A Partial Analysis of the Niche

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Abstract
A method is suggested by which the niche hypervolume concept may be used to construct a model useful in the analysis of ecological processes. If a series of separate habitats in which there is inter-habitat heterogeneity is examined, the frequency of occurrence of sufficiently or equally vagile species will tend to be correlated with 2 characteristics: the size of species'' niche hypervolume and, the degree to which hypervolume shape tends to be cubical (spherical). Two methods of computation of versatility indices which provide estimates of relative hypervolumes are used. Both are based on versatility coefficients such that each coefficient represents the (relative) dimension of one of the factors which makes up a species'' niche hypervolume. One is based on a ranking procedure; in the other, the total natural range of each factor (i. e. temperature) within which any organism can survive (or grow or reproduce) is estimated and calculation of niche volume of a species is based on the fraction of this "range of life" which is tolerated by the species. Significant rank difference correlation coefficients suggest that the frequency of occurrence of the most common protozoa species tends to be highest for those species which have largest niche hypervolumes and also tends to be highest for those species which tend to have relatively cubical hypervolumes. Extension of the model and analysis should provide new insights into the ecology and evolution of species.

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