1: Introduction to Ecology

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western toad (Bufo boreas) — Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): The western toad (*Bufo boreas*) is widespread throughout the western U.S and Canada and can be found in wetlands, ponds, and lakes which they use for breeding. Sharp declines in local populations have been recorded throughout their range, and the drivers of these declines are poorly understood. (image by Thompsma via Wikimedia Commons; CC BY 3.0)

Chapter Summary

Ecology is the study of the interactions of living organisms with their environment. Ecology addresses the full scale of life, from tiny bacteria to processes that span the entire planet. Ecologists study many diverse and complex relations among species, such as predation and pollination. One core goal of ecology is to understand the distribution and abundance of living things in the physical environment. Ecology is an experimental sciences that uses lab and field experiments, and models, to test hypothesis and predictions in an attempt to explain natural patterns on Earth.

Ecologists ask questions across four levels of biological organization—organismal, population, community, and ecosystem. At the organismal level, ecologists study individual organisms and how they interact with their environments. At the population and community levels, ecologists explore, respectively, how a population of organisms changes over time and the ways in which that population interacts with other species in the community. Ecologists studying an ecosystem examine the living species (the biotic components) of the ecosystem as well as the nonliving portions (the abiotic components), such as air, water, and soil, of the environment.

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter you should be able to:

Define ecology and provide examples of how ecological study contributes to society.
List in order and describe the levels of ecological organization.
List and explain the steps of the scientific method, emphasizing how hypothesis testing allows us to clarify relationships between organisms and their environment.
Explain how controlled experiments are used to determine cause and effect.

1.1: Introduction to Ecology
Ecology is the study of the interactions between organisms and the environment. It is more than just descriptive (natural history) because it uses experiments to clarify relationships seeking to understand the distribution and abundance of living things in the environment. The study of ecology has yielded fascinating insights about the environment, our dependence upon it, and the impacts caused by human activities.
1.2: Levels of Ecological Research
Ecologists seek to understand how the distribution and abundance of organisms on Earth is shaped by both biotic and abiotic facts. These relationships are studied at many levels including organismal, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere.
1.3: The Process of Science
Scientific inquiry is how biologist gather information about living organisms. It is a standard set of methods that allow us to study the world around us in a careful, unbiased way. Information collected using the scientific method can be appreciated as basic science, or, we can apply that information to solve problems, create products, or serve the public.
1.4: Reporting and Evaluating Scientific Work
In order to build our collective knowledge about the world around us, information gathered by scientific inquiry needs to be shared. To ensure quality, published information goes through a peer review process, in which other scientists in the field review and comment on the work. However, not all sources of information available to the public are peer reviewed, and as consumers of information, we need to understand how to evaluate those sources.