Define the term ecology

In this article I discuss the proposition that ecologists may place restrictions on the kinds of plants and animals and on the kinds of systems they consider relevant to assessing the resiliency of ecological generalizations. I argue that to restrict the extension of ecological science and its concepts in order to exclude cultivated plants, captive animals, and domesticated environments ecologists must appeal either (1) to the boundaries of their discipline; (2) to the idea that the effects of human activity are rare and unusual enough to count as ceteris paribus conditions; or (3) to the nature/culture divide. The boundaries of their discipline, however, are practical, not epistemological. The effects of human activity are ubiquitous and profound. And the nature/culture divide, as far as I know, has been infra dignitatem in the natural sciences at least since Charles Darwin and John Stuart Mill. Ecologists may reason, moreover, that organisms and systems that have the kind of history that interests them must as a result possess a kind of organization or some other general biological property that distinguishes them from those that do not. This is to commit a genetic fallacy. • Alberti M, Marzluff JM, Shulenberger E et al (2003) Integrating humans into ecology: opportunities and challenges for studying urban ecosystems. Bioscience 53(12):1169–1179 • American Fisheries Society (2016) Researchers play matchmaker to save fish population. • Andrewartha HG (1961) Introduction t...

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population ecology, study of the processes that affect the distribution and abundance of A Genetic variation within local populations In sexually reproducing species, each local population contains a distinct combination of genes. As a result, a species is a collection of populations that differ genetically from one another to a greater or lesser degree. These genetic differences The amount of genetic Effects of mode of reproduction: In sexual populations, genes are recombined in each generation, and new genotypes may result. In contrast, the offspring of an asexual individual are genetically identical to their parent. The only source of new gene combinations in asexual populations is

Meanings of Environment Descending from the Middle French preposition environ “around,” environment , in its most basic meaning, is “that which surrounds.” When preceded by the and unmodified, it usually refers to the natural world (“please don’t litter if you care about the environment”). In a less physical, more extended sense, it may signify the circumstances and conditions that make up everyday life (“He grew up in a loving environment.”) The word may also be applied in highly specialized ways, denoting, for example, “the position of a linguistic element” (“how g gets pronounced in Italian depends upon its phonetic environment”) or “a computer interface from which various tasks can be performed” (“the app works in varied environments"). Recent Examples on the Web Arizona State University researchers will put a walking, breathing, sweating dummy through its paces in the lab and around the Tempe campus this summer and in coming years, seeking answers about how to keep people safe in hot environments. — Brandon Loomis, The Arizona Republic, 3 June 2023 Geopolitical tensions, as well as China’s focus on national security, have created an uncertain business environment. — Nicole Hong, New York Times, 2 June 2023 The challenge was that DNA degrades fast in tropical environments. — Flora Lichtman, Scientific American, 2 June 2023 The result is the realistic deep-sea environment seen in the film. — Raya Rockwood, Dallas News, 2 June 2023 Karl Schneider is an IndyStar environme...

Global warming, if it proceeds as many scientists predict, threatens to undo decades of conservation work and could mean the destruction of the monarch butterfly, the edelweiss, the polar bear and innumerable other species living in fragile ecosystems, an emerging body of scientific evidence suggests. — William K. Stevens The Environment of Ecosystem For the now-ubiquitous prefix eco-, we can thank the great German zoologist Ernst Haeckel, who in 1866 coined the term oekologie from the Greek oikos, meaning “home, place to live.” Haeckel was thinking primarily of the “homes” of animals, but by the time the word translated into English in 1875 (initially spelled “oecology”), its meaning had broadened to embrace plant habitats as well. The related term ecosystem was proposed by the British botanist Arthur Tansley, 60 years after one of his own professors first translated Haeckel’s oekologie. It may have been ecosystem, which treats eco- as a prefix to a standard English word, that gave English speakers permission to do the same in coining a host of other terms: ecosphere, ecotour, eco-friendly, and all the rest. Meanwhile, ecosystem itself has been appropriated freely in all kinds of contexts well removed from the natural environment: the “app ecosystem,” the “education ecosystem,” the “startup ecosystem,” the “pop-culture ecosystem,” the “mobile ecosystem,” the “biking ecosystem,” and so forth. Recent Examples on the Web One function Musk now serves in the tech ecosystem is ...