Ecology

Definition

o Intuitive knowledge based, hunter gatherer societies

o Greek Philosopher Theophrastus: “balance of nature”

o Darwin: creationism cannot be right:

o Fossil record, extinctions, competition, selective pressures:

o “Struggle for existence” and  “descent with modification”

o Ernst Haeckel: coined the term Ecology

o from the Greek root “Oikos” meaning “home” or “place to live”

o same root as “economics or “management of household”

o Haeckel’s definition: “..ecology is the study of all of the complex interrelations referred to by Darwin as the conditions for the struggle for existence.”

Branches of modern Ecological Science:

· Organismal Ecology:

Distribution and Abundance of Organisms (Andrewartha, Krebs)

o Plant Ecology

o Plant Geographers late 1700’s

o Role of climate: similarities in plant communities

o Moisture, temperature, soil type

o Early US plant ecology focused on succession:

o development of plant communities, disturbance recovery

o Plant Physiology: limiting factors

· Animal Ecology

· Physiological Ecology: tolerance optima

· Behavioral Ecology: Sociobiology

· Population Genetics and Ecology

o Combination of Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” with Mendel’s inheritance mechanisms:

o Adaptation and Evolution- major themes in modern Ecology

o Population Genetics: Hardy and Weinberg

· Community Ecology

· Theoretical Ecology: mathematical models

Ecosystem Ecology; Systems Ecology:

Limnology origins

Structure and Function of Nature (Odum)

Flow of biomass and energy

Applied Ecology

· Conservation Biology

· Pollution Impacts

· Restoration Ecology

· Landscape Ecology

· Ecosystem Management

· Scientific Method:

· Reductionism vs. holism

· Emergent characteristics

· Hypothesis driven- testing knowledge

· Inductive Method: Descriptive/Observational Science “natural experiments” Natural History

· Deductive Method: Experimental Science

· statistical/quantitative analysis

· correlation vs. dependent/independent variables

· replication, controls

· Models: statistical, conceptual, simulation

· Tools of modern Ecology

· Observation-Censusing

· Molecular Biology-population genetics

· Biotechnology-Risk Assessment

· Physiology

· Histology

· Remote sensing

· Analytical Chemistry

· Taxonomy, phylogenetics

· Statistics

· Geology

· Paleontology

· Ethology