Ecology

ecology (n): 1.) branch of science concerned with the interrelationships of organisms and their environments especially as manifested by natural cycles and rhythms, community development and structure, interaction between different kinds of organisms, ge ographic distributions and population alternatives.

2.) the totality or pattern of relations between organisms and their environment.

Ecology is a branch of biology that did not start as a distinct field of its own until the start of twentieth century despite historical inquiries dating back more than 2000 years. It takes into consideration the effects of geology, biology, chemistry a nd other environmental and earth sciences.
The McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Environmental Science and Engineering further defines ecology as that "in which the living unit s of an ecosystem interact wi th their environment to bring about the flow of energy and the cycling of matter wherever life is found." Ecology provides a means of assessing the health of a system, whether that system be an organism, group of organisms or a collection of natural reso urces interacting with an organism, and it relates to the environment around it. There are two approaches (see management science)
to ecology. The first is the holological, or holistic, approach where an ecosystem i s modeled as a black box with an emphasis on the inputs and outputs of that box without regard to what happens within it. The second is the merological approach where "we discourse on parts of the system and try to build up the whole from these." In othe r words, the whole is built up as a sum of the parts. Engineers are likened to the first approach whereas pure ecologists are inclined to the latter.

It is important to note that ecology is a sole holon in the ever growing holarchy of science and technology, that is the holarchy of environmental informatics (EI), in our evolving society. Ecology and environmental scien ces
share a great deal of common ground, however, there is an important distinction. The study of ecology always considers at least one organism in an evaluation. This is not necessarily true of environmental or e a rth sciences
where the physical structures and objects play a larger role. The development of environmental science, system science, mathematics and computer science have played a pivotal role in how humans manage (see management science) the holons of ecology around them. For example, computer modeling packages have enabled scientists to chart the probable repe r cussions of imbalances in air pollution, CFC's, global warming, over population, toxic chemical spills, and many othe r exploding issues that effect the ecology of the present and the future. Without this information and technology, management decisions would be based on uneducated guesses and trial and error at best. This same information has also empowered today's po liticians to pass laws which better protect a sustainable ecology.

Two Bureau of Land Management ecologists, Helen Ulmschneider and Steve Beverlin, have two distinct and separate ideas of what ecology means. Helen spent her time doing bird counts because there was no data as to what species or how many of a species wer e present in central Idaho. Further, she was putting the finishing touches on how bird surveys could be interpreted as warnings or indicators for other, more subtle types of environmental and ecological changes. She also focused on habitat preservation for wildlife and birds, did species identification of threatened and endangered (TnE) plants, wildflowers and other types of vegetation.

Her co-worker, however, focused on range ecology and educated cattle ranchers on how sound, ecological grazing patterns would mean a more secure business with better profits in the long haul (see economics). Specificall y, he was concerned with how cattle grazing affected the soil (compaction, erosion), vegetation (stubble heights, vitality, invader species) and streams (sedimentation, protective vegetation, stream bank stability, temperatures, spr ings).

But this is only one type of ecology; the ecology of natural resources in central Idaho. Ecology can be seen in everyday life from our energy consumption to human interactions to how we tend the Earth around our homes and here at Washington University. It all comes down to how we as humans, as organisms, interact with our surroundings, our environment.

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