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General Ecology_Ecology
Chapter 1: Introduction to Ecology

Chapter 1: Introduction to Ecology

Last updated

Aug 24, 2022
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- 1.E: The Study of Life (Exercises)
- 1.1: What is Ecology?

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Learning Objectives

Use strategies of scientific inquiry to evaluate information, problems, and the validity of science.
Perform simple analysis of data and use technology to draw conclusions about observed natural phenomena.
Define ecology, ecosystem, community, and population.
Compare and contrast ecology to the other biological, chemical, and physical sciences.

1.1: What is Ecology?
Ecology is the study of the interactions of living organisms with their environment. One core goal of ecology is to understand the distribution and abundance of living things in the physical environment. Attainment of this goal requires the integration of scientific disciplines inside and outside of biology, such as biochemistry, physiology, evolution, biodiversity, molecular biology, geology, and climatology. It frequently uses mathematical models.
1.2: History of Ecology
Ecology is a new science and considered as an important branch of biological science, having only become prominent during the second half of the 20th century.
1.3: Subdisciplines of Ecology
Ecology is a broad discipline comprising many subdisciplines.
1.4: An Overview of Essential Mathematics Used in Science
Mathematics and statistics are vital for scientific inquiry. It is an especially imperative tool for disciplines that are inherently variable and require an extensive collection of data.
1.5: Summarizing Data - Descriptive Statistics
This section reviews the two main ways data is summarized with descriptive statistics.
1.6: Testing Hypotheses - Inferential Statistics
This section reviews inferential statistics are, the difference between scientific and statistical hypotheses, and how conclusions are made with data at hand.

Learning Objectives

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