Ecology Studies - A Science Of The Environment
The word "ecology" has been derived from the Greek words "Oikos" that means household, and "logos" which means knowledge. Ecology studies are the scientific studies of the effects of interaction between living organisms and the environment in which they grow. The term "ecology" in its modern sense was invented by the German biologist Ernst Haeckel.
By environment we mean the combination of abiotic and biotic factors. The light, the weather, the climate, and the general geological features of a place, all together build up a particular environment. We often refer to the ecological balance that actually refers to a friendly environment. Ecology studies are all about study of the factors affecting the environment.
Ecology studies are basically a branch of the larger subject, biology. The difference is that while biology is the general science of living organisms, ecology studies take up a holistic approach by taking into account the biosphere as a whole. It also takes into consideration the inter relationship of communities and ecological systems, and not any particular individual.
But ecology studies are not confined to the living organisms alone. They overlap to various other branches of scientific studies like geography, meteorology, genetics, and physics etc. This is the reason why ecology is considered to be a multi-disciplinary science or holistic science.
Definition and scope of ecology studies were further expanded in 1972, when Krebs included agriculture, fisheries, medicines and urban development within its ambit. Ecology however does not aim at directing about the correct and incorrect. Its basic aim is to provide the knowledge base that would clearly specify the objectives and policies relating to environments. Ecology studies follow a set pattern, where the ecologist would first study about the behavioral relationship among the individual members in a community. Thereafter, he will move over to the study of the organised activity of the community at large. This is what we call the community activity. Next is the relationship between the environment and the species. This is called the environmental ecology. What cannot be overlooked is the fact that, each part of the above study has an impact on the overall ecology studies. Individual relationships and behavioral pattern affects the community at large. The community behavioural relationship affects the environment at large. Therefore, individual, community and their relationship with each other, as well as the environment, constitutes the basis of ecology studies. Since it is substantially a broad discipline, ecology studies have many sub-disciplines. The first among them is the Eco-physiology and Behavioral ecology. This sub discipline allows us to verify the adaptability of individual to the environment. When we study the entire population of a single species, it is called Autecology studies. Synecology is the sub-discipline that focuses on the interactions between different species that constitute the ecological community at large. The flow of energy and matter through ecosystem is the subject matter of the sub-discipline Ecosystem ecology. Finally, we study the relationship of multiple ecosystems through a large area. All these sub-disciplines however, are part of the ecology studies as a whole. At times, we sub-divide ecology studies on the basis of the species that we study, like, the animal, plants, insect, or the climate. At other times we sub-divide them on the basis of geographical zones like, the desert, tropical area, etc. We even categorise ecology studies on the basis of the component subjects, like, chemistry, statistics and genetics etc. But all these studies are holistically referred by us as ecology studies.
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