ECOLOGY
ECOLOGY
From the most gigantic known animal to the smallest bacterium, it is already given that the survival of any organism still is dependent on its adaptability to its physical and chemical environment.
To start with, ecology is the study of the interaction of living organisms with their physical environment. Ecology comes from the two Greek words “Oikos” meaning “household” and “logia” meaning “study of“; hence literally meaning “study of the household“.
In 1873, the term “ecology” was finally coined by scientist Ernst Haeckel. See the full history of ecology and its timeline in detail here.
Ecology alone is a large discipline as it covers all organisms on Earth. Back then, the focus of the first ecologists are only on either plants and animals (thus only plant ecology and animal ecology exist).
But later on, due to newly discovered knowledge and the advancement of technology, this division of ecology was no longer used. Instead, the study of ecology was again divided into two major subdivisions: autoecology and synecology.
On one hand, autoecology deals with the study of ecology and ecosystems in single species up to the population level. On the other hand, synecology focuses on a larger level as it examines ecology at communities on spatial and temporal levels.
Because of the still broad categories, ecology is further divided into several specialized branches that focus on a wide variety of topics. Listed below are the ten major branches of ecology.
From the most gigantic known animal to the smallest bacterium, it is already given that the survival of any organism still is dependent on its adaptability to its physical and chemical environment.
To start with, ecology is the study of the interaction of living organisms with their physical environment. Ecology comes from the two Greek words “Oikos” meaning “household” and “logia” meaning “study of“; hence literally meaning “study of the household“.
In 1873, the term “ecology” was finally coined by scientist Ernst Haeckel. See the full history of ecology and its timeline in detail here.
Ecology alone is a large discipline as it covers all organisms on Earth. Back then, the focus of the first ecologists are only on either plants and animals (thus only plant ecology and animal ecology exist).
But later on, due to newly discovered knowledge and the advancement of technology, this division of ecology was no longer used. Instead, the study of ecology was again divided into two major subdivisions: autoecology and synecology.
On one hand, autoecology deals with the study of ecology and ecosystems in single species up to the population level. On the other hand, synecology focuses on a larger level as it examines ecology at communities on spatial and temporal levels.
Because of the still broad categories, ecology is further divided into several specialized branches that focus on a wide variety of topics. Listed below are the ten major branches of ecology.
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