Understanding Ecology: Principles and Human Impact

Ecology and Its Levels

Introduction

Ecology is a branch of biology that investigates biotic and abiotic components and the relations between them, which form a system called the Biosphere.

It is the set of sciences that study the relationships of living beings among themselves and with the environment in which they occur. This term was coined by Ernest Haeckel in 1866, becoming the first person to use the term ecology, referring to the Greek words oikos (house) and logos (science, study, or treatment). The Earth is our home, and ecology studies what happens in our house and our relationship with the natural environment.

According to Haeckel, ecology should undertake the study of biological species in their relations with the environment.

Modern Ecological Importance

At present, ecology has become very important due to the constant increase in the human population, whose impact on the environment is growing. Key issues include:

• Warming of the atmosphere
• Ill health caused by environmental pollution
• Destruction of the waste recycling capacity of natural systems
• Scarcity of resources, especially water, locally and regionally

The Evolution of Ecological Thought

By 1925, August Thienemann, Charles Elton, and others promoted the ecology of communities. They worked with concepts such as the food chain or pyramid of species, in which the number of individuals decreases progressively from bottom to top, from plants to herbivores and carnivores. From here, in the 1930s, a new discipline called Human Ecology emerged.

This field examines the relationship humans have with the environment. It provides a dual perspective:

• The influence of the environment on humans and the adaptation of the human community to their surroundings.
• The actions of humans on the environment in physical, economic, and cultural terms.

Since the publication of Fundamentals of Ecology (1959) by E.P. Odum, the widespread view is that humans, whose actions on ecosystems had not been considered until then, should be viewed as another species within the dynamics of the biosphere. However, humans do not act like any other species. Due to our ability to live in almost all parts of the biosphere and to modify the environment through the rapid development of science and technology, we perform actions without precedent on the ecological balance of the Earth. Humans change the environment to their advantage, but, through ignorance or failure to consider the ecological laws that govern ecosystems, have frequently triggered chain reactions that produce adverse effects on the environment itself.