The term ecology was first of all proposed by Reiter, a zoologist in 1865. In 1866 Haeckel another zoologist defined ecology as the study of reciprocal relations between organisms and environment.
Divisions of Ecology
Ecology is divided into the following main divisions:
1. Autecology : is concerned with the study of individual plants or the population of individual plant species in relation to environment.
2. Synecology : is the study of plant communities and their relationship with environment.
3. Ecosystemology : In nature, plants do not live by themselves. Always associated with them are small and large animals belonging to different levels of food habits and evolutionary scale. As in the case of plants we have animal populations and communities. The plant and animal communities of any region influence and interact with one another and together constitute a biotic community. There is interdependence between plants and animals of a biotic community and an interchange of materials takes place between them. Thus a tree provides food and oxygen to animals. The animals on the other hand supply CO? for photosynthesis to green plants.
Dead plant parts and dead animals and their excretions serve as food for saprophytic fungi and bacteria and in this process are converted into