Ecology is the name
coined in 1866 by Ernst Haeckel, for his study of the patterns of
relations between organisms and their environment. But the study of
ecology is much older than the name; its roots lie
in earlier investigations of the "economy of nature." The major
theme throughout the history of this science and the ideas that
underlie it has been the interdependence of living things. An
awareness, more philosophical than purely scientific, of this
quality is what has generally been meant by the "ecological point
of view." Thus, the question of whether ecology is primarily a
science or a philosophy of interrelatedness has been a persistent
identity problem. And the nature of this interdependence is a
parallel issue. Is it a system of economic organization or a moral
community of mutual tolerance and aid?
In 1927 Elton
published his first major work, 'Animal Ecology', an important
purpose of which was to draw together existing ecological knowledge
into a new model of community. Elton was concerned with natural
communities- their workings, distribution, and component
populations. For Elton, the form or organization of the community
became the central problem, and this has remained true of English
and American ecologists up to the present.
On a systems view of
the planet, there are four dynamic biochemical perspectives of
materials and energy that flow through living things. These flows
maintain ourselves as an integral part of a living world, which we
increasingly utilise and impinge upon as we proceed with an ever
increasing pace and scale of economic
development.
Ecosystems define the day to day interdependence of
communities of species through flows of solar energy from plants to
microbes.
Evolution denotes the flows of materials and energy
that are directed by natural selection through sequences of species
in time.
Gaia
theory proposes
that life itself is the major controlling factor in the maintenance
of the planetary ocean/atmospheric balance to produce a habitable
planet.
Homeostasis defines the cybernetic control of flows of
materials and energy through the body surface and the internal
cellular membranes via interlocking chemical reactions catalysed by
proteins, the enzymes, that are specified by the genetic code
residing in DNA..It is at this level that cultural ecology is
taking on a new dimension through the social impact of inventions
emerging from biomedical research. These are aids to living a
youthful life into what used to be described as old age.
Daily doses of drugs, such as beta blockers are now part of human
ecology, working to maintaining the body as steady state. In
this sense they are a synthetic part of a healthy
diet.
