How we in the developed world apply our knowledge of ecology to our own lives over the next several decades will be of telling significance to humanity. Your understanding of ecology is critical your competent stewardship of our only world. About How the Natural World Works. You will better understand how physical, biological, and evolutionary processes affect individual organisms and their populations and communities that in turn affect ecosystem structure and function. You will also learn how these system-level processes often operate and produce phenomena at very different scales in time and space.
Some phenomena relate to short-term individual activities in a single place and time.
About How Ecological Knowledge is Constructed Using the Scientific Method. It is through the process of scientific inquiry using the scientific method that natural phenomena are observed, interpreted, and reported. Science is a way of knowing about the world around us with which one gains an understanding of our environment and the effects of human activities upon it. We all must improve our understanding of how credible ecological science proceeds in order to buffer us against ignorant, arrogant, and deceitful misinformation. Scientifically literate people can ask the right questions, value the right answers, and seek the appropriate paths of action we all must take to sustain ourselves.