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Whether you notice ants collecting crumbs on a sidewalk or watch a video of polar bears hunting on sea ice, you are studying ecology. From simple experiences such as these, most people know that organisms on Earth are interconnected with one another and with their environment. Ecology is the exploration of these interconnections and is most simply defined as the study of the interrelationships among organisms and the physical environment. Ecologists study these interactions at different scales and with different methods, but they all agree that ecology is a scientific endeavor, first and foremost.
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Ecology is the study of the interrelationships among organisms and the physical environment.
Ecology uses observations, experiments, and models to test theories at multiple spatial and temporal scales.
“Ecology” is sometimes equated with “environmentalism,” but the two terms are different. Ecology is a science that generates knowledge about interactions in the natural world. Environmentalism is the use of ecological knowledge, along with economics, ethics, and many other considerations, to inform both personal decisions and public policy related to stewardship of the natural world. So while an ecologist might study the number of bluefin tuna in the world’s oceans, the environmentalist would focus on the social, economic, and political capital needed to enforce a sustainable harvest or, alternatively, to ban bluefin tuna fishing altogether.
Ecology is a relatively new branch of the biological sciences; in fact, it did not have a formal name until 150 years ago when Ernst Haeckel, a German biologist, constructed the new word “ecology,” from the Greek root oikos, or “household.”