Synonyms
Two fields that are closely related to (although not synonymous with) social ecology are ecology and human ecology. These terms are defined and compared in the following section.
Definition
Ecology pertains broadly to the study of the relationships between organisms and their environments (Hawley, 1950). Ecological research emerged during the nineteenth century among evolutionary biologists such as Darwin (1859/1964), Haeckel and Lankaster (1876), and Clements (1905), who conducted naturalistic field studies of biomes – geographically bounded areas populated by animal and plant species. Their research focused especially on processes of adaptation and natural selection by which plant and animal groups strive to achieve dynamic equilibrium with the abiotic features of their physical habitat including its climatic, hydrologic, and geologic conditions.
Naturalistic field observations of the relationships between organisms and their physical habitats, initially begun in the field...
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Stokols, D. (2014). Social Ecology. In: Michalos, A.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_2754
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