Ecology, or ecological science, is the scientific study of the distribution and abundance of living organisms and how the distribution and abundance are affected by interactions between the organisms and their environment. The environment of an organism includes both physical properties, which can be described as the sum of local abiotic factors such as solar insolation, climate and geology, as well as the other organisms that share its habitat. The term oekologie was coined in 1866 by the German biologist Ernst Haeckel, although it seems that Henry David Thoreau had already invented it in 1852 "Revisiting the Natural Contract", by Michel Serres, in Ctheory, May 11, 2006 ; the word is derived from the Greek οικος (oikos, "household") and λόγος (logos, "study"); therefore "ecology" means the "study of the household nature".

The word "ecology" is often used in common parlance as a synonym for the natural environment or environmentalism. Likewise "ecologic" or "ecological" is often taken in the sense of environmentally friendly.

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Ecology is usually considered a branch of biology, the general science that studies living organisms. Organisms can be studied at many different levels, from proteins and nucleic acids (in biochemistry and molecular biology), to cells (in cellular biology), to individuals (in botany, zoology, and other similar disciplines), and finally at the level of populations, communities, and ecosystems, to the biosphere as a whole; these latter strata are the primary subjects of ecological inquiries. Ecology is a multi-disciplinary science. Because of its focus on the higher levels of the organization of life on earth and on the interrelations between organisms and their environment, ecology draws heavily on many other branches of science, especially geology and geography, meteorology, pedology, chemistry, and physics. Thus, ecology is considered by some to be a holistic science, one that over-arches older disciplines such as biology which in this view become sub-disciplines contributing to ecological knowledge.

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GERMANY: ISPO 2010 endorses sustainable ecology http://ping.fm/qQrcb
textilemarket (Textile-Market.com) Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:37:42 -0000
GERMANY: ISPO 2010 endorses sustainable ecology http://ping.fm/qQrcb
Prof. Louise Vet at TEDxAmsterdam, lecturing about relation between economy and ecology: http://vimeo.com/8114328
EIBE_Nyenrode (EIBE Nyenrode) Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:36:57 -0000
Prof. Louise Vet at TEDxAmsterdam, lecturing about relation between economy and ecology: http://vimeo.com/8114328
New articles in Spanish available on my Blog (link in my profile): Ecology, Astronomy, Zoology, Biology, Physics and more ...
CRKARLA (Karla Segura Ch.) Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:25:04 -0000
New articles in Spanish available on my Blog (link in my profile): Ecology, Astronomy, Zoology, Biology, Physics and more ...
Community or Landscape Ecology - Assistant or Associa... - Norfolk, VA (http://tinyurl.com/ylfwhcz) Get Ecology Jobs #Ecology #23505 #jobs
GetEcologyJobs (Get Ecology Jobs) Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:07:00 -0000
Community or Landscape Ecology - Assistant or Associa... - Norfolk, VA (http://tinyurl.com/ylfwhcz) Get Ecology Jobs #Ecology #23505 #jobs
Hooked on Tech guest blog: Ecology and Nanotechnology - http://2020science.org/Ag
2020science (Andrew Maynard) Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:01:41 -0000
Hooked on Tech guest blog: Ecology and Nanotechnology - http://2020science.org/Ag
RT @ScienceChanges: Ed materials on ecology, conservation biol. & the envt, http://ecolibrary.org Search "panorama" for wraparound views
massteacher (MTA) Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:44:23 -0000
RT @ScienceChanges: Ed materials on ecology, conservation biol. & the envt, http://ecolibrary.org Search "panorama" for wraparound views

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