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.
