Ecology is the science of the interactions between living organisms and their environment. Since the “environment” can include abiotic (non-living) factors, such as climate or soil nutrient content, other organisms, such as predators or parasites, and us, humans, we soon can realise the unimaginably intertwined nature of this network. Ecologists, like me, aim to disentangle the complexity of this fabric of life, understand the processes that drive it, and also predict how this system will change over time or, increasingly frequently, on anthropogenic impact.
In this selection, I choose ecology-related blog posts to illustrate some of the challenges ecologists face when they study natural systems.