Portal:Ecology: Difference between revisions

Content deleted Content added
Northamerica1000 (talk | contribs)
Add to SA section: The Green Planet (TV series)
Fix Linter errors.
 
Line 5: Line 5:
| width="55%" style="vertical-align:top; padding: 0; margin:0;" |
| width="55%" style="vertical-align:top; padding: 0; margin:0;" |
{{Transclude lead excerpt| {{PAGENAME}} | paragraphs= | files=1 |more=}}
{{Transclude lead excerpt| {{PAGENAME}} | paragraphs= | files=1 |more=}}
{{Box-footer}}
{{Purge link portals}}
{{Purge link portals}}


Line 294: Line 294:
[[Category:Ecologists| ]]
[[Category:Ecologists| ]]
[[Category:Portals needing placement of incoming links]]
[[Category:Portals needing placement of incoming links]]

[[ja:Portal:環境]]

<!--Other languages-->
[[ja:Portal:環境]]
[[zh:Portal:生态]]

Latest revision as of 00:50, 30 September 2022


  Portal   Topics and categories   WikiProject
Ecology

Ecology (from Ancient Greek οἶκος (oîkos) 'house' and -λογία (-logía) 'study of') is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere levels. Ecology overlaps with the closely related sciences of biogeography, evolutionary biology, genetics, ethology, and natural history.

Ecology is a branch of biology, and is the study of abundance, biomass, and distribution of organisms in the context of the environment. It encompasses life processes, interactions, and adaptations; movement of materials and energy through living communities; successional development of ecosystems; cooperation, competition, and predation within and between species; and patterns of biodiversity and its effect on ecosystem processes.

Ecology has practical applications in fields such as conservation biology, wetland management, natural resource management, and human ecology.

The term ecology (German: Ökologie) was coined in 1866 by the German scientist Ernst Haeckel. The science of ecology as we know it today began with a group of American botanists in the 1890s. Evolutionary concepts relating to adaptation and natural selection are cornerstones of modern ecological theory.

Ecosystems are dynamically interacting systems of organisms, the communities they make up, and the non-living (abiotic) components of their environment. Ecosystem processes, such as primary production, nutrient cycling, and niche construction, regulate the flux of energy and matter through an environment. Ecosystems have biophysical feedback mechanisms that moderate processes acting on living (biotic) and abiotic components of the planet. Ecosystems sustain life-supporting functions and provide ecosystem services like biomass production (food, fuel, fiber, and medicine), the regulation of climate, global biogeochemical cycles, water filtration, soil formation, erosion control, flood protection, and many other natural features of scientific, historical, economic, or intrinsic value. (Full article...)

Selected article - show another

A freshwater aquatic food web. The blue arrows show a complete food chain (algaedaphniagizzard shadlargemouth bassgreat blue heron)

A food web is the natural interconnection of food chains and a graphical representation of what-eats-what in an ecological community. Position in the food web, or trophic level, is used in ecology to broadly classify organisms as autotrophs or heterotrophs. This is a non-binary classification; some organisms (such as carnivorous plants) occupy the role of mixotrophs, or autotrophs that additionally obtain organic matter from non-atmospheric sources.

The linkages in a food web illustrate the feeding pathways, such as where heterotrophs obtain organic matter by feeding on autotrophs and other heterotrophs. The food web is a simplified illustration of the various methods of feeding that link an ecosystem into a unified system of exchange. There are different kinds of consumer–resource interactions that can be roughly divided into herbivory, carnivory, scavenging, and parasitism. Some of the organic matter eaten by heterotrophs, such as sugars, provides energy. Autotrophs and heterotrophs come in all sizes, from microscopic to many tonnes - from cyanobacteria to giant redwoods, and from viruses and bdellovibrio to blue whales. (Full article...)

Selected image - show another

Credit: PLoS, Image Credit: (A, C, E, and F) by Rob Knell; (B and D) by Tom Ings
Wasp mimicry - A and B show real wasps; the rest are mimics: three hoverflies and one beetle. Mimicry is part of the evolutionary process of adaptation.

General images

The following are images from various ecology-related articles on Wikipedia.

Things you can do


Here are some tasks awaiting attention:
 – When a task is completed, please remove it from the list.

Recognized content - show another

Entries here consist of Good and Featured articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards.

Solitary predator: a polar bear feeds on a bearded seal it has killed.

Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill the host) and parasitoidism (which always does, eventually). It is distinct from scavenging on dead prey, though many predators also scavenge; it overlaps with herbivory, as seed predators and destructive frugivores are predators.

Predation behaviour varies significantly depending on the organism. Many predators, especially carnivores, have evolved distinct hunting strategies. Pursuit predation involves the active search for and pursuit of prey, whilst ambush predators instead wait for prey to present an opportunity for capture, and often use stealth or aggressive mimicry. Other predators are opportunistic or omnivorous and only practice predation occasionally. (Full article...)

Selected biography - show another

Ian Grote Stirling OC FRSC (September 26, 1941 – May 14, 2024) was a research scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada and an adjunct professor in the University of Alberta Department of Biological Sciences. His research has focused mostly on Arctic and Antarctic zoology and ecology, and he was one of the world's top authorities on polar bears.

Stirling authored five non-technical books and more than 250 articles published in peer-reviewed science journals. Over the course of his career, and well into his retirement from Environment Canada in 2007, when he became a scientist emeritus, he wrote and spoke extensively about the danger posed to polar bears by global warming. (Full article...)

Did you know (auto-generated)

Selected quote - show another

The primary threat to nature and people today comes from centralising and monopolising power and control. Not until diversity is made the logic of production will there be a chance for sustainability, justice and peace. Cultivating and conserving diversity is no luxury in our times: it is a survival imperative.
— Vandana Shiva

Ecology news

Selected publication - show another

Landscope is the quarterly journal of Western Australia's Department of Environment and Conservation. It publishes technical and popular articles on matters related to the conservation and management of natural resources in Western Australia. First published in 1985, it was partially a continuation of S.W.A.N.S.: State Wildlife Advisory News Service, a newsletter of Western Australia's Department of Fisheries and Fauna. (Full article...)

More did you know - show another

... that in 2006, the United Nations estimated humanity's total ecological footprint to be 1.4 planet Earths? In other words, humanity uses ecological services 1.4 times as fast as Earth can renew them?[1]
Other "Did you know" facts... Read more...

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

  • Commons
    Free media repository
  • Wikibooks
    Free textbooks and manuals
  • Wikidata
    Free knowledge base
  • Wikinews
    Free-content news
  • Wikiquote
    Collection of quotations
  • Wikisource
    Free-content library
  • Wikiversity
    Free learning tools
  • Wiktionary
    Dictionary and thesaurus

Web resources

Discover Wikipedia using portals
  1. ^ "Data Sources". Global Footprint Network. 2010-02-05. Retrieved 2010-02-05.