Organisms and the Environment Introduction

The term ecology is derived from two Greek words (oikos - means 'house' or place to live and logos means 'a discussion or study'). Literally, ecology is the study of organism 'at home' in their native environment. The term was first introduced by Reiter in 1868, but was fully defined by Ernest Haeckel in 1869. Haeckel defined ecology "as the science of all the relations of all organisms to all their environments".

Ecology is the branch of biology that deals with the steady of interaction between organisms and their environment.

The science of ecology is often divided into autecology and synecology. Autecology deals with the study of the individual organism or an individual species. In this, life histories and behaviour as a means of adaptation to the environment are usually emphasized. Synecology deals with the study of groups of organisms which are associated together as a unit.

Synecology is further subdivided into aquatic and terrestrial ecology. The aquatic ecology includes fresh water ecology, estuarine ecology and marine ecology. Terrestrial ecology is further subdivided into forest ecology, grassland ecology, cropland ecology and desert ecology.

Demecology is that branch of biology which deals with the ecology of populations.

Modern ecology is a multi disciplinary science which depends on a variety of disciplines such as statistics, meteorology, climatology, geology, forestry, horticulture, agricultural science etc. All these disciplines have helped in a better understanding of many ecological principles.