Branches of Ecology

Ecology is the scientific study of the way in which modern organisms interact with their environment. In practice, ecologists study a very wide range of questions, but there are two main branches of study, AutecologyOpens in new window and SynecologyOpens in new window.

Autecology deals with the study of the individual organism or an individual species. In this aspect, life histories and behaviour as a means of adaptation to the environment are usually emphasized.
Synecology deals with the study of groups of organisms which are associated together as a unit (i.e., community).

An autecologist may study the life history, population dynamics, behaviour, home range and so on, of a single species, such as the Mexican free-tailed bat, Indian bull frog, or maize-borer.

A synecologist might study deserts, or caves or tropical forests. S/he is interested in describing the overall energy and material flow through the system rather than in concentrating on the finer details of a particular organism. In the words of Herreid II:

The synecologist paints with a broad brush the outline of the picture and autecologist stroking in the finer details. Herreid II (1977)

Thus, if a study is made of the relation of a white oak tree (or of white oak trees in general) to the environment, the work would be autecological in nature. However, if the study concerned the forest in which the white oak lives, the approach would be synecological.

While autecology is experimental and inductive, the synecology is philosophical and deductive.

Synecology is often subdivided into aquatic and terrestrial ecology.

The aquatic ecology includes freshwater ecology, eustuarine ecology and marine ecology.
Terrestrial ecology, subdivided further into such areas as forest ecology, grassland ecology, cropland ecology and desert ecology, is concerned with terrestrial ecosystems—their microclimate, soil chemistry, nutrient and hydrological cycle and productivity.
Further, demecology is that branch of ecology which deals with the ecology of populations.

Early ecologists have recognized two major subdivisions of ecology in relation to plants and animals—plant ecology and animal ecology.

But when it was found that in the ecosystems plants and animals are very closely associated and interrelated then, both of these major subdivisions of ecology has been classified in the following branches according to the level of organization, kind of environments or habitats and taxonomic position:

Habitat Ecology

Habitat ecology focuses on how the living organisms (animal and plants) react to biotic and abiotic factors in their environment; physiology, morphology and behavior.

Physiological ecology on animal focuses on the whole-animal function and alteration to ever-changing environments. These alterations have a tendency to maximize the fitness of animals (their capacity to survive and reproduce successfully).

The physiological processes studied are temperature regulation, nutrition, water and metabolism on energy and response to environmental stresses. These environmental factors may include nutrition, disease, climate variation and toxic exposure. For instance, animal’s heat and mass balances are affected by the climate thus these changes affect how bodies regulate temperatures.

On the other hand, physiological ecology on plants emphasizes on understanding how plants deals with environmental variation at the physiological intensity, and on the pressure of resource limitation growth, metabolism and reproduction of individuals. They also deal with plants populations, gradients and different communities and ecosystems.

Community Ecology

This deals with the interactions between organisms that is, the feeding relationships among species, or who helps who, who competes with whom and for what resources and how those interactions affect community structure (the organization of a biological community with respect to ecological interactions).

Community ecologist investigates the factors influencing community structure, biodiversity, and the distribution and abundance of species.

These factors include the interrelations with the non living world and different collections of interrelations that occur between species. The primary focus of community ecology is on predation, herbivory, competition and parasitism and mutualism.

Population Ecology (Demecology)

This deals with studies of structure and dynamics of populations. That is; factors that affect population and how and why a population varies over time. A population ecologist studies the interrelations of organisms with their environments by gauging properties of populations rather than the behavior of the individual organisms.

Among the properties of population studied is population size, population density, patterns of dispersion, demographics, dynamics, population growth and restraints on growth. This ecology is vital in upkeep of biology, particularly in the progress of PVA (population viability analysis) which allows the forecasting of long-term possibility of a species persevering in a particular locale such as a national park.

Ecological energetic

Ecological energetic is one branch of ecology that deals with energy conservation and its flow in the organisms within the ecosystem. In it thermodynamics has its significant contribution.

Physiological ecology (Ecophysiology)

The factors of environment have a direct bearing on the functional aspects of organisms.

The ecophysiology deals with the survival of populations as a result of functional adjustments of organisms with different ecological conditions:

Chemical ecology deals with the adaptations of animals of preferences of particular organisms like insects to particular chemical substances.
Ecological genetics (gynecology) — An ecologist recognized kind of genetic spasticity in the case of every organism. In any environment only those organisms that are favored by the environment can survive. Thus, genecology deals with the study of variations of species based upon their genetic potentialities.

Palaecoecology ecology is the study of environmental conditions, and life of the past ages, to which radioactive dating methods have made significant contribution.
Space ecology is a modern subdivision of ecology which is concerned with the development of partially or completely regenerating ecosystems for supporting life of man during long space flights or during extended exploration of extra-terrestrial environments.
Pedology ecology is a branch of terrestrial ecology and it deals with the study of soils, in particular their acidity, alkalinity, humus contents, mineral contents, soil types, ect., and their influence on the organisms.