Portal:Ecology

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Ecology

Ecology (from Ancient Greek οἶκος (oîkos) 'house', and -λογία (-logía) 'study of') is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere levels. Ecology overlaps with the closely related sciences of biogeography, evolutionary biology, genetics, ethology, and natural history. Ecology is a branch of biology, and is the study of abundance, biomass, and distribution of organisms in the context of the environment. It encompasses life processes, interactions, and adaptations; movement of materials and energy through living communities; successional development of ecosystems; cooperation, competition, and predation within and between species; and patterns of biodiversity and its effect on ecosystem processes. Ecology has practical applications in conservation biology, wetland management, natural resource management (agroecology, agriculture, forestry, agroforestry, fisheries, mining, tourism), urban planning (urban ecology), community health, economics, basic and applied science, and human social interaction (human ecology). The word ecology (German: Ökologie) was coined in 1866 by the German scientist Ernst Haeckel. The science of ecology as we know it today began with a group of American botanists in the 1890s. Evolutionary concepts relating to adaptation and natural selection are cornerstones of modern ecological theory. Ecosystems are dynamically interacting systems of organisms, the communities they make up, and the non-living (abiotic) components of their environment. Ecosystem processes, such as primary production, nutrient cycling, and niche construction, regulate the flux of energy and matter through an environment. Ecosystems have biophysical feedback mechanisms that moderate processes acting on living (biotic) and abiotic components of the planet. Ecosystems sustain life-supporting functions and provide ecosystem services like biomass production (food, fuel, fiber, and medicine), the regulation of climate, global biogeochemical cycles, water filtration, soil formation, erosion control, flood protection, and many other natural features of scientific, historical, economic, or intrinsic value. (Full article...) Selected article - An estuary mouth and marine coastal waters, part of an aquatic ecosystem An aquatic ecosystem is an ecosystem found in and around a body of water, in contrast to land-based terrestrial ecosystems. Aquatic ecosystems contain communities of organisms—aquatic life—that are dependent on each other and on their environment. The two main types of aquatic ecosystems are marine ecosystems and freshwater ecosystems. Freshwater ecosystems may be lentic (slow moving water, including pools, ponds, and lakes); lotic (faster moving water, for example streams and rivers); and wetlands (areas where the soil is saturated or inundated for at least part of the time). (Full article...) List of selected articles Ecosystem History of ecology Ecological economics River ecosystem Human ecology Forest ecology Wetland Natural environment Butanol fuel Old-growth forest Bioplastic Atmosphere of Earth Conservation biology Biofuel Landscape ecology Cleaner fish Biome Hydrology Biosphere Life Mycology Evolution Lotic ecosystem Coral reef Fire ecology Pollination Species reintroduction Theoretical ecology Spatial ecology Ecological fitting Ecology of California Biodiversity of Albania Storage effect Vacant niche Desert ecology Disturbance (ecology) Ecological facilitation Food web Plant ecology Intertidal ecology Nitrogen cycle Restoration ecology Ecological art Ecological resilience Ecology of the North Cascades Ecology of the Rocky Mountains Altitudinal zonation Ecology of the San Francisco Estuary Environmental issues with coral reefs Acclimatisation society Island restoration Intraspecific competition Interspecific competition Taylor's law World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions Blue carbon Ciénega Metabolic theory of ecology Ecosystem-based management The Green Planet (TV series) Selected image - Waterfall Credit: Martin St-Amant The Iguazu Falls, on the border of Brazil and Argentina are waterfalls of the Iguazu River located on the border of the Brazilian State of Paraná and the Argentine Province of Misiones. General images The following are images from various ecology-related articles on Wikipedia. Rich rainforest habitat in Dominica (from Habitat) A simple trophic cascade diagram. On the right shows when wolves are absent, showing an increase in elks and reduction in vegetation growth. The left one shows when wolves are present and controlling the elk population. (from Community (ecology)) The leaves of an Alnus nepalensis tree provide a microhabitat for species like the leaf beetle Aulacophora indica. (from Habitat) This coral reef in the Phoenix Islands Protected Area provides habitat for numerous marine species. (from Habitat) Dense mass of white crabs at a hydrothermal vent, with stalked barnacles on right (from Habitat) Table visualising size-symmetric competition, using fish as consumers and crabs as resources. (from Community (ecology)) A freshwater lake in Gran Canaria, an island of the Canary Islands. Clear boundaries make lakes convenient to study using an ecosystem approach. (from Ecosystem) A red-chested cuckoo chick being feed by a significantly smaller Cape robin-chat adult (from Community (ecology)) Loch Lomond in Scotland forms a relatively isolated ecosystem. The fish community of this lake has remained stable over a long period until a number of introductions in the 1970s restructured its food web. (from Ecosystem) Few creatures make the ice shelves of Antarctica their habitat, but water beneath the ice can provide habitat for multiple species. Animals such as penguins have adapted to live in very cold conditions. (from Habitat) Ibex in an alpine habitat (from Habitat) Flora of Baja California desert, Cataviña region, Mexico (from Ecosystem) a) A trophic pyramid showing the different trophic levels in a community. b) A food web of the same community (from Community (ecology)) A generalised graph of a predator-prey population density cycle (from Community (ecology)) Wetland habitat types in Borneo (from Habitat) A bear with a salmon. Interspecific interactions such as predation are a key aspect of community ecology. (from Community (ecology)) The High Peaks Wilderness Area in the 6,000,000-acre (2,400,000 ha) Adirondack Park is an example of a diverse ecosystem. (from Ecosystem) Biological nitrogen cycling (from Ecosystem) Twenty-five years after the devastating eruption at Mount St. Helens, United States, pioneer species have moved in. (from Habitat) Spiny forest at Ifaty, Madagascar, featuring various Adansonia (baobab) species, Alluaudia procera (Madagascar ocotillo) and other vegetation (from Ecosystem) An Antarctic rock split apart to show endolithic lifeforms showing as a green layer a few millimeters thick (from Habitat) Rainforest ecosystems are rich in biodiversity. This is the Gambia River in Senegal's Niokolo-Koba National Park. (from Ecosystem) Desert scene in Egypt (from Habitat) Sequence of a decomposing pig carcass over time (from Ecosystem) Global oceanic and terrestrial phototroph abundance, from September 1997 to August 2000. As an estimate of autotroph biomass, it is only a rough indicator of primary production potential and not an actual estimate of it. (from Ecosystem) Related WikiProjects WikiProject Ecology WikiProject Environment WikiProject Ecoregions WikiProject Extinction WikiProject Biology WikiProject Protected areas WikiProject Forestry WikiProject Soil WikiProject Agriculture WikiProject Science Things you can do Here are some tasks awaiting attention: Article requests : Create any of the missing articles listed on the WikiProject Ecology page, Alkali bee (Pollinator decline), Ecosystem function (presently a redirect), Nutrient flow (Synecology), Seed crop (Pollinator decline) Verify : Agroecosystem, Biologist, Botany, Ecological pyramid, Ecological selection, Ecological succession, Ecotone, Functional ecology, Macroecology, Microbial ecology, Molecular biology, Uncontacted peoples Wikify : Add {{Portal|Ecology}} to the See also sections of ecology-related articles. Other : For additional tasks, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Ecology/to do  – When a task is completed, please remove it from the list. Recognized content - Entries here consist of Good and Featured articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards. The lion is the world's second-largest big cat and serves as an apex land predator in Africa. An apex predator, also known as a top predator, is a predator at the top of a food chain, without natural predators of its own. Apex predators are usually defined in terms of trophic dynamics, meaning that they occupy the highest trophic levels. Food chains are often far shorter on land, usually limited to being secondary consumers – for example, wolves prey mostly upon large herbivores (primary consumers), which eat plants (primary producers). The apex predator concept is applied in wildlife management, conservation, and ecotourism. (Full article...) List of recognized articles Botany Climate Sustainability Nature Automimicry Batesian mimicry Aposematism Aggressive mimicry Countershading Albany Pine Bush Ambush predator Camouflage Flagship species Disruptive coloration Habitat Host (biology) Invasive species Keystone species Mimicry Motion camouflage Müllerian mimicry Natural selection Underwater camouflage Predation Parasitoid Parasitism Geography and ecology of the Everglades Leopold Report List of invasive species in the Everglades Selected biography - Leopold in 1946 Aldo Leopold (January 11, 1887 – April 21, 1948) was an American writer, philosopher, naturalist, scientist, ecologist, forester, conservationist, and environmentalist. He was a professor at the University of Wisconsin and is best known for his book A Sand County Almanac (1949), which has been translated into fourteen languages and has sold more than two million copies. Leopold was influential in the development of modern environmental ethics and in the movement for wilderness conservation. His ethics of nature and wildlife preservation had a profound impact on the environmental movement, with his ecocentric or holistic ethics regarding land. He emphasized biodiversity and ecology and was a founder of the science of wildlife management. (Full article...) List of selected biographies Ernst Haeckel Charles Darwin Eugenius Warming Aziz Ab'Sáber Sergei Winogradsky Leonty Ramensky Eugene Odum Rachel Carson Howard T. Odum William Skinner Cooper Pierre Dansereau Edward Smith Deevey Jr. John Burroughs Helena Norberg-Hodge Martin Gerzabek Exequiel Ezcurra Lian Pin Koh Ann Fowler Rhoads Ramon Margalef Charles Sutherland Elton Frances James (ecologist) John Stanley Beard Liz Chicaje Aparajita Datta C. S. Holling Marie-Josée Fortin Hanna Kokko Karl Möbius Elsie Quarterman Ian Stirling (biologist) Paul Sears Joan Roughgarden Christen C. Raunkiær Ed Ricketts Carl Linnaeus Lincoln Brower Did you know (auto-generated) ... that scientist Adelaida K. Semesi was known as "mama mangroves" due to her specialist knowledge of their ecology? ... that wampum artist Elizabeth James-Perry also works on ecological restoration projects, including the reintroduction of native plant life? ... that the British political theorist Chris Armstrong has called for a "blue new deal" to secure ecological resilience for the ocean and a just blue economy? ... that gynaecologist Oon Chiew Seng, who was diagnosed with dementia in 2013, was the founding chairperson of the first dementia home in Singapore? ... that ancient Roman gynecologists believed that menstrual blood could be used to drive dogs insane? ... that PlantSims, human–plant hybrids in The Sims 2: Seasons, have been studied as examples of ecofeminism and deep ecology? Selected quote - “ All the wild world is beautiful, and it matters but little where we go, to highlands or lowlands, woods or plains, on the sea or land or down among the crystals of waves or high in a balloon in the sky; through all the climates, hot or cold, storms and calms, everywhere and always we are in God's eternal beauty and love. So universally true is this, the spot where we chance to be always seems the best. ” — John Muir Ecology news From the Wikinews Environment portal April 23: European Union to reduce carbon emissions by 55% of 1990 levels by 2030 November 27: Wikinews interviews Craig Farquharson, Liberal Democrat candidate for 2020 Groom by-election November 27: Wikinews interviews Sandra Jephcott, Sustainable Australia candidate for 2020 Groom by-election December 14: Greta Thunberg named 2019 Time Person of the Year November 23: Researchers break down deaths due to power plant pollution in the United States November 21: Slippery business: Materials scientists invent new coating for self-cleaning, water-efficient toilets October 19: Northern Arapaho Tribe welcomes buffalo herd in Wyoming, United States October 12: Scientists describe how 'upside-down rivers' of warm water break Antarctica's ice shelf October 5: Voracious fish defend coral reefs against warming, say scientists September 8: Scientists report skyrocketing phytoplankton population in aftermath of Kīlauea eruption Additional News Highlights November 5, 2009: "New ocean forming in African desert." Selected publication - African Invertebrates is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that covers the taxonomy, systematics, biogeography, ecology, conservation, and palaeontology of Afrotropical invertebrates, whether terrestrial, freshwater, or marine. African Invertebrates is currently published twice a year and accepts large revisionary works, as well as review papers and smaller contributions. (Full article...) More selected publications Related portals More did you know - Related articles Associated Wikimedia The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject: Commons Free media repository Wikibooks Free textbooks and manuals Wikidata Free knowledge base Wikinews Free-content news Wikiquote Collection of quotations Wikisource Free-content library Wikiversity Free learning tools Wiktionary Dictionary and thesaurus Web resources Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy – Ecology The Encyclopedia of Earth – Ecology The Nature Education Knowledge Project – Ecology National Geographic – Ecology Discover Wikipedia using portals List of all portals The arts portal Biography portal Current events portal Geography portal History portal Mathematics portal Science portal Society portal Technology portal Random portal WikiProject Portals