Living organisms, including humans, and non-living elements of the environment
interact, frequently in complex ways. Ernst Häckel founded the study of these interactions
– ecology – as an academic subject (oecology) in 1866. In 1927 Charles Elton
described ecology as ‘scientific natural history’. Modern definitions include: the study
of the structure and function of nature; the study of interactions between organisms
(biotic) and their non-living (abiotic) environment; the science of the relations of
organisms to their total environment (Fraser-Darling, 1963; Odum, 1975; Park, 1980).
Synecology is the study of individual species–environment linkages – and autecology
is the study of community–environment linkages. Ecology is often a guide for environmental
management, environmentalism and environmental ethics, suggesting limits and
opportunities, and providing many key concepts and techniques (e.g. carrying capacity).
Since the early 1970s ‘ecology’ has also come to mean a viewpoint – typically a concern
for the environment – as much as a discipline (O’Riordan, 1976).