Human Niche Construction and the Rural Environment

Ecology is usually defined as the study of relationships between organisms and their environment. On basic ecology courses, students learn that environmental factors may be composed of other living organisms, e.g. predators, or they may be abiotic, e.g. water. Resources constitute a special category of environmental factors as they are consumed by the organisms and thereby, at least temporarily, made unavailable to others. Resources are ultimately in limited supply, causing competition within or between species. Competition is an interaction often considered to be of paramount importance in ecological systems.