What is ecology about, anyway? Ecology is the relationship of living things to each other and to what’s around them. So, if you are learning about what kinds of relationships fish have with other animals (including us!) and plants in their neighborhood, then you are learning about ecology.
The word ECOLOGY comes from Greek words meaning “study of the household.” That means that ecology is the study of the “household” of living things: their neighbors and neighborhood. Ecology includes not only how living things interact with each other, but how they interact with their physical environment: things such as climate, water, and soil.
Ecologists are the scientists who study ecology. They are curious and like to learn about living things by observing them, seeing what happens, and recording what they find. This is all part of the scientific method.
Some ecologists study a specific species or habitat. They might study the behavior of a single species to see how it interacts with other organisms and the environment. Or, an ecologist might study many different species that either depend on each other (a food web, for example), or compete with each other for food and space. There are many fields of ecology with lots of things still to be discovered.