sentences:  Ecological release also occurs when a species expands its niche within its own habitat or into a new habitat.The term “ecological release” first appeared in the scientific literature in 1972 in the American Zoologist Journal discussing the effects of the introduction of a sea snail on an isolated ecosystem, Easter Island.One of the first studies that linked niche shifts to the presence and absence of competitors was by Lack and Southern where habitat broadness of song birds was positively correlated to the absence of a related species.