Since the time in 1866, the German biologist Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) introduced the concept of ecology into a scientific terminology as a science that studies the relationship between the organism and the environment, knowledge in this area has expanded significantly. Standing out in an independent branch of knowledge in the 20th century, it gradually came to the development of various specializations and the allocation of more private environmental areas.
In such a situation, the concept of classical ecology, its main component - biological ecology - is lost in many names and terms, causing confusion. To systematize general knowledge, we will try to start with a section that studies the interaction of one organism with the environment (autecology). This is correct from the point of view of distinguishing three main areas in science: studying the biosphere as a whole, individual populations, and, finally, specific species.
Overview of concepts
Ecology as a science of the interaction of an organism and its environment has long been divided into many independent branches. Some formed at the junction with other knowledge. It distinguishes such clusters as: practical and social ecology, mathematical, geoecology and others. The traditional part is called the general and is a section of biology.
In turn, the ecology itself, when studying its subject, takes different types of classification as a basis:
- on the principle of private interaction of biological entities (autecology, synecology, demecology, eidecology);
- according to the principle of taxonomic units of taxonomy (ecology of plants, animals, fungi, and so on);
- by the principle of habitat (ecology of land, ocean).
The subject of this article is the sections of ecology: autecology, synecology, demecology and eidecology.
The basis of environmental standards
Autecology is a cluster of environmental disciplines that studies the interaction with the environment of an individual species representative of living organisms. The basis of the word is formed from the Greek autos - "self." The term was introduced in 1896 by a botanist from Switzerland K. Schroeter.
For example, ciliates shoes live in a specific environment. What will happen when it changes and how will it affect a living organism? The main cognitive method that autecology uses is a laboratory experiment. For example, how will oxidation of the medium affect the ciliates? And what limiting values of acidity do not harm the vital functions of a given organism?
Autecology studies the marginal indicators of environmental factors in assessing their impact on the normal functioning of a living creature. It is on these data that the entire system of maximum permissible concentrations of substances in determining the environmental friendliness of food products is built. Thus, autecology is the basis of existing environmental standards used in modern product labeling.
There is safety in numbers
Demecology (from the Greek demos - "people") is a higher-level cluster of environmental disciplines. The subject of this section is the population of organisms as homogeneous groups existing in this environment. As you know, living things do not live apart. They are closely interrelated with each other, other organisms and the environment.
It is the conditions of education, relations within the group, and changes in the number of populations of one species that demecology deals with. Therefore, the theory of maximum permissible norms and environmental standards should be considered in conjunction "autecology - deecology." Information from one science supplements the base of another, and vice versa.
View - a structural unit of evolution
Today, our knowledge of the species as a unit of the living system on the planet is expanded by the knowledge of genetics, biochemistry, biophysics and other sciences of the last decades. And the more information we get, the more blurred the very concept of a species as a group of organisms that are similar in a number of characteristics (from morphological to genetic), capable of reproducing their own kind and living in a certain territory. Therefore, a rather young cluster of sciences appeared - eidecology (from the Greek eidos - “image” or “view”). He continues to develop and accumulate a research base.
Community Ecology
Synecology (from the Greek sin - “together”) is a cluster of sciences that considers a set of populations of different species and different systematic taxa. In their interaction with each other and with environmental factors. Synecology is very close to geoecology and the ecology of biocenoses. This is the cluster that has the largest number of intersections with related humanities. It enters into energy ecology as a structural unit.
Considering the traditional part of the described science from the point of view of biological organisms and the natural groups that they form in nature, we come to understand the interconnections of all living things and the mechanisms that can both destroy these connections and preserve them. Ecological consciousness in the broad sense of this concept, instilled from childhood, increases the chances of humanity to survive and preserve the planet’s biosphere in a modern permanent form.