Ecology has complex roots. Among them we can cite empirical ecology, ie knowledge that the experience gave the man on the environment in which his life unfolded.
Natural History (Buffon, Lamarck, Humboldt, Darwin) who took care to describe what is found in nature. Lamarck was the first to suggest that species transform giving rise to others. From Ch Darwin called evolution by transforming and accept natural selection as a mechanism of evolution. After Darwin it was nothing like the natural sciences and biology and the vision of the cosmos and of man has changed radically. Have become obsolete and forgotten, in the sciences at least, natural theology and ecology providential. Providential Ecology, which is based on the idea of \u200b\u200b"ecological harmony" in which nature is understood structured way to benefit and preserve the species. Along with this central idea, were Creationism and fixity. The first ensures that the species has been created by a will God, second, that species remain as they were created: the same number of species and unchanged in its forms.
Demography has also made an important contribution to the population ecol_ogía who is interested in population growth. J. highlighted here Graunt, the father of demography, who in 1662 made the first quantitative studies of human populations and made projections of population growth. Malthus made controversial studies that raised the growth differences between human populations and their food supply, predicting disaster if no action were taken. His famous book, Essay on Population (1798) had an effect inspiring Charles Darwin. Verhulst PF (1838) and its equation to represent population growth, logistic curve, became a milestone in population ecology.
Medicine and Agriculture, through the study of cycles parasites or insect pests, also played an important role in the birth of this science. Among the highlights is R. Ross (1908) with its work on epidemiology and prevention of malaria. Forskal (1775) working with date palm pest ants and predatory ants came up with the concept of biological comptroller as important today in ecology. It is in the early 60s of last century in the pants gets Ecology long. The exponential increase in human population, population explosion and its attendant consequences: over-exploitation of soils, degradation of natural environments, water and air pollution, pesticides, etc., Caught the attention of public opinion and pressure put on stage ecologists who had been busy in their labs. It is only fair to recognize the environmental movement, born in those times, the merit of taking the ecology of the street. Unfortunately, in the minds of public ecology is inextricably associated with the human environment and human ecology, forgetting that it is much more than that. It is a science that keeps with the environmental the same relationship as mathematics or physics to engineering.
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