Ecology and Ecosystems

Ecology is the science that tries to answer such questions about how nature works. In 1869 German biologist Ernst Haeckel coined the term ecology from two Greek words: oikos, meaning " house" or " place to live", and logos, meaning " study of".

Ecology is the study of living things in their home or environment: all the external conditions and factors, living and nonliving that affect an organism. In other words, ecology is the study of interaction between organisms and their living and nonliving environment. Scientists usually carry out this study by examining different ecosystems: forests, deserts, grasslands, ponds, lakes, oceans or any organisms interacting with one another and with their nonliving environment.

The Earth has several major parts that play a role in sustaining life. We are part of what ecologists call the biosphere - the living and dead organisms found near the earth's surface. Virtually all life on earth exists in a thin film of air, water and rock in a zone extending from about 61 meters below the ocean surface to 6, 000 meters above sea level.

The living organisms that make up the biosphere interact with one another, with energy from the sun, and with various chemicals in the atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere. This collection of organisms interacting with one another and their nonliving environment is called the ecosphere. The goal of ecology is to learn how the ecosphere works.

Ecosystems consist of various nonliving and living components. The nonliving or abiotic components include various physical and chemical factors. Among physical factors affecting ecosystems are sunlight and shade, temperature, precipitation, wind, soil, fire, etc. Major chemical factors include: level of water and air in soil, level of nutrients, level of toxic substances, sanity of water and some others.

The major types of organisms that make up the living or biotic components are usually classified as producers, consumers and decomposers. This classification is based on organism's general nutritional habits. Green plants are producers as they make the organic nutrients through photosynthesis. Only producers can make their own food. They provide food directly or indirectly for animals and decomposers. We get nutrients either by eating plants or by eating animals that feed on plants. Organisms that get the nutrients and energy they require by feeding either directly or indirectly on producers are called consumers or heterotrophs (other-feeders).

There is no waste in functioning biological communities; the wastes of one form of life are food or nutrients for other forms of life. This is how no-waste-in-nature principle works.