What's ecology?

Ecology

1873, coined by German zoologist Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) as Okologie, from Greek oikos "house, dwelling place, habitation" + -logia "study of." Ecosystem is from 1935. Ecosphere (1953) is the region around a star where conditions allow life-bearing planets to exist.

Environment

1603, "state of being environed"; sense of "nature, conditions in which a person or thing lives" first recorded 1827 (used by Carlyle to render German Umgebung); specialized ecology sense first recorded 1956. Environmentalism was coined 1923 as a psychological term (in the nature vs. nurture debate); the ecological sense is 1972 (environmentalist in this sense is attested from 1970).

(Source: Online Etymology Dictionary)

Eco -- it certainly isn't a new word. In Greek ("oikos"), it means the home, the place where we live. And ecology means the science of how all living creatures interact within our home - our environment on this fascinating, complex Spaceship Earth.

Yet, "environment" and "ecology" are extended to encompass the inseparable universe. Mankind was not the first organism to leave the Earth's atmosphere. Mankind, plants and animals are now living in space for extended periods. The Earth, and survival of all species, is reliant upon the harmony of its existence among billions of other planets and space objects. With mankind's entry and enterprises in space since the early 1960s, there is valid and increasing reason to extend environmental and ecological concerns to the farthest regions of our home in space.

Environmental unity exists everywhere, and the survival of all species on Earth depends on its continuance. One of our objectives is to connect space science, exploration and its discoveries with Earth, its immediate environment and ecology, by using the media to connect people.

It isn't surprising that while the interest of our world on many other issues tends to fluctuate, public interest in our environment remains constantly high. It is ever more apparent today when people consider the increasing energy demands coupled with rising gasoline process, the loss of habitat coupled with a rapidly increasing human population, the struggles to produce enough food to feed the masses, and many, many other facts of daily life.

Taken from: http://www.ecology.com

the ecology

It is the science that studies living beings, their environment, the distribution and abundance, how these properties are affected by the interaction between organisms and their environment. The environment includes the physical properties that can be described as the sum of local abiotic factors like climate and geology, and other agencies that share that habitat (biotic factors). The integrated vision of ecology suggests that it is the scientific study processes influencing the distribution and abundance of organisms and the interactions between organisms and the transformation of energy and material flows.

History

Ökologie The term was introduced in 1869 by Prussian German Ernst Haeckel in their work General Morphology of the Agency; is composed of the Greek words oikos (house, apartment, home) and logos (study or treaty), Ecology therefore means "the study household "and how best to manage those. At first, Haeckel meant by ecology science that studies the relationships of living beings with their environment, but later extended this definition to study the characteristics of the medium, which also includes the transport of matter and energy and its transformation by biological communities.

Ecology is the branch of biology that studies the interactions of living organisms with their environment. These include abiotic factors, environmental conditions such as weather, soil, etc., but also includes biological factors, conditions resulting from the relationships established with other living beings. While other branches dealing with lower organizational levels (from biochemistry and molecular biology through cell biology, histology and physiology, systematic), ecology deals with the uppermost level, dealing with population’s communities, ecosystems and the biosphere. For this reason, and address the interactions between individuals and their environment, ecology is a multidisciplinary science that uses tools from other branches of science, especially geology, Meteorology, Geography, Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. The research in this discipline differs with respect to most of the work in the other branches of biology because of their greater use of mathematical tools such as statistical and mathematical models. In addition, understanding of ecological processes relies heavily on evolutionary assumptions (Dobzhansky, 1973).


Extrated from: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecolog%C3%ADa