A network approach reveals surprises about the history of the niche

The ecological niche is a prominent theoretical concept in many ecological fields, central to ecological understanding of species interactions and community structure. To better understand this important concept, and the impact it has had on ecology, we used a citation analysis to examine the history of the niche through citation patterns during the 20th century. In particular, we sought to document the spread of the niche across ecological subdisciplines, to evaluate whether the existence of different niche definitions facilitated the spread of the niche, and to see whether the conceptual integration stemming from adoption of the niche has also yielded an integration of the niche literature across subdisciplinary boundaries. We show that the ecological niche has been adopted by a number of subdisciplines, but that this success does not appear to have relied strongly on the different niche definitions, nor has it led to general integration of the niche literature across subdisciplinary boundaries. Our analysis thus not only examines the history of one of ecology’s central concepts but also suggests that despite the conceptual unification that resulted from the broad adoption of the niche, a unified niche literature had not emerged by the close of the 20th