Ecology1 Introduction to Ecology Ecology is the scientific study of the interactions of organisms and their environments. The scientific nature of ecology involves using observations and experiments to test hypothetical explanations of ecological phenomena.
Ecology has a long history of being a descriptive science but is young as an experimental science.
It is a multidisciplinary field examining questions from all areas of biology as well as many physical sciences. Environment of an organism includes both biotic and abiotic components. Biotic components include all other organisms that are a part of any individual organism's environment. The interactions between organisms and their environments include how the environment affects an organism and how an organism can change the environment. Photosynthetic bacteria began to use sunlight for energy about three billion years ago.