The overall role of an organism in its environment is termed

Each organism has an invariably defined range of conditions it can tolerate, a diverse set of resources it uses, and a unique functional role in the ecological system; all of these factors combine to form its niche.

The term niche is used in ecology to define the role that an organism plays in a community. The physical and environmental characteristics that a species demands (such as temperature or topography) as well as the interactions it has with other species make up a species' niche.