What Are The Different Fields Of Ecology?

Ecology is a branch that deals with the interactions between entities and their physical environment. There are different fields of ecology that deals with different subjects. Listed below are the types:

Aquatic Ecology

It deals with the study of ecosystems found in water bodies such as estuarine, freshwater and marine. In particular, it deals with the interactions of living entities and a particular aquatic habitat which affects environmental factors such as temperature, predation etc.

Microbial Ecology

It studies how microorganisms communicate with their abiotic counterparts and how these interactions are brought about in such organizations.

Terrestrial Ecology

It deals with the study of land entities and their interactions with each other to adapt to their immediate surroundings. It is also concerned with diversity and distribution of various entities across the habitat.

Taxonomic Ecology

It is a relatively new field that incorporates two branches. It uses taxonomic data to improve ecosystem study by detecting key entities in a particular area. It also helps in the simpler classification of entities at the community level.

Systems Ecology

It deals with different abiotic factors such as physical processes(biogeochemical cycle and carbon cycle), allocation of energy budget etc. It integrates computer systems and applied mathematics to predict and study functions in a certain ecosystem.

Evolutionary Ecology

It is a field that merges ecology with evolution to study the genetic and physical changes that took place in entities and the repercussions of these alterations in the ecosystem. It involves predation, competition, parasitism, mutualism and other forces of the community.

Behavioural Ecology

It combines the study of the interactions between the behaviour of entities and their offsprings and between the survival value of entities which is associated with the evolution process to understand how an entity changes its behaviour to survive and perpetuate.

Population Ecology

It is concerned with the study of population structures and associated relationships instead of analyzing behavioural patterns of individuals. It studies factors affecting population size, density, growth and mortality rate etc.

Conservation Ecology

It deals with biodiversity management via restoration and conservation methods. Recently it has evolved to approach these issues – a decrease in the biodiversity and destruction of natural resources.

Applied Ecology

It aims at applying all the significant information, technical advancements and findings obtained from all concepts and principles of ecology to be able to comprehend real-world situations affecting ecosystems. For instance, epidemiology, wildlife and natural resource management, risk reduction and management due to natural disasters etc. It also incorporates principles of biotechnology to understand its effects on the biosphere. To know more about ecology and associated topics, please register at BYJU’S.

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