Portal:Ecology
Portal:Ecology
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The Ecology Portal
Welcome to the ecology portal. Ecology,
or ecological science, is the 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. The term Ökologie was coined in 1866 by the German biologist Ernst Haeckel; the word is derived from the Greek οικος (oikos, "household") and λόγος (logos, "study"); therefore "ecology" means the "study of the household (of nature)".
Selected article
Butanol may be used as a fuel in an internal combustion engine. It is in several ways more similar to gasoline than ethanol is. Butanol has been demonstrated to work in some vehicles designed for use with gasoline without any modification.[1] It can be produced from biomass as well as fossil fuels. Some call this biofuel biobutanol to reflect its origin, although it has the same chemical properties as butanol produced from petroleum.
Selected picture
Summer field in Belgium (Hamois). The blue flower is Centaurea cyanus and the red one a Papaver rhoeas.
Ref.1 Robert Ulanowicz
stated that "The emerging picture of ecosystem behavior does not
resemble the worldview imparted by an extrapolation of conceptual
trends established in other sciences."
The Cornflower Centaurea cyanusis a typical plant species where ecologists differ from botanists and those involved in Nomenclature in there views about its exact name and provenance.
If a plant is a native species, then it must be growing in an area
before its introduction by mankind in a region. The Cornflower is sold
commercially worldwide and is therefore rarely named correctly, instead
varieties are sold under the generic name; The Cornflower Centaurea cyanus. It is suggested by floral locale when its true local genotype Centaurea cyanus
provenance and local genotype is given. it should it be considered as
the true name of the plant. An example is in Ireland, where the
Cornflower became extinct in the 1950's. In the first instance, the
plant species was probably introduced by neolithic peoples many
thousands of years ago, so was it ever a native? as early settlers
arrived in Ireland, there brought it as a weed seed or herb from
central Europe. However it persisted up to modern times, and then due
to changes in agriculture became extinct. in the past 400 years,
Cornflower was re-introduced by gardeners often as an improved
ornamental species and often without its variety name. Since the 18th
century, Pink, white and improved strains of Blue flowering cornflowers
would have been re-imported into Ireland for horticulture.
Botanical and ecological writings, suggested that it was extinct by
the 1980's. But in 1992 a wild strain was found on the Aran Islands and
in Bray, Co Wicklow and again in 2008 on the M7/N7 road construction
site in Urlingford, Co Tipperary. An Irish conservation wildflower seed
supplier (ref.2) claims to have saved 11 seed in 1992 and 102 seeds in
2008 from these plants and have bred 'back' this species for
conservation and commercial trade of native wildflowers. It the species
different than the imported species?. Only genetic testing will solve
the mystery if they are all the same plant or different sub species,
varieties or genotypes, and hence deserving different names. Question,
Is it all the same plant, with the same name?. And thus the ecology
portal should be correctly viewed not as science as we know it, but
science as we think we know it.
ref.1 R. Ulanowicz, Ecology: The Ascendent Perspective, Columbia (1997)
Selected biography
Ernst Haeckel.
Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (February 16, 1834 — August 8, 1919), also written von Haeckel, was an eminent German biologist and philosopher. He promoted Charles Darwin's work in Germany and developed the theory that the organism's biological development, or ontogeny, parallels its species' evolutionary development, or phylogeny.
Related portals
Categories
Related categories:
Environment - Ecotourism - Nature reserves - Natural resources
Did you know...
- ... the ants exhibit eusociality?
Things you can do
You can include {{Portalpar|Ecology}} in an ecology article.
WikiProjects
WikiProjects connected with ecology:
