Define habitat and explain how it relates to the concept of niche.

A habitat is the physical environment in which an organism lives. It includes various abiotic (non-living) factors like temperature, humidity, and terrain as well as biotic (living) factors such as other coexisting organisms. The combination of these factors provides a set of conditions in which a species can survive and reproduce.

A niche, on the other hand, refers to the role and position of an organism within its ecosystem. It involves not only the physical space occupied by the species but also its interactions with other organisms and its contribution to the functioning of the ecosystem. In other words, a niche is the specific set of biotic and abiotic factors needed for an organism to survive, grow, and reproduce.

The connection between habitat and niche lies in the way they both influence an organism's survival and reproduction within an ecosystem. While the habitat is the set of physical conditions that allows an organism to survive in its environment, the niche is based on the organism's adaptation to those conditions, as well as its role and interactions with other species in that environment. For example, a forest may act as a habitat for a particular plant species due to its suitable temperature, humidity, and availability of nutrients. Within that habitat, the plant's niche may be determined by its ability to compete for sunlight with neighboring plants, its method of pollination by specific insects, and its capacity to absorb nutrients from the soil. In this context, the habitat provides the necessary conditions for the plant's survival, while its niche represents the plant's unique way of successfully thriving in that habitat.