David Kruger
“The niche is the species, and the species is the niche. Since all species are by definition different, and since behavior as much as bone structure defines a species, it would seem obvious that niches must differ – with out necessarily being the outcome of competitive exclusion.” (pg 299)
Niches are a good way of describing the reoccurring phenomenon of diversity in nature. Tansley described a “mature science… [as one that has] isolated the basic units of nature into its individual parts” (Worster pg 300). I think niches are a reflection of a mature science. A niche is an idea that can separate one species from the next by its most primal differences - habitat, appearance, behavior, competition etc. Most interesting is how it relates the competition of a species to how it interacts in and about a physical environment. This brought the thought to my mind that a niche may be one of the better arguments for evolution. As we know Darwin’s theory of evolution was based on competition, that every species was in a recourses foot race necessary for survival with prizes including breeding grounds and food (Bush 6). This is an important idea but it still doesn’t explain some of the finer technicalities in the rules of the game. In regard to concepts such as biodiversity and evolution, competition describes the overall tendencies of an ecosystem and a niche hits the particulars of the point system. Darwin was describing this when looking at canaries in the Galapagos and deduced how the canaries fit together as an integrated whole.
If I said it was a good argument for evolution what I meant to infer was that it was good at dividing people. For When Elton arrived at the idea of a niche he did not state whether the niches were “preordained, preexisting slots to be filled in nature, or simply a post hoc descriptions of what an organism does in its environments” (Pg. 299). In regard to the general argument of evolution, ideas of preordained and preexistence manage to bring up the usually rhetoric of oppositional ideas.