Editing Ecological niche (section)

==Grinnellian niche==
The ecological meaning of niche comes from the meaning of niche as a recess in a wall for a statue,<ref name="oxford">{{cite web|url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/126748|title=Niche|work=Oxford English Dictionary {{Subscription required}}|access-date=8 June 2013}}</ref> which itself is probably derived from the [[Middle French]] word ''nicher'', meaning ''to nest''.<ref name="webster">{{cite encyclopedia | title=Niche | encyclopedia=Merriam-Webster Dictionary | publisher=Merriam-Webster | access-date=30 October 2014 | url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/niche}}</ref><ref name="oxford"/>
The term was coined by the naturalist [[Roswell Hill Johnson]]<ref name=Johnson1910>
{{cite book |last= Johnson |first= Roswell |date= 1910 |title= Determinate evolution in the color-pattern of the lady-beetles |url=https://archive.org/details/determinateevol00johngoog|location= Washington |publisher= Carnegie Institution of Washington|doi=10.5962/bhl.title.30902 }}</ref>
but [[Joseph Grinnell]] was probably the first to use it in a research program in 1917, in his paper "The niche relationships of the California Thrasher".<ref name=Grinnell1917>{{cite journal |author = Joseph Grinnell |year = 1917 |title = The niche-relationships of the California Thrasher |journal = The Auk |volume = 34 |issue = 4 |pages = 427–433 |url = http://artifex.org/~ecoreaders/lit/Grinnell1917.pdf |doi = 10.2307/4072271 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160310144027/http://artifex.org/~ecoreaders/lit/Grinnell1917.pdf |archive-date = 2016-03-10 |jstor = 4072271 }}</ref><ref name=Pocheville2015 />

The Grinnellian niche concept embodies the idea that the niche of a species is determined by the [[habitat]] in which it lives and its accompanying [[Behavioral ecology|behavioral adaptations]]. In other words, the niche is the sum of the habitat requirements and behaviors that allow a species to persist and produce offspring. For example, the behavior of the [[California thrasher]] is consistent with the [[chaparral]] habitat it lives in—it breeds and feeds in the underbrush and escapes from its predators by shuffling from underbrush to underbrush. Its 'niche' is defined by the felicitous complementing of the thrasher's behavior and physical traits (camouflaging color, short wings, strong legs) with this habitat.<ref name=Grinnell1917/>
[[File:Ifugao - 2.jpg|left|thumb|The Grinnellian niche can be described as the "needs" niche, or an area that meets the environmental requirements for an organism's survival. Most succulents are native in dry, arid regions like deserts and require large quantities of sun exposure.]]
Grinnellian niches can be defined by non-interactive (abiotic) variables and environmental conditions on broad scales.<ref name=":1" /> Variables of interest in this niche class include average temperature, precipitation, solar radiation, and terrain aspect which have become increasingly accessible across spatial scales. Most literature has focused on Grinnellian niche constructs, often from a climatic perspective, to explain distribution and abundance. Current predictions on species responses to climate change strongly rely on projecting altered environmental conditions on species distributions.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Van der Putten|first1=Wim H.|last2=Macel|first2=Mirka|last3=Visser|first3=Marcel E.|date=2010-07-12|title=Predicting species distribution and abundance responses to climate change: why it is essential to include biotic interactions across trophic levels|url= |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences|volume=365|issue=1549|pages=2025–2034|doi=10.1098/rstb.2010.0037|pmc=2880132|pmid=20513711}}</ref> However, it is increasingly acknowledged that [[climate change]] also influences species interactions and an Eltonian perspective may be advantageous in explaining these processes.

This perspective of niche allows for the existence of both ecological equivalents and empty niches. An ecological equivalent to an organism is an organism from a different taxonomic group exhibiting similar adaptations in a similar habitat, an example being the different [[Succulent plant|succulents]] found in American and African deserts, [[cactus]] and [[euphorbia]], respectively.<ref name=Huggett>
{{cite book |author=Richard J. Huggett |title=Fundamentals of Biogeography |page=76 |isbn=9780415323475 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZR68HCMmPjoC&pg=PA76 |publisher=Psychology Press |year=2004}}
</ref> As another example, the [[anole]] lizards of the [[Greater Antilles]] are a rare example of [[convergent evolution]], [[adaptive radiation]], and the existence of ecological equivalents: the anole lizards evolved in similar [[Habitat#Microhabitat types|microhabitats]] independently of each other and resulted in the same [[ecomorph]]s across all four islands.