ecology

The study of an environment and the parts of it's ecosystem. Scientists study ecology to fix problems in the environment or to just gain a better understanding of it.

The ecologist took a water quality sample to observe how healthy the ecology or how healthy the ecosytem really is.

by Kurtis Martin January 11, 2006

Ecology of Science

A metascientific framework that studies science as an ecological system—a complex, interdependent network of organisms (scientists), populations (disciplines), communities (fields), and environments (institutions, funding landscapes, social contexts). The ecology of science examines how scientific niches emerge and evolve, how resources (funding, attention, prestige) flow through the system, how competition and cooperation shape research agendas, how species (theories, methods, paradigms) adapt or go extinct, and how disturbances (discoveries, scandals, funding shifts) ripple through the ecosystem. It reveals that scientific change is not just rational progress but ecological succession—driven by interactions between organisms and their environments, by adaptation and selection, by the same dynamics that shape any living system. The ecology of science treats laboratories as habitats, journals as ecosystems, and scientific communities as biomes, each with its own internal dynamics and relationships to the larger environment.

Example: "Her ecology of science analysis showed how the rise of molecular biology created a new niche that drew resources away from traditional organismal biology—not because molecular biology was better, but because it occupied a new ecological space that flourished in the changing funding environment."

by Dumu The Void March 16, 2026

gender ecology

A mental disorder where a rabid religious leader confuses the wood for the trees.

"Save the whales - harpoon a lesbian instead! Now that's TRUE gender ecology", shouted His Holiness Twerp Eggs Benedict MCMXLIV.

by Diogenes II December 28, 2008

INTERNET ECOLOGY

Using the internet in an Eco-friendly manner, working online, Doing online activities without causing any damage to the environment or to any living being (Aspect of Sustainability).

This report makes a link between ecology and network and puts
forward the concept of "Internet ecology"

by Choshini August 23, 2017

corporate ecology

The interaction of a business with its operating environment.

Corporate ecology is increasingly becoming more important to businesses in today's world.

by 32768 April 19, 2012

Queer ecology

The intersection between queer theory with our comprehension about ecological dynamics outside of the heteronormative perspective of how nature works (male and female as god intended...).

Hey Karen has gone woke, now she studies queer ecology

by manupiss October 13, 2023

Alien Ecology

The study of the complex, interconnected web of life on a non-terrestrial world, operating under fundamentally different physical and chemical rules. It’s not just a catalog of weird plants and animals; it’s understanding how energy flows, nutrients cycle, and species co-evolve in an environment with, for example, a methane-based solvent, triple suns, or a silicate-based biology. The core principles of competition and symbiosis may apply, but the rulebook—the biochemistry, the food chains, the planetary rhythms—is utterly foreign.

Example: The world of Pandora in Avatar is a fictional study in Alien Ecology, with its neural network connecting all flora and fauna (Eywa), its floating mountains supported by magnetic fields, and its creatures linked through biological interfaces. A real scientific version would involve modeling how hypothetical sulfur-metabolizing microbes on Europa might form a subsurface ecosystem entirely disconnected from sunlight.

by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal February 3, 2026