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Ecology |
Ecology (from Ancient Greek οἶκος (oîkos) 'house' and -λογία (-logía) 'study of') is thenatural science of the relationships among livingorganisms and theirenvironment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual,population,community,ecosystem, andbiosphere levels. Ecology overlaps with the closely related sciences ofbiogeography,evolutionary biology,genetics,ethology, andnatural history. Ecology is a branch ofbiology, and is the study ofabundance,biomass, and distribution of organisms in the context of the environment. It encompasses life processes, interactions, andadaptations; movement of materials andenergy through living communities;successional development of ecosystems; cooperation, competition, and predation within and betweenspecies; and patterns ofbiodiversity and its effect on ecosystem processes. Ecology has practical applications in fields such asconservation biology,wetland management,natural resource management, andhuman ecology. The termecology (German:Ökologie) was coined in 1866 by the German scientistErnst Haeckel. The science of ecology as we know it today began with a group of American botanists in the 1890s.Evolutionary concepts relating to adaptation andnatural selection are cornerstones of modernecological theory. Ecosystems are dynamically interacting systems of organisms, the communities they make up, and the non-living (abiotic) components of their environment. Ecosystem processes, such asprimary production,nutrient cycling, andniche construction, regulate the flux of energy and matter through an environment. Ecosystems havebiophysical feedback mechanisms that moderate processes acting on living (biotic) and abiotic components of the planet. Ecosystems sustain life-supporting functions and provideecosystem services likebiomass production (food, fuel, fiber, and medicine), the regulation ofclimate, globalbiogeochemical cycles,water filtration,soil formation,erosion control, flood protection, and many other natural features of scientific, historical, economic, or intrinsic value. (Full article...) Selected article -show another Aciénega (also spelledciénaga) is awetland system unique to theAmerican Southwest andNorthern Mexico. Ciénagas arealkaline, freshwater, spongy,wet meadows with shallow-gradient, permanently saturated soils in otherwise arid landscapes that often occupy nearly the entire widths of valley bottoms. That description satisfies historic, pre-damaged ciénagas, although few can be described that way anymore and incised ciénagas have become common. Ciénagas are usually associated withseeps orsprings, found in canyon headwaters or along margins of streams. Ciénagas often occur because thegeomorphology forces water to the surface, over large areas, not merely through a single pool or channel. In a healthy ciénaga, water slowly migrates through long, wide-scale mats of thick, sponge-like wetlandsod. Ciénaga soils are squishy, permanently saturated, highly organic, black in color or anaerobic. Highly adapted sedges, rushes andreeds are the dominant plants, with succession plants—Goodding's willow,Fremont cottonwoods and scatteredArizona walnuts—found on drier margins, down-valley in healthy ciénagas where water goes underground or along the banks of incised ciénagas. Ciénagas are not considered true swamps due to their lack of trees, which will drown in historic ciénagas. However, trees do grow in many damaged or drained ciénagas, making the distinction less clear. (Full article...) Selected image -show anotherWaspmimicry - A and B show real wasps; the rest are mimics: threehoverflies and one beetle. Mimicry is part of theevolutionary process ofadaptation. General imagesThe following are images from various ecology-related articles on Wikipedia.
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TheJournal of Wildlife Management is apeer-reviewedscientific journal devoted to theecology of non-domesticated animal species. It is published byThe Wildlife Society. (Full article...)
| ...systems ecology is aninterdisciplinary field ofecology, taking aholistic approach to the study of ecological systems, especiallyecosystems? Systems ecology can be seen as an application ofgeneral systems theory to ecology. Central to the systems ecology approach is the idea that an ecosystem is acomplex system exhibitingemergent properties. |
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