One broad topic of ecology is animal behavior. Ecologists study the behavior of animals including their eating and breeding habits, migration patterns, living conditions, and behavior within a species group. For example, several types of animals travel in packs with a clear hierarchy, while other animals live as solo creatures. Ecologists compare and contrast these behaviors through the scientific gathering of information to help them draw general and specific conclusions.

Population ecology is the study of a single species and how it occupies a particular region. Community ecology is related to this, except that it studies several different species who are associated with each other within a single region. Ecologists seek to understand why some species are able to live relatively peacefully with each other in the same environment.

Ecology can also focus on the activities of human behavior. Intentional and unintentional activities by humans can have beneficial or harmful effects on the surrounding environment. Major topics that focus on human impacts include hazardous waste, overfishing and overgrazing, land use change, and pollution.

Ecosystems are a major component of the overall study of ecology. An ecosystem is the interaction of the animals, plants, and organisms with their particular physical domain. Ecosystems are generally broken down into three categories: aquatic, terrestrial, and wetland. Examples of ecosystems include a desert, forest, prairie, tundra, coral reef, steppe, and rainforest. There are also urban ecosystems that are largely populated by humans. The study of ecosystems is essential for understanding how ecology works.

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Cultural ecology theory has drawn a great deal of criticism, primarily for its strong emphasis on environmental determinism. This has been argued to be a potentially dangerous oversimplification of social and cultural processes. Such critics state that cultural ecology theory tends to ignore the importance and power of social and individual agency.

While some of the critiques lodged against cultural ecology theory are important to keep in mind and are valid, the value of the theory and its impact on the social sciences cannot be denied and today can still be used very effectively.

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The study of human behavior and its culture response to a changing environment is happening all over the world in great numbers. There are more people living today on the planet than ever before, and there are pressures from the environment from shortages of resources. This includes many basic necessities such as food and water. The entire ecosystem is changing. Ice is melting, waters are rising, temperatures are changing; there are droughts in areas where there was once rain, a flooding in unexpected regions. All of this is effecting crops, domestic animals raised for food, as well as clean water. With all of the information gathered in the past, there is now a wealth of real time data being generated all over the world.

Today the field of anthropology is more important than ever before. Originally this area of study was focused on small groups, but with the population of the world merging, what one group does in one place of the world can affect others thousands of miles away. The cultural adaptations may benefit one group but hurt another. New technologies are creating unexpected adaptive cultural behaviors that are not always positive on the environment. The future of a changing physical environment will have dramatic influence on the importance of the study of cultural ecology and may in turn lead to new cultural adaptations.

Some examples may better illustrate the concept of cultural ecology. For example many people connect Adobe-style housing with the Southwest and the native American culture that once thrived there. The home, while a symbol of the culture, is a prime example of cultural ecology. The people who built the homes did so with the purpose of surviving the hot, dry climate. The bricks use abundant dirt as the staple of building. The lack of windows keeps heat in when needed and out when needed and the flat roofing catches the rainfall that is precious and scarce in the southwest. To those in other parts of the world it’s just a structure, but to the people of the southwest it was survival.

Alternatively the people of India revere their cows. They believe eating such a sacred animal to the paramount of terrible deeds. For some people in other cultures it seems quirky and strange, but for the Indian population the cow is sacred. Cows in India provide milk, a precious entity; in order to preserve a cow and ensure the milk is always available one must keep the cows alive and well cared for. The cow is a food source, even if not in the way that, say, an American or European would view it. The sacredness of the Cow was an adaptive measure by the Indian people to keep a precious, renewable resource safe.

Culture happens all over the world, there are thousands upon thousands of cultures, but what is truly interesting is how we, as a group, adapt, change and meet the needs of our society in order to form our cultures. Culture ecology touches on all of those very abstract concepts and makes them concrete.

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Historical particularism was actually founded by Franz Boas but was not given an actual name until the late 1960′s when the term historical particularism was coined by Marvin Harris. Parallel evolutionism was the theory stressed in anthropology up until Boas’s time. Parallel evolutionism argued that all societies are on the same path and they evolve the same way. Historical particularism says that each society has their own unique past and they are a representation of that past and that past dictates where that society is headed regardless of their similarity to other cultures and societies.

The question of where societies come from and where they are headed is an argument that has been around for a very long time. Cultural customs are certainly a main factor that help societies thrive and history is the main ingredient of historical particularism. The environment and psychological factors certainly influence a society but its history is one that shows the past or historical evolution of that society and like the old adage says what comes around, goes around. Certainly there are things that try and stop that circle but historical particularism shows that the past will always play a role in what happens in the future regardless.

The critics of historical particularism believe that it is biased against the factors that could impede the future because it is simply impossible to tell what could happen. Franz Boas put it simply that  cultures have similar traits for various reasons, independent of any universal evolutionary process. These traits cannot be used for universal stages of cultural evolution. Simply put, Boas says that cultures and societies evolve in their own unique ways and have unique destinations of their own even though cultures may be alike in some fashion.

Social evolution is the key behind historical particularism. Boas said that cultures do not present itself naturally but dwell on what its past was and what happened in its past. He was always for cultural equality and that they certainly should be on the same page at some level but their destinations have been decided by what happened in their pasts. Some cultures and societies have been known to get along for centuries and according to historical particularism, that history will play a factor in those cultures getting along in the future.

A.L. Kroeber was another anthropologist and student of Boas that carried the historical particularism torch. Kroeber believed that history is what brings cultures together and that civilization is something that is far different than mankind. Kroeber looked for what the causes were for what made history what it was and if those causes have any effect on what happens in the future and today.

In the end, historical particularism stresses that it is history that makes cultures what they are. While all cultures are on the same level at same stage, their outcomes and destinations are different and history is what sets the stage for those predestinations and outcome.

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History Of ELC

The first ecologist to attempt a systematic classification of Canada\’s vegetation was William Francis Ganong. In 1903, Ganong noted 14 forest associations and non-forest groups. But, he was unable to discern broader patterns due to the limited distribution of vegetations and variation in the provinces. It would be 60 years later before another ecologist would attempt another classification. Orrie Loucks would broaden the relationships between climate and vegetation. To accomplish this, Loucks used an airplane to aid inventory and climatic data gathering. But, both were able to log thousands of miles of forests and wetlands information.

ELC Classifications

An ELC gathers information for database creation and map production. The assessment of the ecosystem is used by scientist so they can prepare studies on terrestrial life, historic resources and socio-economic interactions. After completion of the ELC, ecologist establish a hierarchy for generalizations from a general classification such as ecozone, to more specific classification such as ecoregion and ecodistrict.

• Ecozones are at the top of the hierarchy. They are characterized in general terms with the overall climate of the continent.
• Second in the chain are ecoregions. They are described with more specific characteristics such as type of climate or vegetation in the ecoregion.
• Third in the chain are ecodistricts. They note the geology of an area and vegetation specific to a smaller region.

From the study of a zone, ecologist are able to update forest cover, soil data, water and wetlands to discover the dominant types in the region.

Conclusion

An Ecological Land Classification is the best tool to describe the characteristics of an area and to document the biodiversity and ecology within a project region. It describes the area from generals to specifics giving researchers a holistic approach for classification. The baseline of a study can then contribute to the understanding of local ecological functions.

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Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917 – 2005) was a Russian- born American psychologist who is renowned for his ecological systems theory, which is also known as “human ecological theory” and “development in context” (and sometimes the bio- ecological systems theory, with individual biology being considered a sixth system; see below) and which he first described in his 1979 book The Ecology of Human Development: Experiments by Nature and Design. Simply put, this theory views human development in terms of an “ecological system,” which can thus be divided into five subsystems, or “layers of environment,” which he regarded as important in understanding the development of the human being from childhood to adulthood. These “layers” may be defined as follows:

microsystems

an individual’s immediate environment, i. e. family, school, church, friends, neighborhood

masosystem

relations between microsystems, e.g. between one’s family members and school personnel

exosystem

relations between a microsystem and a system in which the individual is not directly involved

macrosystem

the culture in which somebody lives— nation, ethnicity, religious group, economic or social class, &c.

chronosystem

the way in which environmental effects develop over time; also the way transitions, such as divorce, affect the individual’s growth and development

How the ecological systems affect the individual

Each of these systems influences the individual’s psychological development in its own way. For instance, with regard to macrosystems, poor inner- city families experience more social problems than rural or urban middle- class families. The systems are so intricately intwined that conflict in one adversely affects all the others.

Influences of Bronfenbrenner

Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory has influenced the thinking of psychologists throughout the world ever since the scientist first put it forth, particularly in the field of child and youth care, where such models as the ecological onion, cube, and umbrella models have been based on Bronfenbrenner’s theory. The first of these “…reflects an ecological perspective, wherein consideration is given to the reciprocal interactions between human development and the multiple environments in which it occurs.”

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Interactions between species are of different types. Mutualism focuses on interactions that are beneficial to both parties. Commensalism depicts a situation where only one of the two benefits. Interactions are said to be competitive when both are negatively affected. Parasitism, predation and herbivory they depict interactions that leave one party disadvantaged and the other smiling. This article focuses on mutualism.

A mutualism is beneficial to both species involved. Pollination clearly illustrates this form of interactions as the animal gets nectar while the plants gains gamete transfer.

Some mutualisms are not essential to reproduction or survival of the species involved. The fascinating mutualism between the Boran people in Africa and a bird called honey guide comes to mind. Honey hunting has been an occupation for the Boran people for over 20,000 years. They have come to discover by reason of this huge length of time that the honey guide makes their job less demanding. This bird usually helps them locate bee colonies. The people only need to take the bird’s flight as a compass bearing, studying the bird’s distance, its height of perch and its duration of disappearance from different trees, to find bee colonies. Without the assistance of the bird, locating one of their targets takes about 9 hours. The search only takes approximately 3 hours when the bird is involved. The bird is not left out of the bounties. Before the Borans could have access to the honey, they will have to drive out the bees using fire and smoke. The leave larvae and wax left behind in the hives by the people are feasted upon by the bird thus making the interactions beneficial to both parties.

However, activities of species that result in the other species being better or worse off are often selfishly inclined. It is often a case of the survival of the fittest and the elimination of the weak.

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How Do People Remain Ecologically Sound

There are ways people can remain ecologically sound even if they do not have enough land to make compost heaps or have easy access to recycling facilities. If a person lives in an urban area, he may be able to find a place that will take his recycling. He may need a car to get to the facility, but many places have recycling pick up. The recycling pick up will take care of the bottles, paper and plastic.

Ecological Movements

Some ecological movements are related to the need for people to save money. The high gas prices have caused people to find ways to reduce money on gas. People may decide to use more public transportation or use their cars less frequently. They may even replace their vehicles. Many people who switch their vehicles do not do so because they are ecologically sound. They do so because more fuel efficient cars save them money.

The cultural landscape requires concerned citizens to show they care about the environment, even if they do not. While few people will berate people who show no interest in the environment, they will criticize people who actively engage in activities known to damage the environment. The landscape is often that people simply do things because other people are doing them. This is one care where the herd instinct of most people is a good things.

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Just as an ancient city was not built in a day, it was not used for only a day, and and it was usually not abandoned in a day either. An ancient site has been used by countless societies, sometimes interweaving and sometimes distinct. Some of societies persist so long that they change, or “evolve,” into something quite different.

Over the years some conditions stay the same, but many more change. The area may grow colder or hotter, wetter or cooler. The food supply may change, and the neighbors might too. Technology can revolutionize or decimate. But people survive, and thrive, and humanity tends to overcome obstructions and continue to grow. The study of this is “cultural ecology.” Scientists know that just as plants and animals grow in their environment, human beings do too. Many of the same tools science would use to describe an animal society are perfectly apt for human society. Cultural ecology marks the point where science turns its powers of discernment in the mirror, and views our society as part of the animal kingdom.

If one wishes to trace how the simple oyster farmers of the prehistoric River Thames came to build the London Stock Exchange and Westminster Abbey, or describe the overlapping waves of settling and migration that created modern Asia, cultural ecology offers a precise and scientific method of deduction and description. The scientific study of literary culture, pop culture, and even scientific culture is properly in the domain of cultural ecology. Words and thoughts can themselves be described as forms of life, and followed as they multiply, combine, and propagate. It is a truly fascinating mode of inquiry, and there are many more amazing discoveries to come.

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