The functional role of an organism in its ecosystem?

• A. Habitat
• B. Niche
• C. Population
• D. Intertidal Zone

Answer: (B)

Niche is the functional role of an organism in its ecosystem—the job it does, the resources it uses, and how it interacts with other organisms within the community. It covers what the organism eats, how it obtains energy, where it tends to live within the environment, and its place in the food web, including interactions like predation, competition, and symbiosis. This is different from habitat, which is simply the physical place where an organism lives (for example, rocky shores or coral reefs). It’s also different from a population, which is about the number of individuals of the species in an area, and from the term Intertidal Zone, which is a type of habitat. For example, a snail that grazes on algae and helps control algal growth has a niche defined by its feeding habit and ecological role, not just the rocky surface it inhabits.