A habitat is a geographic location, an ecosystem is a set of interactions among species \u2013 including who-eats-whom in a food chain \u2013 and between the living and non-living (biotic and abiotic) parts of nature. It sounds strange, but exactly where a species lives isn\u2019t especially relevant to the concept of ecosystems.<\/p>\n

But while the scientific distinction is clear, governmental policy-makers and conservation groups tend to use an alternative definition of habitat \u2013 as an \u2018environmental unit\u2019 featuring certain species and on-site conditions. That\u2019s closer to the ecosystem concept and contributes to confusion around the terms.<\/p>\n

Saving nature-rich habitats helps offset emissions<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
Is climate change hitting our summer migrants?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
How to create dead wood habitat<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/p><\/div> <\/section>
So what\u2019s a microhabitat?<\/h2>\n
No, it\u2019s not just a small habitat! Microhabitats result from dividing an area into sections based on your chosen criteria \u2013 by height in a tree canopy, say. At large scales, grouping adjacent habitats based on shared features \u2013 such as climate \u2013 gives a \u2018biome\u2019 that supports a community of organisms. To come full circle, microbes that live around an animal\u2019s body inhabit its microbiome<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Habitats have boundaries that animals can cross, such as when birds migrate from summer mating grounds to where they live during winter. They\u2019re physical places, and living things aren\u2019t typically considered \u2018part\u2019 of the location\u2026 although many habitats are classified by the presence or absence of plants.<\/p>\n
What types of habitat are there?<\/h2>\n
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists nine broad classes of terrestrial habitat: forest, savanna, shrubland, grassland, wetlands, rocky areas, caves\/subterranean, desert and artificial habitats (such as pastureland). One global map showed that forest has the largest land coverage, at 27 per cent.<\/p>\n
There are six aquatic classes. Besides artificial habitats (such as ponds), five are marine: neritic (shallow waters), oceanic, deep ocean floor, intertidal and coastal. IUCN\u2019s classification scheme is still a work in progress though \u2013 for example, the coastal type includes freshwater lakes!<\/p>\n
How does habitat differ from environment?<\/h2>\n
You can describe a habitat without reference to living things. The key feature of a desert is sand, for instance. By contrast, the word environment means \u2018to surround\u2019 so the fact it revolves around something is implicit. An environment is the natural phenomena that surround and interact with a particular organism \u2013 it has a relative position in time and space, whereas a habitat doesn\u2019t move.<\/p>\n
That distinction is illustrated by considering two species that share the same habitat but experience different environments: a desert lizard that\u2019s active at night enjoys cool temperatures but is wary of nocturnal predators, a diurnal species must cope with the environmental challenge of heat during the day.<\/p>\n
Alright, and what\u2019s a niche?<\/h2>\n
It\u2019s the subset of environmental conditions that affect a specific population of organisms. The word has subtly distinct meanings in different scientific fields though! In ecology, a niche is determined by the resources \u2013 especially food \u2013 that are required by the population. But in evolution, a niche is the outcome of environmental pressures \u2013 such as limited food \u2013 that drive natural selection.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re two sides of the same coin but, by analogy, an ecological niche is like a house where a species could potentially live, while an evolutionary niche is where it\u2019s actually made itself at home.<\/p>\n
Do habitats determine biodiversity?<\/h2>\n
Yes! Everybody knows tropical rainforests and coral reefs are rich in species, but the number of different locations in a given area \u2013 habitat richness \u2013 is also associated with higher biodiversity.<\/p>\n
Mapping the distribution of habitats (as \u2018environmental units\u2019) across Europe suggests that the strongest predictor of richness is local geography, especially surface topology and latitude: rough terrain and being closer to the equator create a greater diversity of habitats.<\/p>\n
Main image: a forest in Dartmoor \u00a9 Getty Images<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n
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