Developments in Ecology, 1900-1949
Overview
Through ancient descriptions of the relationship between organisms and the environment, the science of "ecology" can be traced to the philosophical interests of the Greeks during the time of Aristotle (384-322 B.C.). The Greek philosophical interest in nature paved the way centuries later for "naturalists" who—at home and in newly discovered lands—explored nature and classified its types. A true science of ecology did not emerge until the early twentieth century when scholars began looking at the natural environment as a place where there were "relationships." As ecology matured, ecologists began looking at animals and plants as communities and became concerned with population growth and its limits, cooperation and competition in nature, and, most recently, making evaluations of energy use and transfer in nature.
Background
"The science of nature" took a giant leap in the nineteenth century when naturalist Charles Darwin (1809-1882) published his views on evolution and natural selection, processes by which species change and forms succeed one another through adaptation to the environment to attain a better "fit." The direction of species change was called "succession" by evolutionists. The effects of environment and succession became fundamental concepts to ecology.
Late in the 1800s, a shift from exploration and classification toward trying to understand how nature works became a focus for scientists.
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