Written by the Fiveable Content Team • Last updated September 2025
Verified for the 2026 exam
Verified for the 2026 exam•Written by the Fiveable Content Team • 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.