ecological niche: In ecology, a niche (CanE, UK: /ˈniːʃ/ or US: /ˈnɪtʃ/)[1] is the match of a species to a specific environmental condition.[2][3] It describes how an organism or population responds to the distribution of resources and competitors (for example, by growing when resources are abundant, and when predators, parasites and pathogens are scarce) and how it in turn alters those same factors (for example, limiting access to resources by other organisms, acting as a food source for predators and a consumer of prey).