Outline of ecology

Essence of ecology

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  Other criteria

• the primary kinds of organism under study, e.g. animal ecology, plant ecology, insect ecology;
• the biomes principally studied, e.g. forest ecology, grassland ecology, desert ecology, benthic ecology, marine ecology, urban ecology;
• the geographic or climatic area, e.g. arctic ecology, tropical ecology
• the spatial scale under consideration, e.g. macroecology, landscape ecology;
• the philosophical approach, e.g. systems ecology which adopts a holistic approach;
• the methods used, e.g. molecular ecology.

  Subdisciplines of ecology, and subdiscipline classification

By level of complexity or scope

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• By organisms under study

• By biome under study

• By geographic or climatic area under study

• By spatial scale under study

• By ecological aspects or phenomena under investigation

• - which deals with the ecological role of biological chemicals used in a wide range of areas including defense against predators and attraction of mates;
• - which studies the interaction of physiological traits with the abiotic environment;
• - which looks at the ecological role of toxic chemicals ;
• - or ecoevolution which looks at evolutionary changes in the context of the populations and communities in which the organisms exist;
• - which looks at the role of fire in the environment of plants and animals and its effect on ecological communities;
• - the study of the roles, or functions, that certain species play in an ecosystem;
• - the ecology of the pedosphere;

  By technique used for investigation

• - the development of ecological theory, usually with mathematical, statistical and/or computer modeling tools;

  By environmental approach

• - the practice of employing ecological principles and understanding to solve real world problems ;
• - which studies how to reduce the risk of species extinction;
• - an ecological and environmental philosophy promoting the inherent worth of living beings regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs, plus a radical restructuring of modern human societies in accordance with such ideas.
• - philosophy of ecological harmony or equilibrium.
• - which attempts to understand the ecological basis needed to restore impaired or damaged ecosystems.
• - involves the assignment of different values, rights, or special consideration to individuals solely on the basis of their species membership.
• - value system that is centered on technology and its ability to control and protect the environment.

  Ecology-involved interdisciplinary fields

• Other subdisciplines

• ecological succession, which focuses on understanding directed vegetation change;
• thermal ecology, the study of the relationship between temperature and organisms;

• media ecology.
• information ecology.

  Biogeographic regions

• Terrestrial realms

• 22.9 mil. km²
• 54.1 mil. km²
• 22.1 mil. km²
• 7.5 mil. km²
• 7.7 mil. km². The northern boundary of this zone is known as the Wallace line.
• 19.0 mil. km²
• 1.0 mil. km²
• 0.3 mil. km².

  Ecoregions

History of ecology

• History of human ecology

  General ecology concepts

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