We explain what ecology is and what the applications and objectives of this science are. In addition, we explain its characteristics and classification.
What is Ecology?
Ecology is the branch of biology dedicated to study of the relationships existing between the various groups of living beings within an ecosystem and even between several ecosystems.
This means attend to both the biological, chemical and statistical conditions of lifeas well as the physical, chemical, geographical, climatic and even geological characteristics of the environment in which such life takes place.
While environmental preservation and environmental protection are part of the interests and applications of ecology, This should not be confused with environmental activism. or with the environmental struggle.
The ecology dates back to the early observations of ancient philosopherswhose interests included understanding nature and the forces that govern it, as well as physics, chemistry, and other natural sciences.
See also: Zoology.
Applications of ecology
Ecology is one of the branches of biology that has the most practical applications. These include: conservation and environmentalismnatural resource and wetland management, urban planning, community health, economics, human social interaction and other applied basic sciences.
The ecologists They are a necessary part of the planning of industrial processes and post-industrial, politics, agriculture, livestock farming and even extraterrestrial scientific exploration.
Origin of the term Ecology
The term ecology It emerged in 1869 in the work of the Prussian philosopher Ernst Haeckeland is composed of the Greek words oikos (“house, home”) and logos (“word”, “study”). In this sense, a first definition of ecology would be “the study of homes”.
Goals of ecology
Ecologists, in their different possible specializations, try to provide a scientific explanation for:
- The vital processes of interaction, adaptation and survival in a given environment.
- The flow of matter and energy within a given biotic community.
- The development and succession of the different ecosystems that exist.
- The diversity, abundance and distribution of living organisms in various environmental environments.
Ecology and Environment
Initially, ecology was thought of as a science concerned with the relationships between living beings and their respective environments and among themselves, but this definition was expanded to encompass precisely the study of the environment.
That It also involves the transport of energy and mattertheir transformation by biological communities, and everything that is necessary to understand their necessary complexity and vastness.
Flow of energy and matter
One of the common figures in ecology is the food chain, that is, the food chainaround which the different existing forms of life are organized.
This chain It supposes a balance in the flow of matter and energy Among them, it operates in a balanced, equitable and interdependent manner between the species, which are linked to each other in the following way:
- Predators. They feed on other living beings, whether herbivores, detritivores or other smaller predators. In doing so, they leave organic material to the decomposition processes, which they will eventually add to when they die.
- Herbivores. Those living beings that feed on vegetables and plants, and that transmit energy and matter when preyed upon.
- Decomposers. Detritivores or decomposers are those that help break down organic matter and restart the life cycle, allowing waste or residual nutrients to be used and absorbed by the soil, from where they return to plants and vegetables.
Ecological levels
Ecology studies living beings based on their organizational levels or ecological levels, which represents a scale of observation of the processes between living beings. These levels are:
- Organism. The relationships between a specific living being and its environment.
- Population. The relationships between a living being and the community of its species.
- Community. The interactions of a defined population with the populations of other species that surround it.
- Ecosystem. The interactions specific to a given environment, encompassing the communities and populations within it, as well as the flows of matter and energy within it.
- Biosphere. The complete set of all known living beings and the global relationships between them.
Ecological factors
There are two types of factors that intervene in the processes studied by ecology, and they are:
- Biotic: Those that are derived from living beings themselves, such as the different relationships of commensalism, parasitism, symbiosis or predation.
- Abiotic: Those inherent to external environmental factors of living beings, such as climatic, water, soil factors, etc.
Ecological footprint
One of the most important concepts in recent times in the application of ecology to industrial and urban planning is the ecological footprint. This can be understood as the concrete representation of the environmental impact that an activity, operation, product or work can generate, considering the specific elements of its location, its characteristics and its consequences.
More in: Ecological footprint.
Disciplines of ecology
Ecology involves some specific disciplines, such as:
- Aerobiology. A multidisciplinary science that studies the ecological processes of the air and the particles passively transported in it.
- Microbial ecology. The same precepts applied to communities and systems of higher living beings apply to microscopic living beings and molecular biochemistry.
- Urban ecology. Discipline that aspires to understand the development of cities based on ecological processes and the interaction between the forms of life that are inherent to it, not only human life.
- Biogeography. This discipline studies the distribution and allocation of living beings across the Earth, using tools from many other disciplines and sciences.
Famous Ecologists
A brief list of well-known ecologists and world-acclaimed work, includes names such as Alexander von Humboldtthe famous explorer and naturalist, or even Charles Darwin, who proclaimed the evolutionary theory of the origin of life, or Ernst Haeckel himself. But also those of the Spaniard and pioneer in his country Fernando González Bernáldez, or Ramón Margalef, or the Mexican Miguel Ángel de Quevedo.