What is Ecology?

Ecology comes from the Greek word οίκος, or oikos, meaning "household”

Ecology is the study of the way organisms interact with each other and with their nonliving surroundings.

What are abiotic and biotic factors?

List some examples of abiotic factors that an organism could interact with in its environment here

• List some examples of biotic factors that we (as living things) interact with in our environment

What is environmental Science?

• Your ideas here

Environmental Science

• An interdisciplinary area of study that includes both applied and theoretical aspects of human impact on the world

• "Environmental science" and "ecology" are different fields of study, although there is some overlap.

Disciplines of Environmental Science

Biomes

Human Impact

Energy Resources

People in a Global Ecosystem

Law enforcement

Ecological Interactions

Environmental Science

Areas of study in environmental science

• Geology- study of the earth’s crust.

• meteorology, Study of the atmosphere and atmospheric chemistry,

• soil and water chemistry • anthropogenic influence on

water quality, air quality, and soil quality).

• Seismology – earthquakes and volcanoes

• Climate – monitoring change

Disciplines of Ecology

Political

Evolutionary

Ecosystem

Population

Synecology

Behavioral

Ecology

Political Ecology

• connects politics and economy to problems of environmental control and ecological change.

• Voting and legalization• Protest and monetary support

• Can you think of some examples?

The spotted owl in the Pacific Northwest

Evolutionary Ecology

• studies ecology in a way that explicitly considers the evolutionary histories of species and their interactions.

• What environment was present during the days of the Wooly Mammoth?

How could ecologist determine the characteristics?

Which leaf might be from a drier & hotter environment and why?

Leaf ALeaf B

Ecosystem Ecology

• studies the flows of energy and matter through the biotic and abiotic components of ecosystems.

• How much energy is needed to support a top predator. – For example wolves in Yellowstone.

Synecology

• Community ecology focuses on the interactions between species within an ecological community.

• Invasive species out competing native plants or animals.

Population Ecology

• studies the dynamics of populations of a single species.

• Growth of a deer population in Albemarle county– How healthy is the deer population?– How is the population impacting other organisms?

Behavioral Ecology

• examines the roles of behavior in enabling an animal to adapt to its environment.

• Beavers making a dam• White tail deer flashing its tail to communicate

with other deer.

Ecosystem Ecology

Differences between Ecology and Environmental Science

• Ecology is the study of the interrelations of living organisms, whether at the population, community, or ecosystem level, and of the relationships between organisms and their environment.

• Environmental Science is a broad area of study focused how man influences and changes the biosphere and environment.

ReferencesSlide 1--images

• http://www.greenbusgroup.com/human-ecology.html

• http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecology• http://ocw.tufts.edu/Course/21• http://geopolicraticus.wordpress.com/2011/0

3/22/metaphysical-ecology-reformulated/• http://ijae.iut.ac.ir/index.php?

slc_lang=en&sid=1

References

• Slide 2 image-- http://sites.sinauer.com/ecology2e/ccc13.1.html

• http://sjsenvisci.blogspot.com/2010/08/multiple-disciplines-within.html

• Owl image-- http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/wallpaper/photography/photos/ten-years-of-photo-of-the-day/northern-spotted-owl/