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Article: Ecology, Science of
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- Encyclopedia of Science and Religion
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Ecology, Science of
Ecology is the study of the relationships of organisms with other organisms and with their physical environment. Ecology also includes study of the structure and functions of natural systems. The word
ecology
was first used in 1866 by the German biologist Ernst Haeckel (1834
–
1919), who based it on the Greek words
oikos,
meaning "household," and
logos,
meaning "study." Though modern ecology is less than a hundred years old as a science, it has quickly diversified into a number of subdisciplines, each with different concepts and research methods. Some subdisciplines can be described by organism (plant ecology, animal ecology) or by habitat (terrestrial ecology, ...