Ecology: Meaning and Scope


Concepts

1. Ecology is the study of the structure and function of nature.
2. Ecology developed from many roots, but its beginnings trace back to natural history and plant geography.
3. Ecology has branches into many subdivisions, many of them specialized.
4. The principles of ecology form the scientific basis for the solution to many of our environmental problems.
5. Modern ecology is an empirical, experimental science.
6. Science involves the testing of hypotheses.
7. A hypothesis is a statement that can be tested.
8. Testing hypotheses involves the collection and analysis of data collected by observation and experimentation.
9. Useful in ecological studies are models, explicit sets of hypotheses relating pattern and process.