Summary
Ecology is the study of the interactions of living things with their environment. Ecologists ask questions across four levels of biological organization—organismal, population, community, and ecosystem. At the organismal level, ecologists study individual organisms and how they interact with their environments. At the population and community levels, ecologists explore, respectively, how a population of organisms changes over time and the ways in which that population interacts with other species in the community. Ecologists studying an ecosystem examine the living species (the biotic components) of the ecosystem as well as the nonliving portions (the abiotic components), such as air, water, and soil, of the environment.
Glossary
abiotic
nonliving components of the environment
biotic
living components of the environment
conspecifics
individuals that are members of the same species
ecology
study of interaction between living things and their environment
heterospecifics
individuals that are members of different species