Introduction to Ecology

Introduction to ecology

Origin of the term

The term main comes from the Greek word “Oikos” meaning “household”, “home” or “place to live”. The term “oecology” was first coined and used by German biologist, Ernst Haeckel in 1869. There were few conceptual terms already proposed to reveal relationships between organisms and their environment. For example, French zoologist, Isodore Geofroy St. Hillarie used the term ‘ethology’ in 1859, for the study of the relations of the organisms within the family and society in the aggregate and in the community.

What is Ecology?

          

    In simple term, ecology is a science that studies the interdependent, mutually reactive and interconnected relationship between the organisms and their physical environment on the hand and among the organisms on the one hand. We also define ecology as that science which studies, interrelations between abiotic and biotic components of the biospheric ecosystem on one hand, among biotic components on the other hand. Generally ecology is divided into two types which are autecology and Synecology. Autecology is concerned with the study of ecological relations of individual species in a given ecosystem whereas synecology is the study of plant communities in relation to their habitats of given ecosystem.