What do you like the best about ecology

Question: What do you like the best about ecology
- Keywords:
  ecology
Asked by zachemborough to Christine, Edd, Jess, Nicolas, Zara on 14 Jun 2011.
- Nicolas Biber answered on 13 Jun 2011:
  
  I like that ecology deals with all parts of biology. Ecology is the science of how living beings live in their environment and with other living beings. And to understand why a living being does one particular thing and not another we have to look how it is influenced by its environment, but also what drives it from within. In ecology you have to know what animals and plants are present in an environment, you have to know what resources each species requires, you have to know how animals and plants react to changes in their environment.
  The great thing about ecology is that it contains so many things that it cannot be dealt with by just one person, you always have to talk to other people who may have a better idea about some area you don’t know so much about. I think ecology more than any other science brings people together.
- Edward Codling answered on 13 Jun 2011:
  
  What I find most interesting about biology is animals and their behaviour. I have lots of pets and I am always wondering about how they see the world and what they might be thinking.
  
  Ecology is the study of animals and plants and the environment they live in. So studying ecology means I can look at animal behaviour and find some answers to some of the questions I have.
  
  I am also interested in ‘applied ecology’ – how we can manage environments and ecosystems better so that we can maintain wildlife populations. I am interested in fisheries mainly – I like studying this as some of the work I do can sometimes help stop overfishing.
- Zara Gladman answered on 13 Jun 2011:
  
  The best thing about ecology is that it helps us link different living things together, and understand the whole ecosystem better…. which is important for humans because we rely on ecosystems for many things! For example, we need healthy ocean ecosystems for fishing (like Edd is studying). It’s important to understand how overfishing might affect other animals in the food web (e.g. birds, seals).
  
  Ecology is also useful if we’re trying to protect an endangered species – say, a bird. To protect it properly, we need to know about the ecology of the bird i.e. how does it interact with other species – is it in competition with other birds? what does it eat? what eats it? where does it like to live? The more we know, the easier it will be to protect it (because we can make sure it has enough food etc.) and make sure it’s around for future generations to appreciate!
  
  So basically, if I was to sum it up in a sentence – I like ecology because it helps keep our ecosystems healthy 🙂
- Christine Switzer answered on 14 Jun 2011:
  
  I like watching how ecosystems adapt to the environment changing around them. The work that I do takes some severely impacted areas and restores them to clean conditions. It’s amazing to see how fast bacteria and plants, especially weeds, figure out that it’s safe to move into the newly cleaned area. Certain species seem to thrive on change.
- Jessica Chu answered on 14 Jun 2011:
  
  I find that it is amazing that some plant chemicals can help human treat some deadly diseases like malaria, HIV/AIDS, cancer, Alzheimer’s and many more!
  We are totally different species but we co-evolved so we do share quite a lot of the same genes! I am not an expert in this area but it is so interesting!
  I think we tend to think humans are a pretty important species but actually the world would go on fine without us but… if one day all the insects disappears then we are in big trouble! This is based on a quote by Edward O. Wilson
  
  “If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.”

Question: What do you like the best about ecology

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