Ecology

Definition

In APS, ecology refers to the organisation of viability-oriented persistence across interacting environmental, organismal, behavioural, developmental, and evolutionary continuity structures.

Ecology concerns the distributed continuity relations through which living systems persist across scale and time.

APS therefore approaches ecology not as external environmental background surrounding organisms, but as part of the organised persistence of life itself.

Clarification

Ecology is sometimes understood simply as the study of environments or ecosystems.

APS instead treats ecology as the organisation of continuity through which organisms and environments jointly sustain viable persistence. Organisms remain identifiable biological systems, yet their persistence depends continuously upon ecological relations extending beyond their physical boundaries. Ecology therefore contributes directly to biological explanation because it helps constitute the continuity through which living systems remain viable.

The concepts introduced here—including organism–environment coupling, resilience, adaptation, distributed continuity, and multiscale ecological organisation—are developed in the accompanying ecology articles.