Question

1. Discuss ecology for a discovery and hypothesis driven aspect.

2. What is environmentalism?

3. Describe the different levels that ecology can be studied.

4. List and discuss the different abiotic factors that affect the ecosystem.

5. Describe the process where energy flows through an ecosystem, provide examples.

6. What is biomass?

Answer 1

1. Ecology is the scientific study of the intercations between organisms and the environements in which they live in. Humans have been always observing and learning about the environment and organisms around them . They have gained several insights and formulated hypothesis based on these observations. This is the discovery science aspect of Ecology. Similarly, there is an experimental aspect related to ecology which has been recently evolving. This involves first formulating a hypothesis and then testing it in the lab or in the field. Thus ecology uses basic scientific process of hypothesis formulation and then testing and validating by experiments or observations.

2. Environmentalism stands for an ideology with a focus on environmental concern and action. It is aimed at the health of our planet and its environment .An environmentalist is the one who is concerned about the impact of humans and human activities on the quality of the environment. This concern for the environment can be in the form of political activism, pressure groups, campaigning, practising a environment friendly lifestyle etc.