"By ecology we mean the body of knowledge concerning the economy of nature- the investigation of the total relations of the animal both to inorganic and its organic environment; including above all, its friendly and inimical relations with those animals and plants with which it comes directly or indirectly into contact- in a word, ecology is the study of all those complex interrelations referred to by Darwin as the conditions for the struggle for existence."

This lengthy quote by German biologist Ernst Haeckel was first used in the late 19th century to describe the concept behind ecology. Quite simply ecology is the study of all that which has to do with the environment of a biosphere. This includes the traditional items like animals, plants, and ecosystems, but may be expanded and updated to include things like urban societies and entire civilizations.

Although biologist may continue to argue about the exact scientific definition of the word itself there is no question about the vast and ever expanding implications of ecology. In the past, before the Industrial Revolution, most of the world's population was actively engaged in agriculture and thus the resources used were essentially localized and heavily recycled. However with the coming of the machine and possibility of fast, automated, and abundant output of products there began a dangerous shift in the resource utilization curve. Now items were being produced at a rate much faster than they could be replenished and what's more is that these new products were increasingly more refined such that they could resist decomposition for long periods of time. As we swiftly approach the 21st century we have reached the point where we now see the limits of a once limitless environment and the need to understand the effects of all of our environmental interactions is crucial.

The future of ecology will be as complex as the society we live in. The very role of mankind will even be shaped by the decisions we make about our environment today. More than just the effects of introducing a foreign species into a new environment or the consequences of a toxic oil spill, things that we limit ecology too now, ecology of the future will dare to explain such things as the effects of urban overpopulation on the health of the human species. Ecology in the future will go beyond what we call "environmental issues" to encompass things like the consequences of exploiting whole countries (including their peoples) and even things like the effect of space travel on our global atmosphere. In effect, ecology will grow to deal with all of our probable as well as possible interactions on this planet. What's more, as we begin a new era of space exploration leaving our footprints on the moon, our tire tracks on Mars and a handful of satellites searching our solar system, we expand our definition of ecology to include those of whole other worlds, all as we continue to struggle for our own existence.

References

Boughey, Arthur S. Fundamentals of Ecology. Scranton: Intext Educational Publishers, 1971.

McIntosh, Robert P. The Background of Ecology, Concept and Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.

Odum, Eugene P. Ecology. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1963.

Odum, Eugene P. Fundamental of Ecology. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Company, 1959.