Introduction to Ecology

Introduction to Ecology and Ecosystem

• Ecology was not widely known until the environmental movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
• Environmentalism is activism aimed at protecting the natural environment.
• Environment refers to everything that surrounds us and affects our ability to live on the earth.

Meaning of Ecology

• Ecology is a science that studies the relationships between organisms and their environment.
• The term "ecology" comes from the Greek words "oikos" (home or place to live) and "logy" (study of).
• German zoologist Ernst Haeckel coined the term "ecology" in 1866 to refer to the inter-relationships of living organisms and their environment.

Complexity of Ecology's Roots

• Ecology has complex roots, unlike other sciences with direct genealogy.
• The roots of ecology can be traced back to ancient Greek scholar Theophrastus, who wrote about the relationships between organisms and the environment.
• Ecology as we know it today has roots in natural history, which provides a descriptive account of organisms and their environment.

Branches of Ecology

• Ecosystem ecology: the study of whole living systems.
• Population ecology: concerned with population growth, intraspecific and interspecific competition, mutualism, and predation.
• Physiological ecology: concerned with the responses of individual organisms to temperature, moisture, light, and other environmental conditions.
• Community ecology: deals with the physical and biological structure of communities and community development.
• Landscape ecology: the study of causes behind landscape patterns and the ecological consequences of spatial patterns on the landscape.
• Ethology: the study of animal reactions to their living and nonliving environment.
• Chemical ecology: the study of chemical substances in the natural world, including their use in plant and animal defense.
• Ecological modeling: the use of mathematical models to relate interaction of parameters and predict effects.
• Radiation ecology: deals with the study of the effect of radiation on the environment and living organisms.
• Applied ecology: the application of the science of ecology to human needs.