Historical roots of ecology

Ecology as a scientific discipline is relatively young, reaching prominence mostly in the .: ond half of the 20th century. However, systematic ecological studies can trace roots to ancient times, with Aristotle and Theophrastus, for example, making early observations on animal migrations and plant biogeography respectively. Several notable 19th century scientists such as Jexander Humboldt (1769 - 1859), Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882), Alfred Russel Wallace (1823 -1913) and Karl Möbius (1825 - 1908) made many important contributions, from laying down the foundation of biogeography to identifying interacting groups of organisms as a functionally connected community (biocoenosis).

The term "ecology" was introduced in 1869 when the German biologist Ernst Haeckel first used it in discussing his studies of plants in relation to their environment; it is derived from the sim­ple Greek word oikos meaning "a house", "a household" or "a place to live in", sharing the same root word as economics. Thus, the term implies the study of economy of nature.The first significant tbook on the subject (together with the first university course) was written by the Danish

botanist, Eugenius Warming. For this early work, Warming is sometimes identified as the founder of ecology.

VII. Read the text and name the main disciplines of ecology. Disciplines of ecology

The subject matter of ecology is normally divided onto four broad categories: physio­logical ecology, having to do with the response of single species to environmental condi­tions such as temperature or light; population ecology, usually focusing on the abundance and distribution of individual species and the factors that cause such distribution; commu­nity ecology, having to do with the number of species found at given location and their in­teractions; and ecosystems ecology, having to do with the structure and function of the en­tire suite of microbes, plants, and animals, and their abiotic environment, and how the parts interact to generate the whole. This branch of ecology often focuses on the energy and nu­trient flows of ecosystems, and when this approach is combined with computer analysis and simulation we often call it systems ecology. Evolutionary ecology, which may operate at any of these levels but most commonly at the physiological or population level, is a rich and dynamic area of ecology focusing on attempting to understand how natural selection devel­oped the structure and function of the organisms and ecosystems at any of these levels. Landscape ecology examines processes and relationship across multiple ecosystems or very large geographic areas.

Ecology can also be sub-divided according to the species of interest into fields such as animal ecology, plant ecology, insect ecology, and so on. Another frequent method of subdi­vision is by biome studied, e.g., Arctic ecology (or polar ecology), tropical ecology, desert ecology, etc. The primary technique used for investigation is often used to subdivide the dis­cipline into groups such as chemical ecology, genetic ecology, field ecology, statistical ecol­ogy, theoretical ecology, and so forth. These fields are not mutually exclusive; one could be a theoretical plant community ecologist, or a polar ecologist interested in animal genetics.

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