The word ecology comes from the Greek words οἶκος and -λογί± where οἶκος means ‘house’ and -λογί± means ‘the study of’. The word ecology was coined by German scientes Ernst Haeckel in 1866. Ecology is the scientific study of the relation of living organisms in their surroundings and with each other. It is a sub-discipline of biology and ancient philosophers such as Aristotle and Hippocrates made the first notes about plants and animals. Originally considered as natural history, it branched out as a science in the 19th century with studies such as Darwin’s Evolutionary Theory.
Within ecology, ecosystems are defined by a community, network or web of individuals that arrange themselves into a complex and self-organized system. This system consists several levels of bigger systems that are made up of systems of smaller systems within them. These ecosystems create biophysical feedback between living and nonliving components of an environment that, in turn, regulates and generates the biogeochemical cycles of the planet. These cycles of the planet provide goods and services that sustain human societies while the ecosystems themselves are sustained by biodiversity within them. Biodiversity is life and its processes on a full-scale. These processes include species, genes and ecosystems forming lineages.
Ecology is closely related to evolutionary biology, genetics, physiology and ethology. One of the most important focus areas in ecological study is the understanding of how biodiversity affects ecological function. Ecologists aim to explain life processes and adaptations, the movement of materials and energy through living communities, the distribution and abundance of organisms, the successive development of ecosystems and the abundance and distribution of biodiversity in context of the environment.
Ecology has a number of practical applications in conservation biology, natural resource management, city planning, wetland management, community health, economics as well as basic and applied sciences.
Within ecology, ecosystems are defined by a community, network or web of individuals that arrange themselves into a complex and self-organized system. This system consists several levels of bigger systems that are made up of systems of smaller systems within them. These ecosystems create biophysical feedback between living and nonliving components of an environment that, in turn, regulates and generates the biogeochemical cycles of the planet. These cycles of the planet provide goods and services that sustain human societies while the ecosystems themselves are sustained by biodiversity within them. Biodiversity is life and its processes on a full-scale. These processes include species, genes and ecosystems forming lineages.
Ecology is closely related to evolutionary biology, genetics, physiology and ethology. One of the most important focus areas in ecological study is the understanding of how biodiversity affects ecological function. Ecologists aim to explain life processes and adaptations, the movement of materials and energy through living communities, the distribution and abundance of organisms, the successive development of ecosystems and the abundance and distribution of biodiversity in context of the environment.
Ecology has a number of practical applications in conservation biology, natural resource management, city planning, wetland management, community health, economics as well as basic and applied sciences.
