ESM 112- INTRODUCTORY ECOLOGY

Ecology is the science that attempts to answer such questions about how nature works. The term ecology was coined from two Greek words: Oikos meaning "house" or "place to live" and Logos, meaning, "study of'. The coining of the term was done in 1869 by a German biologist Ernst Haeckel. Ecology is the study of living things in their home or environment: all the external conditions and factors, living and nonliving that affect an organism (Figure 1.1). In the words of Miller (1991) ecology is the study of the interactions between organisms and their living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) environment. Note that the key word is interactions. Collins dictionary of Environment (1990) defined ecology as the study of the relationships between living organisms (the biota) and their physical environment (the abiotic). In its broadest sense ecology is the study of organisms, as they exist in their natural environment. Examples of the biota are all living organisms i.e. plants and animals. On the other hand, examples of abiota are all non-living organisms i.e. soil, mountain, rain and sun. It is important for you to note that biotic means relating to living organisms. biotic depicts an environment without life.