Ecology — Some Basic Principles

Abstract

Ecology is the study of plants and animals in relation to each other and to’ the physical and chemical environment in which they naturally occur.Much of a biology course emphasises the individual organism whether it involves dissection of a rat which has been bred in a cage, a Pelargonium taken from a greenhouse for a photosynthesis experiment or Garden Peas grown in Mendel’s monastery garden. A cabbage may be homogenised just to provide chloroplasts for a biochemistry experiment or to provide material for electron microscopy. Classification involves more variety of species, but often they are dead and preserved in ajar. All these approaches to biology are important but it is also important to complete the picture by looking at the subject ecologically. Ecology means literally ‘the study of the hearth’ — the study of plants and animals ‘at home’ in the systems of which they are a part, which they rely on, help to create and maintain, and in which they have evolved.