Ecology as a science

The community of plants and animals, interacting with the place in which it exists, that is, with inanimate nature, forms an ecosystem. This relationship, the biologist E. Gekkel from Germany as far back as 1866, called ecology. The word has a Greek origin and is translated as "a refuge, a house".

However, ecology as a science most actively began to develop only in the first half of the 20th century. She studies the conditions in which there are living organisms, as well as the relationship of the latter with the habitat. She also studies populations of plants and animals and biocenoses - animal-plant communities.

Ecology as a science deals with the accumulation of facts, their study, analysis and explanation of the laws and relationships that exist in nature. This knowledge is indispensable for understanding the changes that occur around as a result of human activities. They also help to solve the problems of nature conservation. It turned out that ignorance of certain laws and laws can lead to a violation of the ecological chain and other irreversible processes on the planet.

Some elements of the surrounding world can have an indirect or direct influence on its inhabitants. Science ecology calls them biotic and abiotic factors. This is a conventionally adopted division of environmental factors. The latter affect biological objects from outside (wind, atmospheric pressure, humidity, light, ionization of the atmosphere, temperature, etc.). Biotic - these are nutritional factors and those that characterize the relationship between individuals belonging to different species (parasitism, predation, etc.) and individuals separate (groups of individuals) belonging to the same species. This is competition due to water, reproduction, food, territory, etc.

Each species and conditions in which it lives (food, breeding place, area of residence, etc.), have a number of common characteristics and constitute an ecological niche. Even the smallest living organism takes its place in the biosphere of the planet. It is noticed that even two closely related species living together will eventually acquire such adaptations that will divide them into different habitats. Thus, the abiotic and biotic resources of the ecosystem are used most fully.

There is an opinion that an ecological niche is always present in nature in the form of empty space, which at any time can be occupied or left. In fact, it appears and disappears simultaneously with the acquisition of some kind of new adaptations. This means that it does not exist outside the species. As there are no absolutely identical species in nature, so there are no identical ecological niches. All of them differ from each other in some kind of adaptation.

The study of the relationship between the environment of life and living organisms is impossible without the involvement of methods of physics, geology, chemistry, economics, geography. Thus, the relationship of ecology with other sciences is manifested.

Interest in the problems of pollution of water bodies, air and the destruction of plants and animals increased when it became clear that human activity spread to processes in nature throughout the Earth. The research in this field has considerably expanded. Ecology as a science has set itself the task of creating such methods of exploitation of biological resources that would be most rational and sparing. She also began to be engaged in forecasting changes in nature under the influence of human activities and the development of methods for regulating processes occurring in the biosphere.

Modern ecology as a science is inextricably linked with medicine. This was influenced by all the accelerating rates of environmental change, which led and continue to lead to the emergence of various diseases.