ORIGIN OF THE WORD ECOLOGY

• It comes from the Greek word oikos, meaning “ household ” or home.”

• Ernst Haeckel, a German zoologist, first coined the term ecology oekologie ) and
defined it as “the body of knowledge concerning the economy of nature.”
• Ecology was originally coined in 1866 in General Morphology, a book on biology
and philosophy by Prof. Ernst Haeckel.

Definition:
The economy of nature is the investigation of the total relations of the animal,
both its inorganic and its organic environment, including, above all, its friendly and
inimical relations with those
animals and plants with which it comes directly or indirectly into contact in a word,
ecology is the study of all complex interrelations referred to by Darwin as the
conditions of the struggle for existence.
Definitions of Ecology
1. Ecology is the study of the interrelations of organisms with their physical and
biological environments.
2. Ecology is the study of the structure and function of nature or the study of
ecosystems (Odum,1972)
3. Ecology is the scientific study of interactions that determine the distribution and
abundance of organisms (Krebs, 1792)
4. Ecology deals with the description, explanation, and prediction of individuals,
populations, and communities in space and time ( Begon, Harper, and Townsend,
1986)

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF ECOLOGY

1. KONRAD LORENZ and NIKO TINDERGEN gave a strong importance to the field
with their pioneering studies in the role of imprinting and instinct in the social life of
animals, particularly birds, and fishes.
2. PLANT ECOLOGY- study of how plants interact with their living and nonliving
environment.
3. ANIMAL ECOLOGY- study of animal communities and their relationships.
4. BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY- studies how animals interact with each other and their
environment as influenced by natural selection.
5. PHYSIOLOGICAL ECOLOGY- studies the physiological responses of animals
and plants to temperature, moisture, light, nutrients, and other environmental
factors. How individual organisms respond to the abiotic
environment(ecophysiology ).
Contributors:
 6. Leibig (1840) studied limiting factors and the limited supplies of nutrients in the
growth and development of plants (Principle of Limiting Factors).

CONDITIONS AND RESOURCES

Understanding the abundance and distribution of organisms
Factors to investigate
1. history
2. resources requirements
3. the individuals’ rates of birth, death, and migration
4. their interactions with their own and other species
5. effects of environmental conditions.

➢ Physical environment not only necessitates adaptations for organisms to exist in

particular environments, but it also constrains the distribution of organisms.

Conditions may be altered but not consumed.

Condition- an abiotic environmental factor that influences the functioning of living
organisms.
Examples: temperature, relative humidity, pH, salinity, and the concentration of pollutants
A condition may be modified by the presence of other organisms.
Example, temperature, humidity, and soil pH may be altered under a forest canopy.

Liebeg’s Law of Minimum

➢ Population growth will be limited by the required factor that is in the shortest supply
➢ If one of the various nutrients, even a trace one, was absent, the plant suffers and
can die
➢ If a nutrient is present in inadequate amounts, then growth is similarly minimal or
limited by the nutrient
Law of Limiting Factors
➢ Too much or too little of any abiotic factor can limit or prevent the growth of a
population, even if all other factors are at or near the optimum range of tolerance
➢ Limiting factors biotic or abiotic factors that determine the presence and absence
of an organism in an environment
Limiting factors
➢ Some aspects of the environment that limit an organism’s distribution
➢ Physical limiting factors- temperature, salinity, nutrients, light
➢ Biological limiting factors- competition, predation, herbivory

Law of Tolerance
➢ the existence, abundance, and distribution of a species in an ecosystem are
determined by whether the levels of one or more physical or chemical factors fall
within the range tolerated by that species.
Tolerance- the responses to a factor by an organism or population of a species:
a) Survivorship
b) Growth and reproduction
c) Behavioral choice
d) Geographical and ecological distribution
Niche
➢ A niche is not a place but an idea: a summary of the organism’s tolerances and
requirements.
➢ The niche of an organism started to be used to describe how, rather than just where
an organism lives.
➢ There are many such dimensions of a species’ niche, its tolerance of various other
conditions (relative humidity, pH, wind speed, water flow and so on) and its need
for various resources.