TOWARDS THE INTERACTION OF ENVIRONMENTAL- FACTORS

This paper is devoted to studying the nature of interactions among fac tors of the environment and their joint action upon the survival of in dividuals in a population, with regard to the number of acting factors . Based on Hutchinson's concept of the fundamental niche, the notion o f minimal survival space is formulated. It is substantiated that when the dimension of the fundamental niche space increases, the survival r ate due to the joint effect of the factors can either increase or decr ease as a function of the effect type-antagonism, additivity, or syner gism.