kylafis & Loreau (2008) demonstrate that niche construction can generate local spatial effects that can allow a population to promote its own range expansion. In this manner, niche construction potentially plays a role in adaptive radiation. Such effects can link eco-evolutionary feedbacks to the process of adaptive radiation. Rather than lineages simply diversifying to “fill” available niches, niches themselves may be diversifying (Erwin 2005), a process subsequently termed “self-propagating adaptive radiation.”

Krakauer, Page, & Erwin (2009) show that niche construction can drive coevolutionary events, exacerbate and ameliorate competition, affect the likelihood of coexistence and produce macroevolutionary trends.