Periodic tables of niches

Eric R. Pianka

In chemistry, the urge of scientists to order and classify natural phenomena resulted in the well-known periodic table of the elements, which allowed chemists to predict unknown elements and their chemical properties and led to our understanding of electron shells. Some ecologists wonder whether something like a ‘periodic table of niches’ might be possible. Of course, nothing about ecological niches is quite so simple or discrete as the number of electrons in the outer shell of a chemical element, but most aspects of niches have many more dimensions and are more continuous. Some patterns described earlier may be used to construct a very primitive periodic table of niches […]. Thus, trophic niche repeat themselves in organisms of different sizes that are relatively more or less r- ou K-selected. An aphid is more like a lemming and a mantid more like a weasel, in their food niche, whereas in terms of body size and position on the r-K selection continuum, the aphid and mantid are relatively alike, as are the lemming and the weasel.

Fonte: Pianka, E. R. 1988. Evolutionary ecology, 4th ed. NY, Harper.