What is Ecology, Types of Ecology and Importance of Ecology
What is Ecology?
Ecology is a branch of science, including human science, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere. Ecology is the study of organisms, the environment, and how the organisms interact with each other and their environment. It is studied at various levels, such as organisms, populations, communities, biosphere, and ecosystems.
An ecologist’s primary goal is to improve their understanding of life processes, adaptations and habitats, interactions, and biodiversity of organisms. If the ecology in an area is unhealthy, or worse, dies because there are no living organisms in the area, the environment will change to make it inhospitable for many other organisms to survive there.
The easiest way to look at it is that animals shape the plants, and the planets shape the landscape. Without animals, certain plants would grow unchecked, out-competing other plants. If the plants that grow unchecked don’t include enough plants with roots, the soil will be vulnerable to erosion.
The word ecology was coined by the German zoologist Ernst Haeckel, who applied the term oekologie to the “relation of the animal both to its organic as well as its inorganic environment.” The word comes from the Greek oikos, meaning “household,” “home,” or “place to live.” Thus, ecology deals with the organism and its environment.
Who are Ecologists?
Ecologists study these relationships among organisms and habitats of many different sizes, ranging from the study of microscopic bacteria growing in a fish tank to the complex interactions between the thousands of plants, animals, and other communities found in a desert.
Ecologists also study many kinds of environments. For example, ecologists may study microbes living in the soil under your feet or animals and plants in a rainforest or the ocean.
The main aim of ecology is to understand the distribution of biotic and abiotic factors of living things in the environment. The biotic and abiotic factors include the living and non-living factors and their interaction with the environment.
Biotic components
Biotic components are living factors of an ecosystem. A few examples of biotic components include bacteria, animals, birds, fungi, plants, etc.
Abiotic components
Abiotic components are non-living chemical and physical factors of an ecosystem. These components could be acquired from the atmosphere, lithosphere, and hydrosphere. A few examples of abiotic components include sunlight, soil, air, moisture minerals, and more.
Living organisms are grouped into biotic components, whereas non-living components like sunlight, water, and topography are listed under abiotic components.
Types of Ecology
Global Ecology
Landscape Ecology
Ecosystem Ecology
Organismal ecology is the study of an individual organism’s behavior, morphology, physiology, etc. in response to environmental challenges. It looks at how individual organisms interact with biotic and abiotic components. Ecologists research how organisms are adapted to these non-living and living components of their surroundings.
Individual species are related to various adaptations like physiological adaptation, morphological adaptation, and behavioral adaptation.
Population Ecology
It deals with factors that alter and impact the genetic composition and the size of the population of organisms. Ecologists are interested in fluctuations in the size of a population, the growth of a population, and any other interactions with the population.
In biology, a population can be defined as a set of individuals of the same species living in a given place at a given time. Births and immigration are the main factors that increase the population and death and emigration are the main factors that decrease the population.
Population ecology examines population distribution and density. Population density is the number of individuals in a given volume or area. This helps in determining whether a particular species is in endanger or its number is to be controlled and resources to be replenished.
Community Ecology
In ecology, a community is a group or association of populations of two or more different species occupying the same geographical area at the same time, also known as a biocoenosis, biotic community, biological community, ecological community, or life assemblage.
The term community has a variety of uses. In its simplest form it refers to groups of organisms in a specific place or time, for example, "the fish community of Lake Ontario before industrialization".
Community ecology or synecology is the study of the interactions between species in communities on many spatial and temporal scales, including the distribution, structure, abundance, demography, and interactions between coexisting populations.
The primary focus of community ecology is on the interactions between populations as determined by specific genotypic and phenotypic characteristics. It is important to understand the origin, maintenance, and consequences of species diversity when evaluating community ecology.
Importance of Ecology
Ecology helps us to understand how our actions affect the environment. It shows the individuals the extent of damage we cause to the environment.
A lack of understanding of ecology has led to the degradation of land and the environment. It has also led to the extinction and endangerment of certain species. For eg., dinosaurs, white sharks, mammoths, etc. Thus, the study of the environment and organisms helps us to protect them from any damage and danger.
All organisms require energy for their growth and development. Lack of ecological understanding leads to the over-exploitation of energy resources such as light, nutrition, and radiation, leading to their depletion.
Proper knowledge of ecological requirements prevents the unnecessary wastage of energy resources, thereby, conserving energy for future purposes. With the knowledge of ecology, we can know which resources are necessary for the survival of different organisms.
Lack of ecological knowledge has led to scarcity and deprivation of these resources, leading to competition. Ecology encourages harmonious living within the species and the adoption of a lifestyle that protects the ecology of life.
