An Introduction to Ecology and Evolution

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An Introduction to Ecology and Evolution
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• Definitions
• Ecology
• The word first came into use in 1869 by Ernest
  Haeckel
• He based ecology on the Greek word oikos,
  meaning home or house
• Ecology is the study of the relationships of
  organisms to their environment and to one another
• Evolution
• Genetic change in a population of organisms over
  time

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• The Interaction of Ecology and Evolution
• Ecology and evolution are intimately related
  because and organisms ecological situation
  directs its evolution, and the organisms
  response to its ecological situation may be
  evolutionary
• Many of the evolutionary solutions to ecological
  problems can be viewed as adaptations,
  genetically determined features that become or
  are becoming prevalent in a population because
  they improves an organisms ability to survive
  and reproduce in a particular environment
• Nothing in biology makes sense except in the
  light of evolution. (Th. Dobzhansky) this is
  particularly true for ecology, since our current
  ecological explanations of nature are predicted
  on the concept of evolution

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• Proximate and Ultimate Explanations of the
  Natural World
• Proximate explanations offer immediate causes
  for a particular phenomenon
• Ultimate explanations provide historical reasons
  for observed ecological phenomena
• Thus, the difference between them is in outlook
  between thinking over a relatively recent time
  scale (the time scale over which individuals live
  and die) versus an historical time scale
  (geological time)

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The Nature of ScienceIts Essence, Power, and
Limitations

• Its a fallible enterprise
• Gives only tentative results
• Provides us with methods by which we can arrive
  at justified beliefs
• Theories are often confirmed is by making
  successful predictions
• It has tremendous explanatory potential
• Hypotheses can be invalidated or gain credibility
  based on inference rather than observation