Conventional framing
The niche is often defined as the set of environmental conditions or resources that a species occupies, sometimes treated as a pre-existing ecological “slot” into which organisms fit.
APS reframing
APS treats the niche as a relational and processual phenomenon rather than a fixed container. Organisms do not simply occupy niches; they actively constitute and transform them through their viability-oriented activity. The niche is therefore an expression of organism–environment coupling, not an independently defined location or role.
Key Point
In APS, the niche is not where an organism is, but how it is coupled to its environment in sustaining viability.