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ecology — English
The interrelationship between organisms and their habitats, or the local environments in which they live. The term comes from the Greek word “oikos” which means “home”. Ecology is the study (or the science) of the interrelationship between a living organism and its immediate environment which includes the atmospheric, aquatic, surface and soil (edaphic) conditions. Thus it includes the physical (not living) as well as the organic (living) components that constitute the environment in a certain area. The size of the habitat of a species or certain form of life, varies in size from small, localised areas (called micro-habitats) which can be as small as the underside of a single leave, to large biomes which cover enormous areas on Earth (see “biome”). However, the term “ecology” is far more loosely used. We often talk about the “ecology” of an area or region, when actually referring to the characteristics of an area or region, and not really to the study of the interrelationship between the organic and inorganic components of the area or region.
