The main subdisciplines of ecology, population (or community) ecology and ecosystem ecology, differ in their contrasting paradigms. The former focuses on organisms' distribution and abundance, while the latter focuses on materials and energy fluxes.
Ecology is the study of how organisms interact with each other and their environment. It considers processes that occur at the population, community and ecosystem levels and has a particular...
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In practice, ecology is composed of broadly overlapping approaches and further divided by the groups of species to be studied. There are many, for example, who specialize in the field of “bird behavioral ecology.” The main approaches fall into the following classes.
Ecology is one of the most foundational fields in environmental science, and understanding it opens the door to dozens of rewarding careers and research paths. This guide covers what ecology actually is (and what it isn't), its history, its many sub-disciplines, and where the field is heading in the years ahead.
Ecology is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment; it seeks to understand the vital connections between plants and animals and the world around them.
Key points Ecology is the study of how organisms interact with one another and with their physical environment. The distribution and abundance of organisms on Earth is shaped by both biotic, living-organism-related, and abiotic, nonliving or physical, factors.