(Sr. Santana Pereira) Ecology is an interdisciplinary field that includes biology and Earth science. By ecology, we mean the whole science of the relations of the organism to the environment which includes all “conditions of existence.”…
Ecology is closely related to evolutionary biology, genetics, and ethology. Ecologists seek to explain:
- Life processes, interactions and adaptations
- The movement of materials and energy through living communities
- The successional development of ecosystems(explained below) and
- The abundance and distribution of organisms and biodiversity in the context of the environment.
Ecology is a human science as well. There are many practical applications of ecology in conservation biology, wetland management, natural resource management (agroecology, agriculture, forestry, agroforestry, fisheries), city planning (urban ecology), community health, economics, basic and applied science, and human social interaction (human ecology).
Organisms and resources compose ecosystems. Ecosystem is a system formed by the interaction of a variety of individual organisms with each other and with their physical environment (air, water, temperature,…) Therefore, it is composed of all the associated organisms and the physical features that exist in a specific area. Ecosystems sustain life-supporting functions and produce natural capital like biomass production (food, fuel, fiber and medicine), the regulation of climate, global biogeochemical cycles, water filtration, soil formation, erosion control, flood protection and many other natural features of scientific, historical, economic and so on..
These ecosystems, as we may call them, are of the most various kinds and sizes. They form one category of the multitudinous physical systems of the universe, which range from the universe as a whole down to the atom. Tansley (1935)
A riparian forest in the White Mountains, New Hampshire (USA), an example of ecosystem ecology
Ecosystems are habitats within biomes that form an integrated whole and a dynamically responsive system having both physical and biological complexes. Within an ecosystem, organisms are linked to the physical and biological components of their environment to which they are adapted. Ecosystems are broadly categorized as terrestrial, freshwater, atmospheric, marine. Differences stem from the nature of the unique physical environments that shapes the biodiversity within each.
A more recent addition to ecosystem ecology are technoecosystems, which are affected by or primarily the result of human activity.