Becky Rodriguez, age 12, of Baton Rouge, La., for her question:
WHAT DOES AN ECOLOGIST DO?
An ecologist is a scientist who is concerned with the organization of nature. He studies a whole problem rather than just one part of it. He may study the structure of an individual organization and how it acts. But he does this to learn about all the organisms like it and their relations with other organisms and environments.
Each branch of biology deals with different levels of organization in the living world. An ecologist divides the living world into three main levels: populations, natural communities of organisms and ecosystems. He studies the activities and changes that occur within and among these levels.
A population is a group of the same species of organism that lives in an area at the same time. An ecologist studies the entire population as another scientist might study an individual organism.
An ecologist will trace and record the number, growth and development of a population. Certain animals, for example, follow a regular pattern of population cycles. An ecologist can discover much by studying the records.
A community is a group of animal and plant populations living together in the same environment. The different kinds of plants and animals living together depend on each other.
A biome is a community of plants and animals that live together in a large geographic region having a certain kind of climate. Ecologists do not agree on the types of biomes in the world but most include five major kinds: aquatic or water regions; deserts; forests; grasslands and tundra and high mountains.
The third main level studied by the ecologist is an ecosystem, which is the most complex level of organization in nature. It is made up of communities and their nonliving or physical environments, such as climate; soil and water.
The study of ecology increases man's understanding of the world and all its creatures. This is important because man's survival and well being depend on relationships that exist on a world wide basis. Changes in distant parts of the world even outer space affect us and our environment.
One of the goals of the ecologist is to intelligently manage and control the living and nonliving things of the world.
The ecologist is also concerned about the rate at which man is using up such natural resources as coal, gas and oil. Along with other scientists, the ecologist is searching for ways to use sunlight and atomic energy for fuel and power.
The ecologist is also concerned about the world's increasing population and its decreasing food supply. With marine biologists, ecologists are trying to find new ways of producing food from the sea.
An ecologist must use knowledge from many other fields of study, including physics, chemistry, mathematics and computer science.