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We have to go back to the 1860s to find the origin of the term ecology, a neologism coined by the German Ernst Haeckel from the Greek words oikos (house, home) and logos (study), so its meaning would be something like the science or study of our home, that is, of the natural habitat or environment.
Its origin, however, is doubtful. Although its attribution to Haeckel is commonly accepted, it must be said that it was possibly used for the first time years before. Specifically, there is evidence of a letter dated January 1, 1858 that the American naturalist Henry David Thoreau wrote to a relative of his, where the following can be read:
"Mr. Hoar is still in Concord, busy in botany, ecology, etc., with the purpose of making his future residence abroad truly profitable for him." Keep reading this Green Ecologist article to know what is the definition of ecology.
What does ecology study?
Although Haeckel started from a definition of ecology as a scientific approach to relationships of living beings with each other and with their environmentSubsequently, it also included the study of the characteristics of that same environment, which includes a myriad of aspects related to the functioning of ecosystems.
Considered a branch of biology, currently ecology is a science that studies the interaction between living beings and their environment at a multidisciplinary level, that is, using different sciences such as mathematics, geography, chemistry, physics, politics, ethics or, for example, geology.
But, apart from a conventional definition, the essence of ecology is none other than the tremendous variety of abiotic and biotic processes, as well as the interrelationships involved in the movement of energy and nutrients, which regulate the structure and dynamics of the plants. populations globally, considered within an ecosystem.
The basic study methods they use ecologists they allude to the concepts of autoecology (study of the relations of the species with the environment) and synecology, (the study of communities or individual environments and also of the relations between their species).
Due to its great breadth, ecology has different areas such as population ecology (distribution and importance of animal and plant populations), community ecology (studies the organization and functioning of communities, formed by interacting populations), paleoecology (fossil organisms from an ecological approach), behavioral ecology (approach from an individual point of view) or the study of ecological genetics, focused on the genes of these populations.
If you want to read more articles similar to Definition of ecology, we recommend that you enter our category of Other ecology.
