Ecology

Ecology means the scientific study of interrelationship between organisms and their environment; also called bionomics. The German zoologist Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919) is usually credited with having coined the term in 1866: „Unter Oecologie verstehen wir die gesamte Wissenschaft von den Beziehungen des Organismus zur umgebenden Außenwelt“. In the intervening century and a half the definition has evolved covering distinct sub-disciplines (some of which are: community ecology or synecology and evolutionary ecology) and binding ecology by the biological and physical sciences and the study of ecosystems.

Ref.: E. H. P. A. Haeckel, Generelle Morphologie der Organismen. Allgemeine Grundzüge der organischen Formen-Wissenschaft, mechanisch begründet durch die von Charles Darwin reformirte Descendenz-Theorie, Vol. 1, p. 236, G. Reimer: Berlin, 1866; E. P. ODUM, Fundamentals of Ecologxy, 3rd Ed, W. B. Saunders: Philadelphia, London, Toronto, 1971; http://www.ecostudies.org