Ecology : simple definition and general principles

Today, the word "ecology" is exploited by marketers in all fields. We seem to have forgotten what is really behind the definition of ecology. Where does ecology come from? What is the purpose of ecology? Who is concerned by ecology? In this article, we will go deeper into the question. We will look at the subject of ecology not out of fashion, but out of genuine interest.

  Ecology is the science that studies the relationships of humans, animals, plants and micro-organisms with each other and with the environment.

What is ecology?

When we discover something new, where do we start? With a definition. In doing so, the object of study can be examined from different angles.

What is the definition?

So what do we mean by the word "ecology"? Below is a list of the most popular queries on Google.

1) Simple definition

Ecology is the science that studies living organisms (plants, animals, humans) in their environment. How these living organisms interact with each other in their habitat.

2) Scientific definition

(From Greek οἶκος - dwelling, residence and λόγος - teaching) is a natural science (part of biology) about the interactions of living organisms with each other and with their environment, about the organization and functioning of biosystems of different levels (populations, communities, ecosystems).

3) Political

Political ecology is a core research area of anthropology and related disciplines that examines how and why economic structures and power relations drive environmental change in an increasingly interconnected world.

4) Etymology

The term "ecology" was coined by German zoologist Ernst Haeckel in 1866 to describe the "economy" of living forms. Haeckel was an ardent supporter of Darwin. He was intensely impressed by the book The Origin of Species. He later published a popular science book explaining the ideas of Darwinism to a wider audience. The book, entitled Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte, was translated into 25 languages and established Haeckel's reputation as one of the most active promoters of science in Germany.   5) Today's vision "...The word 'ecology' has gained enormous popularity nowadays, but its meaning is perceived differently in different circles. For scientists, it is a well-defined branch of science belonging to the cycle of biological sciences, while in the non-professional milieu, ecology is understood as something quite different - at best, only the study of hygienic aspects of the environment, and often just the level of its pollution by man" [V.N. Bolshakov, 1996]. "...Ecological problems require extensive philosophical reflection, creation of new ethical concepts, and can serve as an impetus for the emergence of new religions and as an engine for the formation of new social systems. In ecology, the complex fundamental problems are close to the applied questions that must be solved today, now. All this makes us say that ecology is more than a scientific discipline, it is a problem-oriented scientific knowledge system" [V.I. Danilov-Danilyan, 2000].  

What are the principles of ecology?

American ecologist Barry Commoner formulated the following aphorisms, which have become known as the four laws of ecology:

• Everything is connected to everything else;
• Everything must go somewhere;
• Nature knows best;
• There’s no such thing as a free lunch (nothing comes from nothing).

  "Everything is connected to everything" The concept of universal connection means that nature and society are included in a single network of systemic interactions and that changes in one part of the system inevitably lead to changes in other parts of the system. Any change in an ecological system triggers a chain reaction to counteract it. In addition, the dependence between the elements of ecological systems is not linear, meaning that a small change in one can lead to large changes in the others. "Everything must go somewhere" The principe of energy conservation is one of the main requirements of environmental management. Its ecological interpretation includes: 1) The development of a natural system at the expense of its environment: any natural system can only develop at the expense of the material, energy and information resources of the environment; therefore, absolutely isolated development and totally waste-free production are impossible; 2) The law of waste intractability: all economic activities generate waste that can only be transferred from one form to another or moved through space, but cannot be completely eliminated. "Nature knows best" defines the limits of what is acceptable and unacceptable in the biosphere. Today, only one thousandth of the evolutionarily tested animal and plant species inhabit the Earth. The main criterion for evolutionary selection is participation in the global biotic cycle, filling all ecological niches. According to Commoner, any major anthropogenic change in a natural system is likely to cause a devastating effect on that system. This change is due to many new substances that did not exist in nature. The petrochemical industry generated more than 100,000 chemical molecules during the 20th century. Based on the same basic patterns of carbon chemistry as natural compounds, these new substances are easily integrated into existing biochemical processes. Unfortunately, this is often harmful to living organisms, as these elements cause mutations, cancers and many other forms of death and disease. "There’s no such thing as a free lunch" The price of development means that at the level of the overall ecological system, any gain is necessarily accompanied by a loss. And everything that is extracted from the ecosystem by human effort must be replaced.   This law has three consequences:

• the evolution of large systems happens only from simple to complex;
• as the complexity of the system's organization increases, the rate of evolution increases;
• there are no free resources.

  To Commoner's aphorisms, modern ecologists have added the theory of finite resources - Everything Has Limits, which means that the mass of nutrients for all living organisms on Earth is finite and limited, so that a significant increase in the number and mass of some organisms on a global scale can only occur at the expense of the number and mass of others. Given these laws, the future of humanity depends on the formation of a new worldview of the biosphere, for only the human spirit can guide development toward the simultaneous preservation of the biosphere and civilization.  

How to be ecological ?

  Being ecological is the quality of a person that reflects his or her ability not to harm the environment. We would like to share with you some tips on how to become more environmentally friendly in daily life.   3 reasons to get a grip and start recycling:

1. On average, we produce about 1 kg of household waste per day, or 365 kg per year, or almost 30 tons in a lifetime (based on an average age of 82 years).
2. For each of us, more than a ton of plastic waste has already accumulated on the Earth. Note: 70-90% of this waste can be recycled.
3. And more than 90% of waste is made from depletable natural resources: oil, water, wood, metal, etc.

  TIP - Ask yourself these questions to make an environmentally responsible purchase:

• Can the raw material and packaging be recycled or reused?
• Can the material be recycled indefinitely?
• How much energy and water would it take to recycle it?

  2 reasons to take a closer look at your food habits:

• Food production comes with 23% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions and a huge amount of water consumption (especially for livestock);
• We throw away about a quarter of the food we buy. About 20% of the food we produce does not even reach us, not because it does not pass quality control or is out of date.

Before you shop

Check all the supplies: in the fridge, in the cupboards, everywhere - start planning your purchases with what you have. Plan your menu for the week. You can use a planner. To avoid having to make a menu every time, Bea Johnson, for example, associates the type of dish with each day of the week: pasta on Monday, roast on Tuesday, etc. Start planning and developing the principle you are comfortable with. Make a list - this will prevent impulse buying, unnecessary spending and waste. By the way, don't shop on an empty stomach - it's easier to stick to a plan and not be tempted. Go to the store (or better yet, your local market) not only with your carry-on bag, but take a few bags from the bulk grocery store, cloth bags for bread or fruit, a ziploc bag for meat, a container for cottage cheese and an egg carton you've already brought home once. If you haven't managed to plan your shopping yet, put your bags everywhere (in your purse, at the office, in the car) so that if you ever need to have yours, you'll always have it. When you're putting together your weekly ration, you can also think about the resources used to produce what you're going to eat or throw away if it's wasted:

• 1 kg of beef - 15,000 liters of water
• 1 kg of pork - 6,000 liters of water
• 1 kg of chicken - 4,300 liters of water
• 1 kg of rice - 4,000 liters of water
• 1 kg of hamburger - 2,400 liters of water
• 1 kg of soybeans - 2,100 liters of water
• 1 kg of wheat - 1,000 liters of water
• 1 kg of potatoes - 100 liters of water

 

Who is the father of ecology?

The father of ecology is the German biologist Ernst Haeckel. Ecology as a science was born only in the middle of the 19th century after information was accumulated about the diversity of living organisms on Earth, about the particuliarities of their way of life. It is understood that not only the structure and development of organisms, but also their relationship with the environment are subject to certain laws, which deserve special and careful study.  

Who is concerned by ecology?

All actors of the society are concerned with ecology, including consumers!  

What are the international environmental organizations?

The international organizations bring together the environmental activities of the states concerned, independently of their political positions, by highlighting the environmental issues of the whole of the international problems.

• WWF - World Wide Fund for Nature ;
• Greenpeace ;
• BirdLife International;
• UNESCO - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization;
• UNEP - United Nations Environment Programme;
• One Percent for the Planet.

 

What is the difference between environment and ecology?

As environment and ecology are closely related principles, they are often confused and considered as identical. But the two concepts are completely different and distant. The environment is defined as the place that contains all living, non-living and inanimate objects. Ecology is concerned with the scientific study of the interaction of organisms with each other and the relationships between other organisms and their ecosystems. Environmental science seeks to identify the internal and external factors that affect the environment and the organisms that live in it, in order to find solutions to environmental problems. Ecology aims to understand life processes, adaptation, distribution and biodiversity.  

Environment

Environment refers to the interaction between physical, chemical and biological components. It includes issues such as deforestation, pollution, global warming and other important issues. It is the study of internal and external factors that affect the environment.  

Ecology

This is the study of the relationships between living things, the environment and their interactions. Ecological issues include population size, diversity, biological distribution, and competition among them. It aims to understand the processes of life, distribution, adaptation and biodiversity.  

Important concepts to know

In this section, we will discuss concepts directly related to ecology.  

Sustainable development

The official definition of development is that of the Brundtland Report. The Brundtland Report, also called "Our Common Future", defines sustainable development as follows: Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.   Sustainable development contains two key concepts:

• the notion of needs, especially the basic needs of the world's poor, which should be given top priority;
• the idea of the limits imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the capacity of the environment to meet current and future needs.

 

The ecological transition

The ecological transition is a concept that aims to introduce a new social and economic model to intelligently respond to environmental challenges. It aims to rethink the way we live together on the territory, work and produce in order to reduce our impact on the environment. In the long term, it will enable us to adopt a sustainable development approach, by favouring renewable energies, changing our consumption behaviour and limiting waste. Its objective is to provide an economic and social response to the environmental challenges facing our planet. As an example of ecological transition, consider the story of carpet tile manufacturer Interface. The company chose the path of green transition in 1994. The first strategy was called Mission Zero. Interface began by assessing the life cycle of its product to understand where environmental impact was occurring. Based on this analysis, the company introduced innovations in production. The shift to eco-design affected all stages of production, from the choice of materials to the supply chain to thinking about the product's end-of-life. For example, the glue has been replaced by self-gripping coatings so that the tiles can be reused, thus giving them a second life. In 25 years, this new strategy has enabled them to reduce the amount of waste produced, water consumption and CO2 emissions by more than 80%. The company's business model is based on creating a superior product in terms of service and respect for the environment.

The ecological debt

The ecological debt is a concept that determines the frugality with which people use the planet's resources. The Earth Overshoot Day is the date when, each year, humanity has used all the renewable resources that the Earth can reproduce in one year. For example, more forests are cut down than can be grown in a year, or more fish are caught than will appear in the ocean in the same period. After Earth Overshoot Day and before the end of the year, people use what nature cannot replace. Humanity was first confronted with ecological debt in 1970. On December 29, 1970, the first Earth Overshoot Day was recorded. People then exhausted the Earth's renewable resources just two days before the new year. Since then, this day has been getting closer and closer to the beginning of the year: while in 2000, "the food in the fridge" ran out at the beginning of October, in 2018 it was already on August 1, which means that the deficit reached 153 days. A small exception was made in 2020, where the Earth Overshoot Day came almost a month later than in 2019. This was due to the global lockdown, during which people spent fewer resources than usual. For many years, data analysis along these lines has been carried out by the non-profit research organization Global Footprint Network, based in Belgium, the United States and Switzerland. Humanity consumes on average 74% more resources than the Earth can regenerate in a year. This figure continues to grow as consumption increases. Humanity constantly needs more food, clothes, houses, gadgets, cars, as well as raw materials and companies to produce all of this. Only recently has the world begun to consider the consequences of the uncontrolled consumption of the planet's resources. The consequences include the disappearance of forests, the degradation and destruction of ecosystems, pollution, and the accumulation of greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that are warming the planet.  

Ecological Resilience

What is the definition of ecological resilience? Ecological resilience is the ability of an ecological system to return to its original form after a disturbance under the influence of internal and external factors. The synonym for this concept is ecological stability. The level of ecological resilience of countries is quantified by the Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI).   The 3 dimensions of the ESI are:

• Human (or social) well-being;
• Environmental well-being;
• Economic well-being.

  To illustrate environmental resilience, let's take the example of cities with a new philosophy. They are building their infrastructure and ecosystem, trying to be environmentally responsible for their residents, tourists and wildlife.

The Tianjin Eco-City project

The authors of the project decided to build a green city from the ground up. The city will cover 30 square kilometers and will feature the latest energy-saving technologies. The city has also designed a light rail system - up to 90% of the city's transportation will be public. Wastewater treatment, green landscapes, wind power: 350,000 residents will be able to live comfortably in an eco-environment.

Various projects in Paris

The city of Paris is also restructuring to become as green as possible through new laws and architectural solutions. Among Mayor Anne Hidalgo's initiatives is Paris Respire, a project that aims to clean up the air in Paris. To achieve this, several main streets are closed to cars every first Sunday of the month. The goal is to reduce noise by 40% and air pollution by 20%. Paris is also extending its network of bicycle paths. By 2021, Paris counts more than 1,000 km of bicycle facilities, including more than 300 km of tracks and 52 km of temporary tracks completed after the first lockdown. Anne Hidalgo also gave a presentation on the Paris "15-minute city" project. The idea is that everything necessary for life should be within 15 minutes on foot or 5 minutes by bicycle. This means rethinking public spaces: new neighborhoods should include health centers, sports facilities, shopping malls, workplaces and training facilities.

Ecological niches

The ecologist J. Grinnell wrote in 1917 that an ecological niche is a set of adaptations of a species to the conditions of existence, to a certain habitat. Let us give a scientific definition of what an ecological niche is. An ecological niche is the functional place of a species in an ecosystem, which depends on the biological characteristics of the species and the combination of environmental factors to which it has adapted. The following characteristics are important in describing an ecological niche:

• Habitat;
• Food composition;
• Feeding behavior.

  Thus, the habitat is the "address" and the ecological niche is a kind of "occupation" of the species. The two concepts are interconnected. Species adapt to a certain set of living conditions, which is necessary for a long-term existence in an ecosystem.

An example of ecological niches

In nature, different species can live in the same area. This is only possible when the ecological niches are different. For example, a kangaroo lives in the savannahs and forests of Australia, while a zebra lives in the same natural area in Africa. These systematically distant species eat similar diets. Thus, they do not have to compete for food, which helps maintain the population. It is by having ecological niches that the balance of wildlife is maintained.

Ecological problems

An ecological problem is a problem that leads to a disturbance of the environment, related to the impact of man on the environment. Examples of environmental problems recognized by the global scientific community:

• Pollution;
• Global warming;
• Overpopulation;
• Poor waste management ;
• Ocean acidification ;
• Loss of biodiversity ;
• Deforestation;
• Acid rain.

  Now you know everything about ecology It is important to take care of our planet, to know the theory of ecology and apply this knowledge in practice. And build a better future for the generations to come.

To find out more, take a look at the following articles:

‣ Circular economy: definition and example ‣ Ecology: definition and example ‣ Becoming eco-responsible: approach, gestures and examples ‣ Eco-responsible and ecological product: definition and example ‣ Ecological footprint: definition and example