WHAT IS ECOLOGY?
WARM UP
• Are you interested in the environment and ecology?
• Do you think that environmental conservation is essential for the future of our planet? Why?
Definition
Ecology is a scientific discipline which began to have importance in the second half of the 20th century. Several well-known 19th century scientists, such as Alexander Humboldt (1769-1859), Charles Darwin (1809-1882), Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) and Karl Mobius (1825-1908), made many significant contributions to environmental studies. The word ecology (from Greek oikos, “house” and logos, “study of”) was first coined by the German biologist Ernst Haeckel in 1866. He defined it as “the comprehensive science of the relationship of the organism to the environment”. The environment of an organism consists of abiotic factors, such as climate and geology, and biotic factors, such as members of the same species and other species that share a habitat1. Scientists who study these relationships are called ecologists.
Objects of ecological studies
The main goal of ecologists is to manage and control the living and non-living things in the world because man’s survival and well-being depend on relationships that exist on a world-wide basis. Ecological studies generally include:
population processes, such as reproductive behaviour, mortality and migrations;
interspecific relations, such as predation, competition, parasitism and mutualism;
plant and animal community structures;
biogeochemical cycles (water, carbon, oxygen, phosphorus, nitrogen).
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1 An abiotic factor is a non-living part of an ecosystem (e.g., temperature, light), while biotic factors are living organisms that are part of an ecosystem.
DO
1 Cultural ecology is the study of how groups of people interact with and adapt to their environment.
It is linked to ....... .
a. mathematics
b. anthropology
c. literature
d. medicine
Relations with other disciplines
Ecological science is often closely related to other disciplines, such as physics, chemistry, mathematics and computer science. Ecologists also depend on other sciences such as climatology, meteorology, geology and oceanography to learn about air, land and water environment.
Ecology is an applied science. Natural resource management, such as forestry, wildlife management and habitat conservation, is directly related to ecological sciences and many problems in agriculture, urban development and public health are influenced by ecological considerations. The term ecology has also been assumed for philosophical ideologies like cultural ecology and it is often used as a synonym for environmentalism.
