2. Definition, scope and importance of ecology. ecological habitat, abiotic
and biotic factors
3. Definition
The first author from German Zoologist Ernst Haeckle who used
the term as “Oekologie” in 1866 to refer to the inter-relationships
of living organisms and their environment.
The word ecology comes from two Greek words “Oikos” means
“Household” or home or place to live or habitation and “logos”
meaning “Discourse or Study”. Thus literally ecology deals with
the organisms and it’s place to live.
Basically, organism’s place to live is its environment, so ecology is
also called “Environmental Biology” (Smith; 1977).
4. Conventionally, ecology has been defined variously by different classical
and modern ecologist with different point of views.
Ernst Haeckel (1866): defined as ecology as the body of knowledge
concerning the economy of nature, the investigation of the total
relationship of animals to its inorganic and organic environment.
Frederic Clements (1916): considered as ecology to the science of
community
Charles Elton (1927): defined ecology as the scientific natural history
concerned with the sociology and economics of animals.
Taylor (1936): defined as the science of the relations of all the organisms
to the all their environment.
Allee(1949): considered as the science of inter-relation between living
organisms and their environment including the physical and biotic
environment and emphasizing inter-species as well as intra-specie
relations.
5. Clarke (1954): defined as the study of inter-relations of plant and animals
with their environment which may include the influence of other plants
and animals present as well as those of physical features.
Woodbury (1955): defined as the science which the world of life is
interpreted in terms of natural processes.
Macfadyen (1957): defined as a science which concerns itself with the
inter-relationship of living organisms, such as plants and animals and their
environment.
Kendeigh (1974): defined as the ecology as the study of animals and
plants in their relation to each other and to their environment.
Eugene Odum (1971): defined the study of the structure and functions of
ecosystems or broadly of nature.
Southwick(1976): defined as the scientific study of the relationship of
living organisms with each other and with their environment.
6. Southwick(1976): defined as the scientific study of the relationship of
living organisms with each other and with their environment.
He further elaborates the definition of ecology as it is the science of
biological inter-action among individual, populations and communities
and it is also the science of ecosystem- the inter-relation of biotic
communities with their non-living environment.
Smith (1977): considered as ecology as it is a multidisciplinary science
which deals with the organisms and its place to live and which focus on
the ecosystems.
“Ecology is the study of ecosystems or the totality of the reciprocal
interactions between living organisms and their environment”
In modern days Ecology is described in the name of Environmental
Biology because it deals with organisms in relation to their environment.
