ENVS 1500 Lecture Notes - Landscape Ecology, Thylakoid, Photosynthetically Active Radiation

• School: York University
• Department: Environmental Studies
• Course: ENVS 1500
• Professor: Gail Fraser

Document Summary

Ecology is the branch of science dedicated to the study of relationships between organisms and the environment. The term ecology comes from the greek word for house. Much of ecology is focused on understanding how organisms interact with each other and their environment. Ecology is an interdisciplinary science, and not a political philosophy or a way of life. An ecologist is a person who applies a scientific approach to understanding the relationships between organisms and environment. Ecology is about understanding the mechanisms causing the patterns that occur in the natural world. The discipline of ecology addresses environmental relationships ranging from individual organisms to factors influencing the state of the entire biosphere. Physiological ecologists study the morphological and physiological mechanism organisms use to gather energy and cope with biotic and abiotic stressors. Behavioral ecologists focus principally on the determinants of individual behavior, and how that can influence interactions among individual and the environments.