Outline of ecology

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to ecology:

Ecology scientific study of the distribution and abundance of living organisms and how the distribution and abundance are affected by interactions between the organisms and their environment. The environment of an organism includes both physical properties, which can be described as the sum of local abiotic factors such as solar insolation, climate and geology, as well as the other organisms that share its habitat. Also called ecological science.

Essence of ecology

Subdisciplines of ecology, and subdiscipline classification

Ecology is a broad discipline comprising many sub-disciplines. The field of ecology can be sub-divided according to several classification schemes:

By level of complexity or scope

Arranged from lowest to highest complexity:

By organisms under study

By biome under study

By geographic or climatic area under study

By spatial scale under study

By ecological aspects or phenomena under investigation

By technique used for investigation

By environmental approach

Ecology-involved interdisciplinary fields

Biogeographic regions

Map of six of the world's eight ecozones
  Oceania and Antarctic ecozones not shown

Ecozone

Main article: Ecozone

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) developed a system of eight biogeographic realms (ecozones):

Ecoregions

Main article: Ecoregion

Ecozones are further divided into ecoregions. The World has over 800 terrestrial ecoregions. See Lists of ecoregions by country.

History of ecology

Main article: History of ecology

General ecology concepts

Ecology lists

Main article: List of ecology topics

See also

External links

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