Ecology: basic concepts. The modern definition of "ecology

Will we be able to remain zoologists, botanists, foresters and have a vague idea of ​​solving the problems that confront us, or will we try to become ecologists in the broadest sense of the word? The role we will play in science depends only on our answer. Gentlemen, the future is in our hands.

Barington Moore - first president of the American Ecological Society (1919).

What is ecology

The evolution of the concept of "ecology"

The word "ecology" is created from two Greek words - logos (study, science) and oikos (house, dwelling, habitation, environment). Absolutely, this means the doctrine of the environment, the environment, whom it surrounds. But in such a narrow sense, this concept was almost never considered. One can only refer to the Encyclopedia of 1904, where oncology was understood as part of zoology about the habitat of animals - burrows, nests, lairs, hollows, and so on.

From the very beginning of the use of the term, ecology was understood as the doctrine of the influence of the environment on a biological object. B. Haeckel, whom most researchers consider the pioneer of the use of the term (1866), understood ecology as the science of life, about the relationship of organisms with the environment, where we refer in a broad sense to all conditions of existence.

There is an assumption that for the first time the term "ecology" was used in the understanding of "natural science" by the naturalist and writer G.D. Thoreau in Life in the Woods, published in 1858.

The term did not receive recognition and use for a long time. In 1895 (or in 1901, according to other sources), the book of the Danish botanist E. Warming "Oncological geography of plants" was published, in which the concept of the life form of plants was substantiated.

The term was officially approved in 1910 at the Third Botanical Congress in Brussels in the form of the concepts of "autecology" - the ecology of a plant (individuals) and "synecology" - the ecology of the community.

The term began to be used not only in scientific works. In 1913, the British Ecological Society and the Journal of Ecology were founded, and in 1916, the American Ecological Society. Since 1916, the journal "Ecology" has been published in the United States. In the 1920s, the American school of "cultural ecology" arose, in the works of whose members the concept of "human ecology" was used. In particular, in 1921, X. Burroughs published the book Geography as Human Ecology.

In 1927, the English scientist W. Elton in his book "Animal Ecology" considers the population as a unit that must be studied independently due to the peculiarities of ecological adaptations and regulations.

The concept of "ecology" is beginning to be extended to questions of methodology for studying objects. In 1935, A. Tesla (USA) introduced the concept of "ecological system", and K. Troll (Germany) introduced the concept of "landscape ecology".

Especially widespread use of the term "ecology ** began to gain in the second half of the 20th century, when people felt the deterioration of the environment of their existence. The spread went both towards the reduction of objects of observation or the characteristics of individual properties, for example, the behavior of animals or diseases, and into the sphere of intangible Academician D. V. Likhachev proposed the term "ecology of culture". The concepts of "ecology of creativity", "ecological consciousness", "social ecology", "ecological situation", "ecological culture" appeared. Some experts considered it appropriate to use the term "ecology "instead of the usual meanings. For example, "ecology of the natural reproduction of pine", "ecological assessment of fodder lands", "ecological physiology" is considered. The term is widely used to characterize the impact of human activity - "engineering ecology", "Technoecology", "urboecology", "urban ecology", "urbanisi ecology systems", "applied ecology", "environmental consequences of anthropogenic impact" and so on.

Some consider ecology to be broader than an independent science - as a worldview.

Significant use of terms in official materials (standards, instructions, etc.) - "environmental expertise", "environmental project", "environmental policy", "environmental network", "environmental calendar", "environmental education", "environmental information" " , "environmentally vulnerable state (territory)", "environmental map".

The term is widely used in everyday life and in the media. And here everyone puts his own meaning. TV announcer - "alcohol consumption and bad ecology harm your liver." Grandmother at the market - "damned ecology has lost cucumbers in the garden." President of the country - "ecology has taken us by the throat." The name of the international art festival is "ecology of nature - ecology of the soul". Mayor of the city - "ecology of the urban environment". There are many examples.

How to explain the "boom" of the period that appeared to determine the direction of a purely scientific discipline and place the concept of "science" in itself? The main reason is the sonority, accuracy, convenience of the word. Why say: "as a result of environmental pollution ...", said: "bad ecology" - and everyone understood you. The specialist will condescendingly smile at your ignorance, the amateur will nod his head in agreement. How can one not recall Gilyarov A.N., who wrote in 1990: “There is nothing surprising in the fact that this is a convenient, capacious word, repeated many times by the media, has lost the meaning of a scientific term and acquired an important social, and sometimes political content ".

But, perhaps, it is not necessary, firstly, to agree that the word "ecology" has lost the meaning of a scientific term, and secondly, the term "ecology" without sufficient reason.

Planet Earth is a small blue pearl, lost in the endless cold worlds of outer space and home to billions of living beings. Literally the entire space of our world is permeated with life: water, earth, air.

And all this diversity of living forms, starting with the simplest microorganisms and ending with the pinnacle of evolution - Homo sapiens - can have the most direct impact on the life of the planet. Ecology is a science that studies the interaction of all living organisms that inhabit the Earth, as well as their numerous communities, both among themselves and with their environment.

A bit of history

Many modern people do not know that ecology began to develop as a separate branch of science only in the middle of the 20th century. Until that time, it was only a part of biology. And the founder of ecology was an ardent supporter and supporter of Darwin's theory, a talented naturalist and biologist - the German E. Haeckel.

The formation of ecology as a separate science was influenced by: on the one hand, the strengthening of scientific and technological progress in the 20th century, and, on the other hand, the rapid growth of the population of our planet. The development of technology and industry has led to a manifold increase in the consumption of natural resources, which, in turn, has had a detrimental effect on the environment.

While the number of people rapidly multiplied, the number of other living beings began to steadily decrease. Scientific and technical progress allowed people to equip their place of stay on the planet as comfortably as possible, but at the same time served as a disastrous factor for nature. There was an urgent need for operational study and research of the habitat. The connection of ecology with other sciences has become inevitable.

Fundamental foundations of science ecology

The fundamentals of ecology include the study of the interaction with the environment of objects organized at the species, biospheric, organismic, and biocentric levels. Thus, several main sections can be distinguished, which include general ecology:

• Autecology, or the ecology of organisms, is a section that studies individual relationships with the environment of both each individual species and organisms that are part of a common species group.
• Demecology, or the ecology of populations. The objectives of this section are to study the natural mechanisms responsible for regulating the abundance of various living organisms, their optimal density, as well as identifying the acceptable limits for the removal of various species and populations.
• Synecology, or community ecology, studies in detail the interaction of ecosystems and populations with the natural environment, as well as the mechanisms and structure of biogeocenoses.

Environmental Research Methods

By the names themselves, one can understand that all field research work is carried out directly in the natural environment. They, in turn, can be divided into:

• Stationary. These studies include both long-term observation of natural objects and measurements, a detailed description, as well as an instrumental report.
• Route. Direct observations of the object are carried out, its condition is assessed, measurements are made, descriptions are made, maps and diagrams are drawn up.
• Descriptive - at the initial acquaintance with the object of study.
• Experimental. The main thing here is experience and experiment, various chemical analyzes, quantitative assessment, etc.

Laboratory methods are based on research in the laboratory. Since ecology is a science that studies the totality of a huge variety of factors, a special place in the practical study of biological objects is given to the modeling method.

The living environment of living organisms

In order to more accurately understand how certain environmental factors affect different living species, it is first necessary to understand the relationship between the habitat and the life of various objects. A variety of natural conditions that are found on our Earth - water, ground-air, soil, organism - are the living environment for a wide variety of plant and animal species. It is from the environment that everything living receives the substances necessary for life. And the metabolic products of living organisms return there.

Thus, it is the difference in the conditions of existence in different environments that made it possible for different organisms to develop a set of a number of specific physiological, morphological, behavioral and other various properties that help them to adapt to the most difficult living conditions.

Environmental factors

Fundamentals of ecology as a science attach great importance to individual environmental factors. The latter should be understood as any elements or environmental conditions that force certain organisms to adapt to them and adapt. There are only three groups of environmental factors:

• biotic;
• abiotic;
• anthropogenic.

Biotic factors include various properties of living nature. They are able to cause adaptive reactions both in plants (phytogenic) and in animals (zoogenic) and fungi (mycogenic).

Abiotic, on the contrary, are components of inanimate nature: geological (glacier movements, volcanic activity, radiation, etc.), climatic (temperature, light, wind, humidity, pressure, etc.), soil (structure, density and composition of the soil) , as well as hydrological factors (water, pressure, salinity, current).

Anthropogenic environmental factors are related to human activities. It must be said that it is a person who causes very serious shifts in biogeocenoses. And for some species it becomes favorable, but not for others.

Environmental problems of our time

Today's problems are mainly connected with the anthropogenic impact on nature. Global ecology heralds the following serious dangers: ozone layer depletion, greenhouse effect, environmental pollution and the problem of human waste disposal, soil degradation and erosion, desertification, widespread extinction of animals, climate change, general weakening of human immunity, depletion of resources (water, gas, oil, other natural resources), photochemical smog and other fatal changes.

All this is largely provoked by the active intervention of people in natural processes, as well as the unreasonable implementation of recreational, military, economic and other plans that change the natural habitat.

Environmental pollution

Ecology is a science that studies, among other things, the (biosphere). At the same time, pollution is understood as the active entry into the biosphere of energy or substances, the quantity, location or properties of which can adversely affect the habitat of various living species.

The development of industry and global urbanization lead to environmental pollution not only with solid, liquid and gaseous substances and microorganisms, but also with various energies (sounds, noise, radiation) that adversely affect various ecosystems of the planet.

There are two types of pollution of the biosphere, differing in origin: natural (natural) - occurs without the participation of people, and anthropogenic. The latter is much more dangerous, since man has not yet learned how to restore his habitat.

Nowadays, pollution is proceeding at a monstrous pace and concerns atmospheric air, underground and surface water sources, and soil. Humanity has polluted even near-Earth outer space. All this does not add optimism to people and can provoke a global outbreak. The rapid development of ecology as a science gives humanity a chance to avoid the threat.

Soil pollution

As a result of careless, unreasonable human activity, the soil around large cities and territories, where large industrial metallurgical enterprises, thermal power plants, and engineering enterprises are located, turned out to be polluted over long distances.

Heavy metals, oil products, sulfur and lead compounds together with household waste - this is what the modern habitat of a civilized person is saturated with. Any institute of ecology will confirm that, along with the above substances, the soil contains in abundance various carcinogenic substances that have the ability to cause terrible diseases in people.

The land that feeds us is subjected not only to erosion and pollution by harmful chemical elements, but also to waterlogging, salinization, and being withdrawn for the construction of various structures. And if the natural destruction of the surface fertile layer can occur very slowly, then the erosion caused by anthropogenic activity is striking in its accelerated pace.

Agriculture with abundant use of pesticides is becoming a real scourge for humanity. In this case, the greatest danger is represented by stable chlorine compounds that can remain in the soil for many years and accumulate in it.

Air pollution

The next serious environmental threat is air pollution. Again, it can also be caused by natural factors, such as volcanic activity, flowering plants, smoke from burning forests, or wind erosion. But the anthropogenic impact causes much more harm to the atmosphere.

Anthropogenic or technogenic air pollution occurs due to the release of a large amount of certain harmful substances into the atmosphere. The chemical industry is particularly harmful in this regard. Thanks to it, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrogen sulfide, hydrocarbons, halogens and other substances are emitted into the air. Entering into chemical reactions with each other, they are able to form very dangerous highly toxic compounds.

The situation is aggravated by automobile exhausts. In most large cities, in calm weather, photochemical smog has become common.

Pollution of the planet's water reserves

Life on the planet is impossible without water, but in our time, environmental studies have forced scientists to come to a bitter conclusion: anthropological activity has a detrimental effect on the Earth's hydrosphere. The natural reserves of fresh water are declining, and even the vast World Ocean is undergoing global changes in its ecosystem today, in connection with which many marine life is doomed to extinction.

Particularly alarming is the fact that not only surface waters are polluted, but also underground ones, the condition of which is affected not only by waste from industrial enterprises, but also by numerous city dumps, sewage, waste from animal husbandry complexes, storage facilities for fertilizers and chemicals. In addition, civilization cannot do without major accidents. Accidental dumping of waste into water bodies is not such a rare case.

Connection of ecology with other sciences

First of all, ecology is a science that studies environmental problems, and it alone cannot correct the current situation. Now that it has become clear how alarming the situation is in different ecosystems, it becomes even clearer how important the connection of ecology with other sciences is. Without close interaction with medicine, biology, chemistry, physics and some other scientific fields, it will simply be impossible to actively solve environmental problems.

Scientists will have to make joint efforts in order to try to minimize the harm that humans cause to nature. Scientists around the world are rushing to find safe sources of energy. In some countries, the share of cars running on electricity has already increased significantly. Much depends on the efforts of chemists, they will have to radically solve the problem of minimizing the harm of industrial waste in the new century. All areas of ecology must necessarily be involved in solving common problems.

Ecological situation in Russia

Unfortunately, Russia's ecology is far from being in the best condition. According to authoritative ecologists, our country is one of the three states that most actively pollute the planet's ecosystem. In addition to Russia, the shameful list also includes China and the United States.

The situation is aggravated by the fact that while the most developed European countries annually spend up to 6% of their budget on environmental protection, in Russia these costs do not even reach 1%. The authorities stubbornly refuse to respond to attempts by environmentalists to draw their attention to the deplorable state of affairs in this area.

Meanwhile, the ecology of Russia is feared by the entire world community, since the territories it occupies are truly huge, there are a lot of industrial enterprises, waste is not processed and disposed of properly, and against the background of the economic crisis, all this looks simply menacing.

The impact of ecology on human health

It has already been said above how harmful environmental factors adversely affect human health. First of all, this, of course, concerns children, because this is our future. But what will this future be like if a little man from the cradle has to breathe polluted air, eat foods that have added harmful chemical preservatives, drink water only from plastic bottles, etc.?

In recent years, doctors have emphasized that the incidence of broncho-pulmonary diseases is getting higher and higher. The number of allergic patients is growing, and most of them, again, are children. All over the world, there is an increase in diseases associated with immunodeficiency conditions. It can be assumed that if humanity does not come to its senses in the near future and does not try to conclude a peaceful harmonious union with Mother Nature, then in the not so distant future we may suffer the fate of many extinct species. It must be remembered that they are inextricably linked.

2014 is the year of ecology

Every year in our country there are many events dedicated to educational activities in environmental issues. And 2014 was no exception. So, since the beginning of the year, a large-scale competition "National Ecological Award "ERAECO" has been held in Russia. As part of this event, films on environmental topics are shown in different cities of Russia, festivals and lectures are held.

There will also be presentations on eco-construction and a demonstration of the possibilities of ecological farms in Moscow and the Moscow region. Eco-lessons were held in schools, where the children were told about the problems of environmental protection and various issues of ecology were discussed in detail.

The organizers of "ERAECO" are planning to open a mobile ecological mini-laboratory, with the help of which it will be possible to carry out express analyzes of samples taken from water, air and soil. Schoolchildren of different ages and students will become experts of the laboratory with the support of environmental specialists.

Eco-patrol detachments will be formed, which will continue their activities not only during the competition, but also after it ends. Children of primary school age will also be able to join many interesting activities, and after that they will be asked to create a visual report in drawings.

International cooperation in environmental protection

Our planet is one, and despite the fact that people have divided it into many different countries and states, the solution of acute environmental issues requires unification. Such cooperation is carried out within the framework of international programs of such organizations as UNESCO and the UN, and is regulated by interstate agreements.

The principles of ecological cooperation were developed. One of them says that the ecological well-being of any state should not be ensured without taking into account the interests of other countries or at their expense. For example, it is unacceptable for stronger countries to use the natural resources of underdeveloped world regions.

Another principle proclaims that mandatory control over threatening changes in the environment must be established at all levels, and all states are obliged to provide all possible assistance to each other in complex environmental problems and emergency situations.

It is important to realize that only by uniting, humanity will be able to save the Earth from the impending ecological collapse. From now on, every citizen of the planet must understand this.

The word "ecology" today is very often found on the pages of newspapers and online publications, it sounds on television and on the radio.


It is easy to guess that it has something to do with nature. But does everyone know exactly its meaning and understand what ecology studies and why is it needed at all?

The term "ecology" first appeared in the scientific community in 1866. Then it was proposed to call this word the branch of science that studies the existence of various communities of living beings interacting with each other and with their natural environment.

Even then it was noticed that with a change in external conditions, the system of coexistence of living organisms of different species also changes: for some conditions become more favorable, for others - less.

With the development of the technical level of civilization, the influence of technogenic factors on the natural habitat has constantly increased. Moreover, this influence, as a rule, had a destructive, negative character. When the changes reached such proportions that they began to influence the life of the human community, the study of ecology became a priority for mankind.


Since that time, the word has acquired a modern meaning: ecology is a science that studies all, including technogenic and anthropogenic, influences on the established systems of relationships between living beings in a particular region.

Some mistakenly believe that ecology studies only the harmful effects of technogenic factors on the nature and methods of protecting existing ecosystems, but this is not so.

Today, the definition that was developed in 1990 at the International Congress of Ecologists is considered the most correct: it is a science that studies the interaction of animate and inanimate nature.

The world around us is a complex multi-level complex of interactions between living beings and the inanimate objects surrounding them. These are not only the notorious food chains, although they are also part of ecosystems: plants serve as food for animals, animals, dying, serve as food for microorganisms and insects, which, absorbing organic residues, turn them into fertile soil, which serves as a nutrient medium for plants etc.

No less important role is played by other environmental factors, which together form a balanced self-regulating system.


These environmental factors are studied by ecology, which reveals how the individual components of the ecosystem interact with each other. Among them, scientists distinguish:

— physical and chemical factors (soil, terrain, climate, etc.);

- biological and biotic factors (the interaction of living organisms with each other);

- Anthropogenic factors (impact on the natural environment of man and his activities).

In addition, ecology studies animal populations: what determines the increase and decrease in the number of individual species, what effect inanimate nature has on them, and what other types of living beings, from microorganisms to large predators.

Of no small importance for ecologists is the study of biocenoses - communities of living beings that depend on each other.

Ecology is a science of great importance today. Human activity is increasingly changing the world around us, destroying established ecological systems. Often the person himself suffers from this, since ill-considered actions give rise to serious consequences.

One of the most striking examples is the almost complete disappearance of the Aral Sea and its entire ecosystem over the past half century. Where 50-60 years ago there was a smooth surface of the sea full of fish, and the green steppe spread around, today you can see only barchans and salt marshes.


The work of ecologists can prevent such catastrophes by preserving natural relationships from the impact of negative factors of human activity. Monitoring the balance of natural ecosystems will help to notice the emergence of a serious negative impact in time, to detect and neutralize its impact.

We are obliged to preserve the wealth and diversity of wildlife for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren, so that they can live in a clean, healthy and friendly world, enjoy its beauty and harmony.

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The science of the interactions of living organisms and their communities with each other and with the environment. The term was first proposed by the German biologist Ernst Haeckel.

The modern meaning of the concept ecology has a wider meaning than in the first decades of the development of this science. Currently, environmental issues are most often misunderstood, first of all, environmental issues. In many ways, this shift in meaning was due to the increasingly tangible consequences of human influence on the environment, but it is necessary to separate the concepts ecological(“relating to the science of ecology”) and environmental(“relating to the environment”). The general attention to ecology entailed the expansion of the field of knowledge (exclusively biological) originally quite clearly defined by Ernst Haeckel to other natural sciences and even the humanities.

The classical definition of ecology is the science that studies the relationship between living and non-living things.

Here are some possible definitions of the science of "ecology":

• Ecology is the knowledge of the economy of nature, the simultaneous study of all the relationships of life with organic and inorganic components of the environment ... In a word, ecology is a science that studies all the complex relationships in nature, considered by Darwin as conditions for the struggle for existence.
• Ecology is a biological science that studies the structure and functioning of superorganismal systems (populations, communities, ecosystems) in space and time, in natural and human-modified conditions.
• Ecology is the science of the environment and the processes taking place in it.

Territory as the main ecological resource

Land is the most important natural resource. This is a resource that provides the possibility of the existence of life, is a factor in its diversity and a spatial basis. The paramount importance of land resources in the formation of other natural environments, such as the atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere, has long been scientifically proven, but in most cases is not taken for granted.

According to Art. 4 of Federal Law No. 7-FZ "On Environmental Protection", the land is the object of protection from pollution, depletion, degradation, damage, destruction and other negative impacts of economic and other activities.

In global terms, the main components of terrestrial nature include land, subsoil, soil, surface and groundwater, atmospheric air, flora, fauna and other organisms, as well as the ozone layer of the atmosphere, which together provide favorable conditions for the existence of life on Earth. The resources of nature are also natural forces and phenomena, including gravity, radiation, vibrations, wind, currents, as well as natural conditions.

20. Substantiation of the integrating position of anthropoecology in the system of knowledge about a person

Anthropoecology

("anthropos" (Greek) - "man"; "ecology" (Greek) - "the doctrine of housing")

- a) the doctrine of the relationship and interdependence of man with the world around him.

The terms "human ecology" and "anthropology" should be distinguished. Human ecology is the doctrine of the preservation and development of people's health on the basis of identifying the dependence of the human body, its psyche on the state of the natural and social environment.

Anthropology is the study of the relationship and interdependence of man with the world around him: from nature, society and culture to the biosphere and the universe as a whole.

Human ecology is turned mainly inward, anthropology - outward, human ecology is close to valueology, anthropology focuses on the spiritual component of the relationship of man with everything that exists.

Man has always sought to live in harmony and harmony with the nature around him, in friendship and peace with other people. These aspirations have found their highest expression in almost all religions of the world, in the works of great writers, composers and artists. In recent decades, these natural aspirations of mankind have been recorded in many documents of international organizations - the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, etc.

The immediate tasks of applied anthropoecological research, i.e. having practical significance, may also be the following:

1. The study of human communities in a specific ecological environment (assessment of biological characteristics, types of metabolism, genetic characteristics, growth and development processes, etc.).

2. The study of the processes of human growth and development in various environmental conditions (for example, differentiation according to various biological characteristics of inhabitants of tropical and extratropical latitudes).

3. The study of the population of the city as an anthropogenic ecological niche (for example, the phenomenon of acceleration, which is typical mainly for citizens). Based on the results of studies of the urban population, systems of possible changes in the physical appearance of a person can be developed.

4. Global modeling of anthropoecological relationships. In this case, the focus of the study is the human population with its characteristic complex of adaptive morphophysiological and genetic traits, as well as the system of its relationships with climatic and geochemical factors.

Knowledge of the general problems of human ecology is necessary for representatives of various branches of science and practice - designers of new cities (urban planning), hygienists, legal ecologists, nature conservation specialists, heads of various departments in local and regional governments, representatives of the teaching profession, social and extreme psychologists, ecopsychologists. Anthropoecological knowledge is necessary for the ecological well-being of the population of our country and its individual regions, in the daily activities of various ministries, departments, institutions that need anthropoecological information.

21. The reasons that allowed a person to change the strategy of changing the population size.

the present almost limitless power of humanity is finite in time.

Population decline can occur for several reasons. First, starvation caused by a reduction in food resources can become a decisive factor. This mechanism is well known to mankind, and it still "works" in some countries. On the planet, only 500 million people have an abundance of wholesome food, and 2 billion people are malnourished and starving. Every year, 20 million die of hunger. The human population is increasing by 200 million a year. If the number of people dying of hunger increases by an order of magnitude, population growth will stop, and if even more, it will begin to decline. In this case, people will die "somewhere far away and infrequently", so the wider community could even pretend not to notice anything. This is the most "natural" version of the collapse.

The second option is non-biological: one of the nuclear countries will try to seize the remnants of non-renewable resources, while others will start a nuclear war with it. It was precisely at the critical moment of the population explosion that humanity had accumulated atomic weapons in such a quantity that it was enough to bring itself to an arbitrarily small number at any moment. Whether this is a coincidence or a ruthless manifestation of some laws of evolution, let philosophers guess. There is hope that, no matter how primitive the thinking of politicians, they still will not allow this scenario to be staged.

The third option is purely political: countries deliberately introduce birth control and gradually reduce the population. This path, from the point of view of a biologist, may turn out to be ineffective. The fact is that human fertility is determined by population biological mechanisms, and therefore, so far, all attempts by the state to stimulate or limit the birth rate have been unsuccessful, but have caused a very strong protest from people. We will return to this issue later. We immediately note that it would be a completely different matter if the birth rate had decreased without coercion, spontaneously, on the basis of the actions of population mechanisms.

But this would be the fourth form of collapse, the mildest and therefore the most desirable. After all, the biosphere is giving us ever stronger signals that we are dangerously outnumbered.

A brief definition of ecology as a science is the study of the interactions of all living organisms on the planet. For the first time the term is found in the book of the German biologist Ernst Haeckel in 1866, although the science itself appeared much earlier. Ecological studies were found in ancient times in the works of Aristotle, Pliny the Elder, Theophrastus and in several Indian treatises.

Currently, the terms and definitions of the word "ecology" increasingly mean environmental pollution, although these issues are more related to problems resulting from human and natural influence.

Ecological research in Russian educational institutions

Hundreds of educational institutions related to ecology, the study of the environment and related problems are being created around the world. Russia is far from the last in the list of countries in terms of number and aimed at improving the overall environmental condition of the country.

• Humanitarian and Ecological Institute (GEI). Established in 1992, and in 1994 has already started its first activity in a number of environmental projects. For several years, the SEI has been the organizer of conferences on environmental education. Also, studies of protected areas of the Tula region are carried out annually. At present, the main task of the institute is to preserve and maintain unique natural communities for itself and its students.
  Another task of the institution is the greening of education, as a result of which a considerable number of excursions and research are carried out.
• Institute of Problems of Ecology and Evolution. A. N. Severtsova. The majority is based on the study of the organization, dynamics and evolution of the population, and the fundamental problems of nature conservation are also studied.
• Kazan Federal University contributed to the emergence of NPP KazanUniversityEcology LLC, which is engaged in the production of a special, patented test that determines the danger of environmental content and human waste. The organization provides services for assessing the quality of water, soil and waste using its test.
  The main areas of activity of the company:

1. Development of methods for assessing the quality of the environment.
2. Monitoring the state of the environment.
3. Creation of special technologies for the safe disposal of organic waste that poses a danger to the environment.
4. Development of waste hazard assessment methods.

It should be added that children are introduced to environmental problems at the age of 4-5, in kindergartens. Then, in more depth, they study this concept at school. Various actions, conferences, rallies, drawing competitions, all this is designed to form in children a caring attitude towards their environment. After all, literally ecology is the science of their place of residence, their home, nature.

Russian policy on the development of ecology as a science and raising its level

To improve the environmental situation in Russia, a considerable number of programs and laws have been created that regulate the introduction of special taxes, the creation of environmental funds and the involvement of government agencies to solve the problem of environmental pollution.

Issuance tax and payments

One way to protect the environment is to introduce a special tax on pollution. Its creation is due to the fact that it is impossible to issue a law that would prohibit environmental pollution, since all activities in one way or another lead to the formation of waste, but the emission tax limits the amount of waste that enters nature.
The emission tax also has a number of disadvantages and some difficulties in calculating the amount that the state should receive. Causes:

• errors in the calculation of the amount of waste;
• the complexity and high cost of accurately calculating the cost of the tax;
• the inability to apply the formula to the regulation of hazardous waste and noise pollution;
• low efficiency of the tax in some cases, for example, in emergency situations.

Environmental funds

These organizations play an important role, and their main purpose is to distribute funds received from polluters and return them to activities that are carried out to improve the level of ecology. Ecological funds consist of a number of taxes, including emission taxes. The proceeds may not be fully returned - part of them is reserved as an insurance fund intended to eliminate the consequences caused by the activities of a particular enterprise.

Law "On Environmental Protection"

According to this document, any activity that has a negative impact on the environment should be guided by the following principles:

• saving exhaustible natural resources;
• the priority is the protection of life and health of all people and the provision of favorable conditions for the life and activities of the population, as well as the provision of guarantees for a favorable environment for human existence;
• responsibility for compliance with the provisions of environmental legislation;
• cooperative work with public organizations to solve environmental problems;
• international cooperation in the field of environmental protection.

To eliminate all the negative factors affecting the state of the environment, the joint work of all countries is required, the creation of laws that limit the amount of emissions of hazardous substances, as well as the introduction of technical equipment that will allow accurate calculation of the amount of waste.