<p><strong>Ecology</strong> (from Greek: &omicron;ί&kappa;&omicron;&sigmaf;, <em>oikos</em>, &quot;household&quot;; and &lambda;ό&gamma;&omicron;&sigmaf;, <em>logos</em>, &quot;knowledge&quot;) is the scientific study of the distribution and abundance of living organisms and how the distribution and abundance are affected by interactions between the organisms and their Ecosystem includes both physical properties, which can be described as the sum of local abiotic factors such as insolation (sunlight), climate, and geology, and biotic factors, which are other organisms that share its habitat. The term <em>oekologie</em> was coined in 1866 by the German biologist Ernst Haeckel.</p>

<p>The word &quot;ecology&quot; is often used in common parlance as a synonym for the natural environment or environmentalism. Likewise &quot;ecologic&quot; or &quot;ecological&quot; is often taken in the sense of environmentally friendly.</p>

<h2><span class="mw-headline">Scope</span></h2>

<p>Ecology is usually considered a branch of biology, the general science that studies living organisms. Organisms can be studied at many different levels, from proteins and nucleic acids (in biochemistry and molecular biology), to cells (in cellular biology), to individuals (in botany, zoology, and other similar disciplines), and finally at the level of populations, communities, and ecosystems, to the biosphere as a whole; these latter strata are the primary subjects of ecological inquiry. Ecology is a multi-disciplinary science. Because of its focus on the higher levels of the organization of life on earth and on the interrelations between organisms and their environment, ecology draws heavily on many other branches of science, especially geology and geography, meteorology, pedology, genetics, chemistry, and physics. Thus, ecology is considered by some to be a holistic science, one that over-arches older disciplines such as biology which in this view become sub-disciplines contributing to ecological knowledge.</p>