• ‘Ecology may be defined as the scientific study of the relationship of living organisms with each other and with their environment.
• The term ecology was first coined in 1869 by the German biologist Ernst Haeckel.
• It has been derived from two Greek words, ‘Oikos, meaning home or estate, and ‘logos’ meaning study

LEVELS OF ECOLOGICAL ORGANIZATION

• Ecology not only deals with the study of the relationship of individual organisms with their environment, but also with the study of populations, communities, ecosystems, biomes, and the biosphere as a whole.

 

 

Biome: A large community unit, characterized by a major vegetation type and associated fauna, found in a specific climatic region is a biome. Biomes refer basically to terrestrial areas. The aquatic systems like the seas, rivers, etc. are also divided into distinct life zones on basis of salinity

 

Types of Ecology:

MOLECULAR ECOLOGY

• At the molecular level, the study of ecology focuses on the production of proteins, how those proteins affect the organism and the environment, and how the environment in turn affects the production of various proteins.
• Molecular ecologists study how these proteins are created, how they affect the organism and environment, and how the environment, in turn, affects them.

ORGANISMAL ECOLOGY

• The study of organismal ecology deals with individual organisms and their interactions with other organisms and the environment.

POPULATION ECOLOGY

• Populations are groups of organisms of the same species. Due to the wide variety of life on Earth, different species have developed many different strategies for dealing with their conspecifics, or organisms of the same species.

COMMUNITY ECOLOGY

• Different populations that live in the same environment create communities of organisms. These communities create niches, or various spaces, for organisms to occupy.

 

ECOSYSTEM ECOLOGY

• The largest scale of organismal organization is the ecosystem. An ecosystem is a network of interconnected biological communities. The largest ecosystem, the biosphere, encompasses all ecosystems inside of it.