Ecology

The subject matter of ecology is the relationships of organisms with their biological and nonliving environment. These are complex, reciprocal interactions; organisms are influenced by their environment, but they also cause environmental change, and are components of the environment of other organisms.

Ecology can also be considered to be the study of the factors that influence the distribution and abundance of organisms. Ecology originally developed from natural history, which deals with the richness and environmental relationships of life, but in a non-quantitative manner.

Although mostly a biological subject, ecology also draws upon other sciences, including chemistry, physics, geology, mathematics, computer science, and others. Often, ecologists must also deal with socioeconomic issues, because of the rapidly increasing importance of human impacts on the environment. Because it draws upon knowledge and information from so many disciplines, ecology is a highly interdisciplinary field.

The biological focus of ecology is apparent from the fact that most ecologists spend much of their time engaged in studies of organisms. Examples of common themes of ecological research include: (1) the physical and physiological adaptations of organisms to their environment, (2) New land development, Germantown, Pennsylvania. JLM Visuals. Reproduced by permission. patterns of the distribution of organisms in space, and how these are influenced by environmental factors, and (3) changes in the abundance of organisms over time, and the environmental influences on these dynamics.