Ruang Lingkup Ekologi
HISTORY OF ECOLOGY
Ecology
is generally spoken of as a new science, having only become prominent in the
second half of the 20th Century. More precisely, there is agreement that
ecology emerged as a distinct discipline at the turn of the 20th Century, and
that it gained public prominence in the 1960s, due to widespread concern for
the state of the environment. Nonetheless, ecological thinking at some level
has been around for a long time, and the principles of ecology have developed
gradually, closely intertwined with the development of other biological
disciplines. Thus, one of the first ecologists may have been Aristotle or
perhaps his student, Theophrastus, both of whom had interest in many species of
animals. Theophrastus described interrelationships between animals and between animals
and their environment as early as the 4th century BC (Ramalay, 1940).
The term ecology was first used by German
zoologist Ernst Haeckel (1869), however, this science has its origins in other
sciences such as biology, geology and evolution among others.
Lamarck with his theory of evolution, proposed
that the environment is in constant transformation, by which agencies need
change and make an effort to achieve this, and this is a mechanism of
evolution, one of the main bases of ecology taking into account the
relationships of organisms and their environment.
On the other hand, not only the agencies change
and evolve, but also the Earth’s crust. The English geologist Charles Lyell
found that the Earth’s crust is the result of gradual changes throughout the
history of the planet. Giving way to the transformation of ecosystems and their
functions.
Modern ecology, actually had its principles with
the development of the theory of Darwinian evolution. He noted that the
environment is constantly changing which causes the agencies with best
adaptations are those who survive by the mechanism of natural selection.
Highlighting the importance of the interaction of organisms with their
environment.
Although the ecology was born in the 19th
century, with the work of Haeckel, ecology began to flourish until the 20th
century, when the first ecological journals and ecological societies appeared.
The definition of Haeckel, has been the subject
of interpretations something different and perhaps more profound since 1900.
For example, the English ecologist Charles Elton defined ecology as the
“scientific natural history” which deals with the “sociology and economy of
animals”. An American plant ecologist, Frederick Clements, considered that
ecology was “the science of the community”, and the contemporary American
ecologist Eugene Odum defined, perhaps too widely, as ‘the study of the
structure and function of nature’.
The first conceptions of the “genotypic” begin in
the third decade of the 20th century or ecology of communities, where the
concept of community as superior hierarchical level of organization, includes
different people interacting with its environment. However this concept,
attached to the biological origin of ecology, once again was decoupled agencies
that defined it. Later, as it is the case still, stood “biotope” as a place
where is found the community but by characteristics inherent in the physical
environment, not by their relationship to agencies.
In the Decade of the 40s, Tansley (1935) proposed
the concept of “ecosystem”. This term was later developed by Lindeman (1941),
who conceived it from exchanges of energy, in response to the need for concepts
that link various agencies to their physical environments. In the texts of
ecology of the 1950s and still later, designating ecosystem as the sum of the
various communities (or biocoenosis) and biotope (inert atmosphere). In this
type of definition is notable as agencies or the community are made
disociadamente of the environment, because that ecosystem is defined by the sum
of terms.
The science of ecology for as far as we know always had a holistic approach to nature, being connected by systems and communities. Ecological thinking becomes necessary for us to survive and have the Earth be sufficient for the years to come. According to Shoshanah Keni, we play a big part in the “open systems” of ecology and the world around us because we are actors, who interract with the different components within the system and we are also reflectors, who are fully aware the system and how we interact within in, which makes us responsible for understanding the actions we take.
We have to understand that there is only a certain amount of resources to our disposal, and this is where thinking ecologically helps us think of better ways to be resourceful. This is where we can use Mitchel Resnick’s TREE strategy:
Test Randomly (send roots out in all directions) Evalute (determine which roots find the best soil)
Elect (choose which direction to move, based on the information from the roots)
Over time, the best strategy will appear through the evaluation of trial and error. Ecological strategies has two common characteristics, being responsive to local conditions and adaptive to changing conditions. In a sense of being responsive, decisions are based on local information which are combined simple factors, not just a centralized solution. Also, being adaptive to changing conditions allows for adjusting to produce new solutions to fit the needs of the new conditions.
ECOLOGY AND OTHER SCIENCE
Ecology is one of the main divisions of biology,
the other two being morphology and physiology. The emphasis in morphology is on
how organisms are made, in physiology on how they function, and in ecology, on
how they live. These divisions overlap broadly.
To appreciate fully the structure of an organ, one
needs to know how it functions, and the way it functions, is clearly related to
environmental conditions. The morphologist is concerned with problems of
anatomy, histology, cytology, embryology, evolution and genetics; the
physiologist, with interpreting functions in terms of chemistry, physics and
mathematics; and the ecologist, with distribution, behaviour, populations and
communities in relation to the environment (ecosystems). The evolution of
adaptation and of species is of mutual interest to
