Niche
Living systems are units of interactions; they exist in an environment. From a purely biological point of view they cannot be understood independantly of the part of the environment with which they interact, the niche; nor can the niche be defined independently of the living system that occupies it. (NC 5)
The niche is defined by the classes of interactions into which an organism can enter. The environment is defined by the classes of interactions into which the observer can enter and which he treats as a context for his interactions with the observed organism. (BC 10-11)
This page was last updated on June 26, 1996, by Rob Sable.