Ecology is the study of life and its relation to the environment. An ecologist attempts to understand how plants and animals depend upon their physical settings and upon one another in order to live. By emphasizing this dependence, ecologists assert that man cannot view nature as separate and detached; any change man makes in his environment affects all the organisms in it. The word ecology is derived from the Greek oikos, meaning "home, household, or place to live," and logos, meaning "study of." Ernst Haeckel, a German biologist and philosopher, coined the term ecology in 1866 after recognizing the importance of studying the environment as a separate scientific field. Before then, ecological issues were pursued under the study of natural history; a student of the great outdoors was called a naturalist. Later natural history was subdivided into special disciplines, such as geology, zoology, and botany. Even today, the ecologist...