Ecology

Ecology is a branch of the life science Biology concerning the interactions of life with its biophysical environment (biotic and abiotic).

• It is a science.

Description (Specifications)

An important focus for ecologists is to improve the understanding of how biodiversity affects ecological function. Ecologists seek to explain:

• Life processes, interactions, and adaptations
• The movement of materials and energy through living communities
• The successional development of ecosystems
• The abundance and distribution of organisms and biodiversity in the context of the environment.

The science can be split into the following areas of investigation:

• Ecological Hierarchy
• Biodiversity
• Habitat
• Niche
• Niche construction
• Biome
• Biosphere
• Population ecology
• Metapopulations and migration
• Community ecology
• Ecosystem ecology
• Food webs
• Trophic levels
• Keystone species

n.b. Ecology is the study of any ecosystem. There is no separate science of Xeno-ecology.

History & Background (Dossier)

The Imperial Interstellar Scout Service (IISS) saw Ecology as one of the key sciences in understanding the interaction of the inhabitants of a world with the environment of the world itself. These interactions can include understanding those things that may adversely or beneficially affect those inhabitants and those things undertaken by the inhabitants that may adversely or beneficially affect the environment. Failures of understanding of Ecologies have resulted in devastating effects on the inhabitants (e.g. Disease) or the environment (e.g. Plagues of Rats, Rabbits, Toads, Chickens, etc. e.g. Extinction Events for certain native sophonts, creatures and/or plants, etc.)

Research Station Eta (Dagudashaag) was known to be investigating the ecological impacts of Hallija Weed in cooperation with the Free University of Ushra and Research Station Omicron was known to be investigating the ecology of Cymbeline.

References & Contributors (Sources)

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Ecology. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. The text of Wikipedia is available under the Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Far Future Enterprises or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• Author & Contributor: BackworldTraveller
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science