Written by the Fiveable Content Team โข Last updated September 2025
Verified for the 2026 exam
Verified for the 2026 examโขWritten by the Fiveable Content Team โข Last updated September 2025
Definition
Niche partitioning involves dividing up a niche to avoid competition for resources. It allows multiple species to coexist in a single ecosystem by reducing direct competition for resources.
Related terms
Competitive Exclusion Principle: The concept that when populations of two similar species compete for the same limited resources, one will use them more efficiently and have a reproductive advantage that will lead to the elimination of the other population.
Habitat Fragmentation: The process by which habitat loss results in the division of large, continuous habitats into smaller, more isolated remnants.
An evolutionary process where organisms diversify rapidly into a multitude of new forms particularly when a change in the environment makes new resources available, creates new challenges, or opens new environmental niches.