Isotopic niches support the resource breadth hypothesis

The Altitudinal Niche-breadth Hypothesis in Insect-plant Interactions

Studies aiming at explaining specialization along latitudinal gradients of plant-herbivore interactions have, to date, yielded inconclusive results. Here we propose the use of steep altitudinal gradients for dissecting factors driving evolution of polyphagy in insect herbivores. First, we test whether colonization of high elevation environment favours increased niche-breadth in two disparate in...

Tropical Tree Richness and Resource-Based Niches

In assessing the role of treefall gaps in maintaining species richness in a tropical forest, S. P. Hubbell et al. (1) provide a test of the intermediate disturbance hypothesis, which predicts greater species richness in gaps than in mature forest. Hubbell et al. find more tree species per quadrat in gaps than in mature forest, but reject the richness difference as “spurious” after showing that ...

Delineation of Niches which Support Hematopoiesis

Modelling ecological niches with support vector machines

1. The ecological niche is a fundamental biological concept. Modelling species’ niches is central to numerous ecological applications, including predicting species invasions, identifying reservoirs for disease, nature reserve design and forecasting the effects of anthropogenic and natural climate change on species’ ranges. 2. A computational analogue of Hutchinson’s ecological niche concept (th...

Adolescents’ Daily Activities and the Restorative Niches that Support Them

This paper explores wellbeing from the perspective of the psychological dynamics underlying adolescents' relationship with place. It uses a dynamic model of wellbeing called personal project analysis (PPA) which captures the concept of 'flourishing', defined as functioning well in your activities, strivings and interactions with the world [1]. Using PPA methods we identified adolescents' daily ...