ecology

Study of the relationship among organisms and the environments in which they live, including all living and nonliving components. The chief environmental factors governing the distribution of plants and animals are temperature, humidity, soil, light intensity, day length, food supply, and interaction with other organisms. The term ecology was coined by the biologist Ernst Haeckel in 1866.

Ecology may be concerned with individual organisms (for example, behavioural ecology, feeding strategies), with populations (for example, population dynamics), or with entire communities (for example, competition between species for access to resources in an ecosystem, or predator-prey relationships). Applied ecology is concerned with the management and conservation of habitats and the consequences and control of pollution.