Outline of ecology

{{short description|Scientific study of the relationships between living organisms and their environment}}

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to ecology:

Ecology – scientific study of the distribution and abundance of living organisms and how the distribution and abundance are affected by interactions between the organisms and their environment. The environment of an organism includes both physical properties, which can be described as the sum of local abiotic factors such as solar insolation, climate and geology, as well as the other organisms that share its habitat. Also called ecological science.

Essence of ecology

{{annotated link|Nature}}, or {{annotated link|Natural environment}}
{{annotated link|Ecosystem}}, or {{annotated link|Biome}}
{{annotated link|Community (ecology)}}, or {{annotated link|Biocoenosis}}
{{annotated link|Species}}
{{annotated link|Population}}
{{annotated link|Organism}}
{{annotated link|Biodiversity}}
{{annotated link|Food web}}

Other criteria

Ecology can also be classified on the basis of:

the primary kinds of organism under study, e.g. animal ecology, plant ecology, insect ecology;
the biomes principally studied, e.g. forest ecology, grassland ecology, desert ecology, benthic ecology, marine ecology, urban ecology;
the geographic or climatic area, e.g. arctic ecology, tropical ecology;
the spatial scale under consideration, e.g. macroecology, landscape ecology;
the philosophical approach, e.g. systems ecology which adopts a holistic approach;
the methods used, e.g. molecular ecology.

Subdisciplines of ecology, and subdiscipline classification

Ecology is a broad discipline comprising many subdisciplines. The field of ecology can be subdivided according to several classification schemes:

=By methodology used for investigation=

{{annotated link|Field research|Field ecology}} –
{{annotated link|Quantitative ecology}} –
{{annotated link|Theoretical ecology}} – the development of ecological theory, usually with mathematical, statistical and/or computer modeling tools.

=By spatial scale of ecological system under study=

{{annotated link|Biosphere|Global ecology}} –
{{annotated link|Macroecology}} –
{{annotated link|Microecology}}.

=By level of organisation or scope=

Arranged from lowest to highest level of organisation:{{cite journal |last1=Jax |first1=Kurt |last2=Schwarz |first2=Astrid |title=The Fundamental Subdivisions of Ecology |journal=Ecology Revisited |date=2011 |pages=175–179 |doi=10.1007/978-90-481-9744-6_14|isbn=978-90-481-9743-9 }}

{{annotated link|Autecology}} – the study of individual organisms of a single species in relation to their environment;
{{annotated link|Synecology}} – the study of homogenous or heterogenous groups of organisms in relation to their environment;
{{annotated link|Population ecology}} – the study of homogenous groups of organisms related as a single species;
{{annotated link|Community (ecology)|Community ecology}} – the study of heterogenous groups of organisms of multiple associated species;
{{annotated link|Ecosystem ecology}}.

=By biological classification or taxon under study=

{{annotated link|Human ecology}} –
{{annotated link|Animal ecology}} –
{{annotated link|Insect ecology}} –
{{annotated link|Microbial ecology}} –
{{annotated link|Plant ecology}}.

=By biome under study=

{{annotated link|Benthic ecology}} –
{{annotated link|Desert ecology}} –
{{annotated link|Forest ecology}} –
{{annotated link|Grassland|Grassland ecology}} –
{{annotated link|Marine ecology}} –
{{annotated link|Aquatic ecology}} –
{{annotated link|Urban ecology}}.

=By biogeographic realm or climatic area under study=

{{annotated link|Arctic ecology}} –
{{annotated link|Polar ecology}} –
{{annotated link|Tropical ecology}}.

=By ecological aspects or phenomena under investigation=

{{annotated link|Behavioral ecology}} –
{{annotated link|Chemical ecology}} – which deals with the ecological role of biological chemicals used in a wide range of areas including defense against predators and attraction of mates;
{{annotated link|Disease ecology}} – which studies host-pathogen interactions, particularly those of infectious diseases, within the context of environmental factors;
{{annotated link|Ecophysiology}} – which studies the interaction of physiological traits with the abiotic environment;
{{annotated link|Ecotoxicology}} – which looks at the ecological role of toxic chemicals (often pollutants, but also naturally occurring compounds);
{{annotated link|Evolutionary ecology}} – or ecoevolution which looks at evolutionary changes in the context of the populations and communities in which the organisms exist;
{{annotated link|Fire ecology}} – which looks at the role of fire in the environment of plants and animals and its effect on ecological communities;
{{annotated link|Functional ecology}} – the study of the roles, or functions, that certain species (or groups thereof) play in an ecosystem;
{{annotated link|Genetic ecology}} –
{{annotated link|Landscape ecology}} –
{{annotated link|Landscape limnology}} –
{{annotated link|Molecular ecology}} –
{{annotated link|Paleoecology}} –
{{annotated link|Social ecology (academic field)|Social ecology}} –
{{annotated link|Soil ecology}} – the ecology of the pedosphere –
{{annotated link|Sensory ecology}} –
{{annotated link|Spatial ecology}} –
{{annotated link|Thermal ecology}} – the study of the relationship between temperature and organisms.

=Ecology-involved interdisciplinary fields=

{{annotated link|Agroecology}} –
{{annotated link|Applied ecology}} – the practice of employing ecological principles and understanding to solve real world problems (includes agroecology and conservation biology);
{{annotated link|conservation biology|Conservation ecology}} – which studies how to reduce the risk of species extinction;
{{annotated link|Restoration ecology}} – which attempts to understand the ecological basis needed to restore impaired or damaged ecosystems;
{{annotated link|Biogeochemistry}} –
{{annotated link|Biogeography}} –
{{annotated link|Ecological design}} –
{{annotated link|Ecological economics}} –
{{annotated link|Ecological engineering}} –
{{annotated link|Ecological anthropology}} –
{{annotated link|Festive ecology}} –
{{annotated link|Ecological health}} –
{{annotated link|Ecosophy}} –
{{annotated link|Environmental psychology}} –
{{annotated link|Natural history}} –
{{annotated link|Systems ecology}} –

=Other disciplines=

Ecology has also inspired (and lent its name to) other non-biological disciplines such as:

Biogeographic regions

[[File:Ecozones.svg|thumb|400px|right|Map of six of the world's eight terrestrial realms

{{legend|#f9f9f9|Oceania and Antarctic realms not shown}}]]

{{annotated link|Biosphere}}

=Terrestrial realms=

{{annotated link|Biogeographic realm}}. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) developed a system of eight biogeographic realms (ecozones):

{{annotated link|Nearctic}} 22.9 mil. km² (including most of North America)
{{annotated link|Palearctic}} 54.1 mil. km² (including the bulk of Eurasia and North Africa)
{{annotated link|Afrotropical}} 22.1 mil. km² (including Sub-Saharan Africa)
{{annotated link|Indomalayan}} 7.5 mil. km² (including the South Asian subcontinent and Southeast Asia)
{{annotated link|Australasian realm|Australasian}} 7.7 mil. km² (including Australia, New Guinea, and neighbouring islands). The northern boundary of this zone is known as the Wallace line.
{{annotated link|Neotropical}} 19.0 mil. km² (including South America and the Caribbean)
{{annotated link|Oceanian realm|Oceanian}} 1.0 mil. km² (including Polynesia, Fiji and Micronesia)
{{annotated link|Antarctic realm|Antarctic}} 0.3 mil. km² (including Antarctica).

=Ecoregions=

The World has over 800 terrestrial ecoregions. See Lists of ecoregions by country.

History of ecology

History of human ecology

General ecology concepts

{{annotated link|Ecological succession}}
{{annotated link|Primary succession}}
{{annotated link|Pioneer species}}
{{annotated link|Ruderal species}}
{{annotated link|Supertramp (ecology)|Supertramp}}
{{annotated link|Secondary succession}}
{{annotated link|Carrying capacity}}
{{annotated link|Ecological collapse}}
{{annotated link|Competitive exclusion principle}}
{{annotated link|Ecological yield}}
{{annotated link|Autotroph}}
{{annotated link|Bacteria}}
{{annotated link|Bioinvader}}
{{annotated link|Biomass}}
{{annotated link|Biotic material}}
{{annotated link|Carbon cycle}}
{{annotated link|Climate}}
{{annotated link|Ecological selection}}
{{annotated link|Gaia hypothesis}}
{{annotated link|Natural resource}}
{{annotated link|Monoculture}}
{{annotated link|Decomposition}}
{{annotated link|Organic matter}}
{{annotated link|Inorganic substance}}
{{annotated link|Detritus}}
{{annotated link|Biodegradation}}
{{annotated link|Ecological crisis}}
{{annotated link|Ecological extinction}}
{{annotated link|Ecophagy}}
{{annotated link|Ecological niche}}
Niche differentiation – The process by which competing species use the environment differently in a way that helps them to coexist.
{{annotated link|Biological interaction}}
{{annotated link|Neutralism (biological interaction)|Neutralism}}
{{annotated link|Amensalism}}
{{annotated link|Ecological facilitation}}
{{annotated link|Mutualism (biology)|Mutualism}}
{{annotated link|Commensalism}}
Coexistence theory – A framework to understand and explain how ecologically similar species can coexist without competitively excluding each other
{{annotated link|Competition (biology)|Competition}}
{{annotated link|Predation}}
{{annotated link|Parasitism}}
{{annotated link|Sexecology}}

References

External links

[http://www.barrameda.com.ar/ecology What is Ecology?]
[http://www.econguru.com/fundamentals_of_ecology/ Fundamentals of Ecology] Textbook-style investigation to the economy of nature, breaks down in four chapters from Population to Ecosystem.
[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ecology/ Ecology (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)]

Ecology