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ecology

(Encyclopedia)ecology, study of the relationships of organisms to their physical environment and to one another. The study of an individual organism or a single species is termed autecology; the study of groups of ...

ecosystem

(Encyclopedia)ecosystem: see ecology.

Odum, Eugene Pleasants

(Encyclopedia)Odum, Eugene Pleasants, 1913–2002, American ecologist, b. Newport, N.H., Ph.D. Univ. of Illinois, 1939; son of Howard W. Odum. He joined the department of zoology at the Univ. of Georgia in 1940, ev...

Paine, Robert Treat, 3d

(Encyclopedia)Paine, Robert Treat, 3d, 1933–2016, American ecologist, b. Cambridge, Mass., Ph.D. Univ. of Michigan, 1961. He was on the faculty of the Univ. of Washington from 1962 to 1998. Paine's major contribu...

Clements, Frederic Edward

(Encyclopedia)Clements, Frederic Edward, 1874–1945, American plant ecologist and pioneer in the study of succession (see ecology), b. Lincoln, Nebr., grad. Univ. of Nebraska, 1894. From 1917 to 1941 he was in cha...

niche

(Encyclopedia)niche: see ecology.

succession

(Encyclopedia)succession: see ecology.

food chain

(Encyclopedia)food chain: see ecology.

climax community

(Encyclopedia)climax community: see ecology.

heath, tract of open land

(Encyclopedia)heath, tract of open land characterized by a few scattered trees, abundant moss cover, and numerous low shrubs, principally of the heath family (see heath, in botany). In high-latitude regions with mi...