Sections of ecology and their brief description. Main sections of ecology

Man, being a part of the noosphere, is compelled to solve questions of interaction of the society with the environment. The science that examines and analyzes the connections of populations of living organisms among themselves and their habitat, as well as studying the influence of nature factors on plant, animals and other forms of life, is called ecology. For a more detailed study of this biological discipline is divided into branches: synecology, out- ecology , demecology, human ecology.

They are integrated and are part of an interdisciplinary complex that includes not only the ecology sections, but also other sciences: economics, sociology, psychology. This article will be devoted to studying the branches of environmental science and determining their significance for human development in harmony with living nature.

Ecology sections and their brief description

The task of the disciplines is a deeper and more comprehensive study of various aspects of science: biological, social and economic. For example, the main attention is paid to the peculiarities of the interrelationships of plants, animals and bacteria with their habitat, general ecology as a science. Sections of ecology solve the problems of life-support of populations in biogeocenoses. Geoecology considers the specificity of living communities in specific geographical conditions: in the mountains, freshwater reservoirs, seas, etc. Next we will consider the above and other sections of the ecology in more detail.

Tasks of the general ecology

The most important of them is the study of natural resources according to the levels of their organization. Such a section as anecdology, systematizes various manifestations of environmental conditions, delineating them into abiotic, biotic and anthropogenic factors. It is known how important is the temperature regime, illumination and water supply for the life of plants, animals and humans. Scientists also analyze adaptations that arise under the influence of changing conditions both in populations and at the level of biogeocoenosis.

Synecology, like other sections of modern ecology, explores the interaction of elements of biogeocenosis at the level of groups of organisms of different biological species. They are expressed in such forms as mutualism, parasitism, commensalism, symbiosis. It should be noted that environmental factors studied at the level of ecology are refracted through the life forms of different organisms, which is a fundamental difference between them from studies conducted, for example, in climatology, soil science or hydrology.

Demecology is the key to understanding the functioning of the biocenosis

This section of environmental science studies the properties of the main structural unit of living nature - the population. This concept encompasses a group of organisms of a single biological species that inhabit a common area - an area. Scientific discipline, like other main sections of ecology, classifies populations into local, geographical and ecological species. She also studies in detail such properties of living communities as the ability to reproduce and evolve, highlighting their varieties - permanent and temporal. The latter in the process of phylogenesis can be transformed into permanent populations or eliminated.

How to distinguish interspecific communities

A logical continuation of the study of the properties of the population of living organisms is synecology. It, like other sections of the general ecology, analyzes the patterns of interrelations between organisms of different species established during the evolution process. They reflect the hierarchy of ecosystems and consist of co-ordinated levels. Studies of the life of plants, microorganisms, animals in their natural habitat are carried out by scientists to establish the laws that organize them into biocenoses.

How do organisms adapt to changing environmental factors?

We will get answers to this question, considering the main sections of ecology, in particular, such a discipline as autecology. It formulated several postulates explaining the mechanisms of adaptation, for example, the law of the optimum, establishing for each organism the boundaries of its vital activity in all abiotic factors (the so-called limits of tolerance). The center of this zone of habitat life is called the optimum. This is the range of the most favorable living conditions of a living organism.

Due to the sharp deterioration of the environment in science, it became necessary to identify the adaptation mechanisms that are formed in living organisms as a result of physicochemical and radioactive contamination of the biosphere.

Human exposure to biogeocenoses

It is comprehensively studied by several scientific disciplines, which include sections of applied ecology. As a person developing industry and infrastructure, agriculture. Changes the face of natural complexes? How does the application of new nanotechnologies transform the face of the Earth? The answers to these questions are given to us by the following sections of ecology: the theory of artificial systems, urboecology, and biospherology. Anthropogenic factors, such as direct (for example, pollution of the hydrosphere by industrial and domestic sewage, predatory deforestation, poaching), and indirect (for example, the creation of artificial seas - reservoirs, plowing of land, leading to soil erosion and salinity, drainage of wetlands), change the equilibrium Natural biosystems - biocenoses and are a direct threat to life on Earth. The Red Book is a vivid confirmation of the criminal activity of a person, leading to the extinction and death of a huge number of biological species.

Perspectives of applied ecology

This is a relatively young branch of science that is part of the ecology. The table below defines all of its sub-structural branches associated with the main areas of human activity and the relationship of the society with wildlife.

So bioresource and industrial ecology offers sparing methods of exploitation of agricultural lands, forests, seas and other ecosystems, which are aimed at preserving their fertility and productivity.

Relevance of Urboecology Research

Studying the various departments of ecology, we will focus on a discipline that covers the problems arising in the urban environment and related to the disproportion in the development of urban infrastructure and biogeocenosis, in which urbanization processes take place. Heat and water supply systems, sewerage, transport network, territories for the disposal of solid household waste are created by a person, usually without taking into account the safety of natural complexes. As a consequence, natural forest plantations disappear, water bodies diminish, populations of insects, birds and small mammals that live in the ecosystem decrease. As a result, modern megacities represent huge high-rise conglomerates built of plastic, glass and concrete. They are completely alien to natural biosystems.

Urboecology is trying to find acceptable, compromise ways of functioning of already constructed cities, and also determines the requirements for building new megacities taking into account the needs of elements of natural ecosystems: plant and animal organisms. Science also predicts the consequences of human activities and monitors the condition of soil, water and the atmosphere in large cities.