Autecology
The study of interaction between individuals and its environment is known as “autecology” or “ecology of individual”.
In autecology,
at a given time, we study the influence of individual’s reactions to its
natural environment and requirements together and affects of its interacting
environment. In simple words how an organism or single species interacts (what
it required and after interaction how it reacts) with its natural environment
(i.e. under the present conditions prevailed by the organism). Individual
species contribute as the unit of autecology study.
In autecology,
we study in details the morphology of individual effected by its prevailing
environment, its geographical distribution based on the surrounding, influence
of environment on the life cycle and growth of organism, its taxonomical
position and several factors including those which effects different
developmental stages of individual’s life cycle.
Examples of
Autecology
For instance, the influence of the change in temperature of the surrounding can highly influence the life cycle and developmental stages of individual. In brief, lizards, crocodiles and several other reptiles can hatch their eggs and sex of the baby is determined by the temperature at the time of hatching.
Best and
classical example is provided by the Darwin’s finches of Galapagos Island.
Darwin, Zoologist, who went on a voyage, very finely observed the Galapagos
Island and revealed that the birds habituating that Island, called Finches,
differ in the shape and size of their beaks clearly indicating that different
finches habituating different area and feeding on different vegetations evolved
to survive and developed beaks of different size and shape.
Another example includes the
adaptation of organism to higher altitudes.
At higher altitudes, due to
higher pressure, there is less availability of oxygen to body tissues, so the
individual adapt to it by developing higher number of RBCs which can
effectively and with high affinity bind to the oxygen molecules through hemoglobin.
While the individual living in plain areas are susceptible to these sudden
changes in oxygen levels and pressure and can be attacked by hypoxia condition.
Synecology
In 1896, Schrocter and
Kirchner coined the term Synecology. Organisms of different species
living in a group can affect each other’s life in any possible way under their
natural conditions. It’s a more complex condition. Unlike autecology, where
single organism is the unit of study, in synecology “group of organisms” are
considered as the unit of study. Therefore, an ecological approach “group of
organisms” as the unit of study is termed as synecology.
Synecology can be divided into
population, community ecology, and biome and ecosystem ecology.
An example of synecology
is side effects of acid rain to a pond ecosystem. As the acid rain falls in a
pond, rich in flora and fauna (mainly with fish diversity), it directly and
indirectly affects the health of population or community or total biome or pond
ecosystem. Acid rain creates an unfavorable environment in the pond ecosystem
by stimulating various chemical reactions attributed to the characteristic
feature of acid rain.
