Virginia 7th Grade Science SOL Practice Test

Understanding what an organism does in its environment centers on its niche. The niche is the specific role the organism plays, including how it gets its energy (what it eats and at what level in the food web) and how it interacts with other living things (such as prey, predators, competitors, or mutualists). For example, a bee’s niche includes feeding on nectar and pollen and helping plants reproduce through pollination, while also interacting with flowers, predators, and other insects. This is different from the place where it lives (its habitat), which is simply the physical environment like a forest or meadow. It’s also not about how many individuals are in an area (population) or the entire system of living things and their surroundings (ecosystem). Niche best captures the organism’s functional role and its relationships in the environment.