Niche Restriction
- Species must be specialized in order to survive. They may survive for a while in less optimal habitats under favourable conditions, but they will be extinguished when conditions become less favourable, for example due to changed weather conditions (this aspect was especially emphasized by Price 1983).
- Niches remain narrow or become narrower as the result of natural selection in order to enhance the chances of mating. This “mating theory of niche restriction” is supported by the observation that niches of asexual stages are often wider than those of sexually mature stages; that niches become narrower at the time of mating; and that microhabitats of sessile species and of species with small population sizes often are narrower than those of non-sessile species and of species with large population sizes.
Read more about this topic: Niche Segregation
Famous quotes containing the words niche and/or restriction:
“They sat together halfway up a cliff
In a small niche let into it, the girl
Brightly, as if a star played on the place,
Paul darkly, like her shadow.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“If we can find a principle to guide us in the handling of the child between nine and eighteen months, we can see that we need to allow enough opportunity for handling and investigation of objects to further intellectual development and just enough restriction required for family harmony and for the safety of the child.”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)