Disciplines

Ecology

Citation Formats

General Reference

Science Atlas. "Ecology." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://science.interactiveatlas.org/disciplines/ecology.

APA Style

Science Atlas. (n.d.). Ecology. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://science.interactiveatlas.org/disciplines/ecology

BibTeX

@misc{scienceatlas-ecology,
  author = {Science Atlas},
  title = {Ecology},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://science.interactiveatlas.org/disciplines/ecology},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Ecology is the study of how living things interact with each other and with their physical surroundings, including the flow of energy and matter through food webs, populations, and whole ecosystems. The German biologist Ernst Haeckel coined the term oecologie in 1866, though naturalists such as Maria Sibylla Merian had documented ecological relationships between insects and their food plants two centuries earlier.

Facts

Founded Yearthe subject's own account

1866 1

Central Questionthe subject's own account

How will the distribution of biodiversity and the balance of ecosystem services respond to accelerating environmental change, including the spread of invasive species? 1

Scopethe subject's own account

Ecology is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their environment, studied across levels from the individual organism to the whole biosphere. 1

Significancethe subject's own account

German scientist Ernst Haeckel coined the term ecology in 1866, but the science of ecology as practiced today began with a group of American botanists in the 1890s. Its core divisions, from population and community ecology to ecosystem and behavioral ecology, now underpin the study of biodiversity loss, one of the defining environmental problems of the twenty first century. 1

Cross-Tradition Connections