Portal:Ecology

Ecology

Ecology (from Ancient Greek οἶκος (oîkos) 'house' and -λογία (-logía) 'study of') is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere levels. Ecology overlaps with the closely related sciences of biogeography, evolutionary biology, genetics, ethology, and natural history.

Ecology is a branch of biology, and is the study of abundance, biomass, and distribution of organisms in the context of the environment. It encompasses life processes, interactions, and adaptations; movement of materials and energy through living communities; successional development of ecosystems; cooperation, competition, and predation within and between species; and patterns of biodiversity and its effect on ecosystem processes.

Ecology has practical applications in fields such as conservation biology, wetland management, natural resource management, and human ecology.

The word ecology (German: Ökologie) was coined in 1866 by the German scientist Ernst Haeckel. The science of ecology as we know it today began with a group of American botanists in the 1890s. Evolutionary concepts relating to adaptation and natural selection are cornerstones of modern ecological theory.

Ecosystems are dynamically interacting systems of organisms, the communities they make up, and the non-living (abiotic) components of their environment. Ecosystem processes, such as primary production, nutrient cycling, and niche construction, regulate the flux of energy and matter through an environment. Ecosystems have biophysical feedback mechanisms that moderate processes acting on living (biotic) and abiotic components of the planet. Ecosystems sustain life-supporting functions and provide ecosystem services like biomass production (food, fuel, fiber, and medicine), the regulation of climate, global biogeochemical cycles, water filtration, soil formation, erosion control, flood protection, and many other natural features of scientific, historical, economic, or intrinsic value. (Full article...)

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An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system formed by organisms in interaction with their environment. The biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows.

Ecosystems are controlled by external and internal factors. External factors—including climate and what parent materials form the soil and topography—control the overall structure of an ecosystem, but are not themselves influenced by it. By contrast, internal factors both control and are controlled by ecosystem processes. include decomposition, the types of species present, root competition, shading, disturbance, and succession. While external factors generally determine which resource inputs an ecosystem has, the availability of said resources within the ecosystem is controlled by internal factors. (Full article...)

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Shoaling and schooling

Credit: Jens Petersen

Schooling bigeye trevally. In biology, any group of fish that stay together for social reasons are said to be shoaling and if the group is swimming in the same direction in a coordinated manner, they are said to be schooling.

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The following are images from various ecology-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Spiny forest at Ifaty, Madagascar, featuring various Adansonia (baobab) species, Alluaudia procera (Madagascar ocotillo) and other vegetation (from Ecosystem)
Image 2Biological nitrogen cycling (from Ecosystem)
Image 3Loch Lomond in Scotland forms a relatively isolated ecosystem. The fish community of this lake has remained stable over a long period until a number of introductions in the 1970s restructured its food web. (from Ecosystem)
Image 4a) A trophic pyramid showing the different trophic levels in a community. b) A food web of the same community (from Community (ecology))
Image 5Rainforest ecosystems are rich in biodiversity. This is the Gambia River in Senegal's Niokolo-Koba National Park. (from Ecosystem)
Image 6Few creatures make the ice shelves of Antarctica their habitat, but water beneath the ice can provide habitat for multiple species. Animals such as penguins have adapted to live in very cold conditions. (from Habitat)
Image 7An Antarctic rock split apart to show endolithic lifeforms showing as a green layer a few millimeters thick (from Habitat)
Image 8The High Peaks Wilderness Area in the 6,000,000-acre (2,400,000 ha) Adirondack Park is an example of a diverse ecosystem. (from Ecosystem)
Image 9This coral reef in the Phoenix Islands Protected Area provides habitat for numerous marine species. (from Habitat)
Image 10
A freshwater lake in Gran Canaria, an island of the Canary Islands. Clear boundaries make lakes convenient to study using an ecosystem approach.
(from Ecosystem)
Image 11Sequence of a decomposing pig carcass over time (from Ecosystem)
Image 12Table visualising size-symmetric competition, using fish as consumers and crabs as resources. (from Community (ecology))
Image 13Ibex in an alpine habitat (from Habitat)
Image 14Desert scene in Egypt (from Habitat)
Image 15Twenty-five years after the devastating eruption at Mount St. Helens, United States, pioneer species have moved in. (from Habitat)
Image 16Dense mass of white crabs at a hydrothermal vent, with stalked barnacles on right (from Habitat)
Image 17A simple trophic cascade diagram. On the right shows when wolves are absent, showing an increase in elks and reduction in vegetation growth. The left one shows when wolves are present and controlling the elk population. (from Community (ecology))
Image 18The leaves of an Alnus nepalensis tree provide a microhabitat for species like the leaf beetle Aulacophora indica. (from Habitat)
Image 19Rich rainforest habitat in Dominica (from Habitat)
Image 20A red-chested cuckoo chick being feed by a significantly smaller Cape robin-chat adult (from Community (ecology))
Image 21A bear with a salmon. Interspecific interactions such as predation are a key aspect of community ecology. (from Community (ecology))
Image 22Global oceanic and terrestrial phototroph abundance, from September 1997 to August 2000. As an estimate of autotroph biomass, it is only a rough indicator of primary production potential and not an actual estimate of it. (from Ecosystem)
Image 23Flora of Baja California desert, Cataviña region, Mexico (from Ecosystem)
Image 24Wetland habitat types in Borneo (from Habitat)
Image 25A generalised graph of a predator-prey population density cycle (from Community (ecology))

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Entries here consist of Good and Featured articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards.

Many animals, such as this grey reef shark, are countershaded.

Countershading, or Thayer's law, is a method of camouflage in which an animal's coloration is darker on the top or upper side and lighter on the underside of the body. This pattern is found in many species of mammals, reptiles, birds, fish, and insects, both in predators and in prey.

When light falls from above on a uniformly coloured three-dimensional object such as a sphere, it makes the upper side appear lighter and the underside darker, grading from one to the other. This pattern of light and shade makes the object appear solid, and therefore easier to detect. The classical form of countershading, discovered in 1909 by the artist Abbott Handerson Thayer, works by counterbalancing the effects of self-shadowing, again typically with grading from dark to light. In theory this could be useful for military camouflage, but in practice it has rarely been applied, despite the best efforts of Thayer and, later, in the Second World War, of the zoologist Hugh Cott. (Full article...)

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Dansereau, circa 1942–43

Pierre Dansereau CC GOQ FRSC (October 5, 1911 – September 28, 2011) was a Canadian ecologist from Quebec known as one of the "fathers of ecology". (Full article...)

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... that gynecologist Mary Lake Polan wrote a medical mystery novel to "demystify" the procedures behind in vitro fertilisation?
... that scientist Adelaida K. Semesi was known as "mama mangroves" due to her specialist knowledge of their ecology?
... that the British political theorist Chris Armstrong has called for a "blue new deal" to secure ecological resilience for the ocean and a just blue economy?
... that King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard's "cli-fi" thrash metal album addresses a mix of current ecological threats and attempts to find another planet to live on?
... that PlantSims, human–plant hybrids in The Sims 2: Seasons, have been studied as examples of ecofeminism and deep ecology?
... that Enriqueta Medellín, a Mexican surgeon, has an ecological center and environmental prize named after her in the state of Aguascalientes?

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“

U.S. consumers and industry dispose of enough aluminum to rebuild the commercial air fleet every three months; enough iron and steel to continuously supply all automakers; enough glass to fill New York's World Trade Center every two weeks.

”

—Environmental Defense Fund advertisement, The Christian Science Monitor, 1990

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November 5, 2009: "New ocean forming in African desert."

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Plant Ecology is a scientific journal on plant ecology, formerly known as Vegetatio. The journal publishes original scientific papers on the ecology of vascular plants and terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The editor in chief is Neal J. Enright (Murdoch University). (Full article...)

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... desert ecology is the sum of the interactions between both biotic and abiotic processes in arid regions, and it includes the interactions of plant, animal, and bacterial populations in a desert habitat, ecosystem, and community? Some of the abiotic factors also include latitude and longitude, soil, and climate. Each of these factors have caused adaptations to the particular environment of the region.
(Pictured left: Two Ocotillo plants, in White Tank Mountains Regional Park)

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