What are natural ecosystems?

Ecology was originally a science that studied the interrelationships between organisms and their living environments, and it is one of the major subspecialties of biology. Initially, it favored plants, and later gradually involved animals, thus there are plant ecology and animal ecology. Recently, due to the human environmental problems and the development of environmental science, ecology has been extended to human life and social patterns, and human beings are included in the ecosystem of a biological species to study and clarify the interrelationships of ecosystems in the whole biosphere, which has led to the formation of human ecology and the formation of a wider and richer scientific field. At the same time, the new achievements of modern science and technology have also penetrated into the field of ecology, giving it new content and momentum, making it a multidisciplinary, contemporary one of the more active scientific fields.

For example, systems ecology, which is formed by combining systems engineering and ecology, belongs to the development of methodology in the field of ecology, and centers on the consideration of problems from a holistic perspective. In particular, the rise of large systems is receiving widespread attention, the performance of such systems such as improved, the expected economic benefits will be very large. Another example is the combination of ecology and mathematics to produce mathematical ecology, not only to understand and elucidate a variety of complex ecosystems provides an effective tool (such as systems analysis, the establishment of mathematical models, etc.), but also mathematical abstract concepts and methods of derivation, but also the future of ecology will play a significant role.

In addition, the application of computational science and computational technology has the potential to help people further understand and explain the complex phenomena in ecosystems, and to find out the laws from them. In recent years, mathematical models have been gradually applied in pest control, beneficial insect utilization, fish harvesting, forest management, and rangeland improvement, providing a series of optimal management strategies and prediction methods. When it is combined with the ecological information provided by chemical ecology and physical ecology, the best ecological benefits can be obtained. Undoubtedly, the rapid development of mathematical ecology will certainly lead to the emergence of new theories and methods of ecology, and make mankind more proactive in the struggle to understand nature, utilize it and transform it.

The formation of other branches of ecology will also have a positive effect in the development of human society. In particular, the integrated use of the achievements of all branches of ecology makes it possible to combine economic, social and ecological benefits, and this combination points the way to harmonizing the relationship between high rates of economic development and environmental protection.

As seen above, the traditional definition of ecology can no longer summarize the richness of today's ecology. Modern ecology should be a multidisciplinary natural science, which studies the laws and mechanisms of interaction between living systems and environmental systems. The so-called living system is the life unit in nature with certain structure and regulatory function, such as animals, plants, microorganisms, etc. The so-called environmental system is the life unit in nature with certain structure and regulatory function. The so-called environmental system is the natural world of light, heat, air, water, and a variety of organic and inorganic elements interacting with the **** with the composition of the space. This interpretation of modern ecology, the ecological science itself also put forward a higher goal.

In summary, there are three main features in the development process of ecology:

(i) from qualitative exploration of the interaction between organisms and the environment to quantitative research; (ii) from individual ecosystems to composite ecosystems, from a single to a comprehensive, from the static to the dynamic understanding of the natural world of material circulation and transformation laws; (iii) with the combination of basic science, applied science, the development of ecology, expanding the field of ecology.

In summary, ecology and environmental science obviously have a lot of **** with the same place, they study the problem is basically similar, except that ecology is the object of the general biology, focusing on the study of the natural environmental factors and biological interrelationships, purely belongs to the category of natural science. Environmental science to human beings as the main object, the environment and human life as a whole to study the interactions, and thus the social sciences and the occurrence of very close links.

Therefore, many basic principles of ecology can also be used in environmental sciences, as the basic theory of the unique subjective initiative of human beings and the complexity of social relations, to study and solve the problems of human life and the environment.