Introduction to Ecology 
      Man  is  much  interested  in  the  subjects  related  to  Ecology  in  view  of  the 
      problems  of  environmental  pollution,  human  survival  and  conservation  of 
      natural resources. Ecology is the branch of biology that deals with the study of 
      interactions between organisms and their environment. The science of ecology 
      also studies interactions between individual organisms and their environments, 
      including  interactions  with  both  conspecifics  and  members  of  other  species. 
      Though ecology emerged in the 19th century much of its theoretical structure 
      only emerged in the twentieth century. Though ecology includes a wide variety 
      of  sub-fields,  philosophical  analysis of ecology has so far been restricted to 
      population, community, and ecosystem ecology. Central philosophical problems 
      include explication of relevant notions of ecological diversity and stability the 
      relation between diversity and stability. 
      The term 'ecology' was coined by Ernst Haeckel in 1869, though ecological 
      problems were being studied even before the term was coined. The word is 
      derived from the Greek word 'oikos' meaning 'home' and 'logos' meaning 'to 
      study'. In the words of Haeckel, ecology is 'the study of the total relations of the 
      animal  both  to  its  inorganic  and  to  its  organic  environment,  including  its 
      friendly  and  inimical  relations  with  those  animals  and  plants  with  which  it 
      comes directly or indirectly in contact'. There are several other definitions of 
      ecology.  Frederick  Clements  in  1916  defined  ecology  'as  the  science  of 
      community'. According to Trailor ecology is 'the science of all the relations of 
      the entire organism to their entire environment'. Clark in 1954 defined ecology 
      as  the  'study  of  interrelation  of  plants  and  animals  with  their  environment'. 
      According to Odum, ecology is 'the study of structure and functions of nature'. 
      In 1970, Misra defined ecology in a broad sense, 'as the study of eco systems'. 
      More recently in 1985 Krebs has defined ecology as 'the scientific study of 
      interactions that determine the distribution and abundance of organisms'. 
      So ecology may be generally defined as the study of interrelation between living 
      organisms and their environment. Hence environment is the universe of biotic 
      and other physical elements as organized into dynamic systems. These systems 
      are ecological systems or ecosystems which represent the integration of living 
      (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) elements in the environment. Ecology is the 
      study of relationships among the organisms and between organisms and their 
      surrounding. So there are interconnections and process that really make up 'the 
      environment' which gives us a more fundamental reason to protect it. Ecology is 
      located  among  the  biological  sciences  and  it  deals  with  populations, 
      communities  and  eco-systems.  It  is  the  bridge  between  the  biological  and 
      behavioural sciences. 
      Autecology -   
      Autecology  is  a  sub-section  of  ecology  primarily  dealing  with  species 
      populations and how these populations exist in the area and environment they 
      are in. The main goal is to study population sizes and how they change over 
      space  and  time.  The  most  common  example  of  this  is  human  species 
      overpopulation and how it effects other species. Autecology is the only way we 
      can get the information needed to help prevent things like climate change as 
      well as the destruction of the planet. The fundamentals of autecology are few 
      but  very  important.  The  following  are  fundamentals  of  autecology.  Species 
      population is the total number of a single species. Metapopulation is combining 
      a set of separated population which have some form of migration. A group of 
      nonspecific individuals that is usually separated demographically, genetically, 
      or spatially from other groups. Aggregation is a group of spatially clustered 
      individuals. Deme, which is a set of individuals that are genetically like each 
      other rather than others. The local population can also be measured, which is 
      usually a specific location's population of individuals. And lastly, subpopulation 
      is  categorizing and grouping individuals that are picked out through specific 
      traits. 
       
      The most fundamental law of autecology was made by Thomas Malthus, who 
      made the exponential law of population growth. It states that, "A population will 
      grow (or decline) exponentially as long as the environment experienced by all 
      individuals in the population remains constant.". What this does for autecology 
      is  it  creates  the  basis  for  making  predictive  theories  and  tests.  Autecology's 
      origins owe much to a couple things, demography (The study of populations, 
      mostly humans) and actuarial life tables (tables that show birth day and death 
      day, as well as possibilities to prevent or increase life expectancy). These two 
      subjects helped created the need for autecology, giving vast amounts of data for 
      scientists to work with. Autecology is a branch of biology, but this does not 
      limit the data gathered to just that branch. Conservation biology relies heavily 
      on autecology. This is because to conserve life, you need to first see what is 
      hurting it, and how it can be changed. The information also helps create PVA 
      (population viability analysis), which is a method that is usually species specific 
              to  determine  how  likely  a  population  is  going  to  last.  Mathematicians  and 
              statisticians also greatly benefit from this as well. This is because when they are 
              working  on  population  dynamics,  information  gathered  by  autecology  helps 
              paint  a  clearer  picture  for  them,  and  gives  them  the  data  they  need. 
               
              Autecology helps many different branches of science, as well as helps create 
              preventative measures to stop overpopulation and climate change. With more 
              information gathered every day, there is no question that scientists will be able 
              to. The real question is, will they be able to make and take these measures in 
              time. 
              Synecology –  
              Synecology, also referred to as community ecology, is the study of a group of 
              organism populations in the same area and their various interactions. This can 
              include many different things, including distribution, structure, demography and 
              interactions that occur between organisms in a same area. This helps us learn 
              about our surroundings, and how various organisms interact with each other, 
              whether  peaceably,  territorial,  or  aggressive.  Synecology  has  its  roots  in 
              European plant sociology. It stems from phytosociology, which is the study of 
              plant communities. These communities were categorized with a specific system, 
              allowing for easy access to the information. Synecology does that, but on a 
              much      larger    scale,    focusing     on     all   communities       in    nature. 
               
              Modern  synecology  focuses  on  patterns  within  communities  of  species  and 
              organisms. This  includes  how  many  of  each  species,  how  much  stake  each 
              species has in the community, what the species does for the community, as well 
              as how the species eats within the community. It also can get into predatory-
              prey dynamics and how it effects everything listed before. Synecology's focus is 
              on how different organisms and species interact with each other in each area. 
              This helps create an accessible database of information for scientists to have on 
              a specific region. Many sciences benefit from synecology, but the biosciences 
              (life sciences) benefit the most, being that ecology stems from biology. The way 
              scientists  study  synecology is through two specific characteristics: genotypic 
              and phenotypic. There are a few theories to go along with Synecology. Holistic 
              theory, created by Frederic Clements, is when species in a certain area, though 
              near each other, are mostly independent from each other. Individualistic theory 
              was  created  by  Henry  A.  Gleason.  He  created  the  concept  of  an  open 
      community, when most a population changes according to the environment. 
      This change happens to individual populations and not all populations equally. 
      This creates communities that would be labeled as discrete, or almost private 
      communities. 
       
      Natural theory, made popular by Stephen Hubbell, is a hypothesis that does its 
      best  to  explain  abundance  of  certain species  in  ecological  communities.  His 
      hypothesis  makes  assumptions,  such  as  that  members  of  an  ecological 
      community have differences, though none of them are relevant to their success. 
      This  means that biodiversity  would  occur  on  a  random  scale,  which  causes 
      much controversy in the scientific community. Synecology is the basis for how 
      we view communities. Communities exist all around us, from our plants and 
      insects, to the microscopic organisms we cannot see with our eyes. Synecology 
      helps better understand these communities, and with that will help us adapt our 
      lives around it. 
      Levels of Organization – 
      When a discipline such as biology is studied, it is often helpful to subdivide it 
      into  smaller,  related  areas.  For  instance,  cell  biologists  interested  in  cell 
      signaling need to understand the chemistry of the signal molecules (which are 
      usually proteins) as well as the result of cell signaling. Ecologists interested in 
      the  factors  that  influence  the  survival  of  an  endangered  species  might  use 
      mathematical  models  to  predict  how  current  conservation  efforts  affect 
      endangered  organisms.  To  produce  a  sound  set  of  management  options,  a 
      conservation  biologist  needs  to  collect  accurate  data,  including  current 
      population size, factors affecting reproduction (like physiology and behavior), 
      habitat requirements (such as plants and soils), and potential human influences 
      on the endangered population and its habitat (which might be derived through 
      studies  in  sociology  and  urban  ecology).  Within  the  discipline  of  ecology, 
      researchers work at four specific levels, sometimes discretely and sometimes 
      with overlap: organism, population, community, and ecosystem.