Fundamental Species Niche: Mechanism of Formation and Ecological Significance

Evolutionary stasis, or the long-term (over hundreds of thousands or even millions of years) existence of species in a phenotypically unchanging state, is conditioned by a counterbalance of directional selection vectors acting in opposition to one another. Fluctuations of living conditions for a species, leading to partial and often reversible disturbances of the counterbalance, lead to the development of redundant functional capacities of organisms. This redundancy determines the boundaries of the fundamental species niche and allows the realized niches of populations to change their spatiotemporal location within these boundaries without disturbing the counterbalance.