Editing Human ecology (section)

==Historical development==
{{further|History of ecology}}
The roots of ecology as a broader discipline can be traced to the [[Greeks]] and a lengthy list of developments in [[natural history|natural history science]]. Ecology also has notably developed in other cultures. Traditional knowledge, as it is called, includes the human propensity for intuitive knowledge, intelligent relations, understanding, and for passing on information about the natural world and the human experience.<ref name="Young74" /><ref name="Huntignton00">{{cite journal | last1=Huntington | first1=H. P. | title=Using traditional ecological knowledge in science: Methods and applications | journal=Ecological Applications | volume=10 | issue=5 | pages=1270–1274 | doi=10.1890/1051-0761(2000)010[1270:UTEKIS]2.0.CO;2 | url=http://www.tsimane.org/NSfTraining/Huntington%20trad%20knowledge.pdf | year=2000 | access-date=2011-06-27 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120121025454/http://www.tsimane.org/NSfTraining/Huntington%20trad%20knowledge.pdf | archive-date=2012-01-21 | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Turner00">{{cite journal | last1=Turner | first1=N. J. | last2=Ignace | first2=M. B. | last3=Ignace | first3=R. | date=2000 | title=Traditional ecological knowledge and wisdom of aboriginal peoples in British Columbia | journal=Ecological Applications | volume=10 | issue=5 | pages=1275–1287 | url=http://www.ask-force.org/web/TraditionalKnowledge/Turner-TK-British-Columbia-2000.pdf | doi=10.1890/1051-0761(2000)010[1275:tekawo]2.0.co;2}}</ref><ref name="Davis03">{{cite journal | last1=Davis | first1=A. | last2=Wagner | first2=J. R. | date=2003 | title=Who knows? On the importance of identifying "experts" when researching local ecological knowledge | journal=Human Ecology | volume=31 | issue=3 | pages=463–489 | doi=10.1023/A:1025075923297 | bibcode=2003HumEc..31..463D | s2cid=154618965 | url=http://www.mystfx.ca/research/SRSF/researchreports1/whoknowjournal.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120315212430/http://www.mystfx.ca/research/SRSF/researchreports1/whoknowjournal.pdf | url-status=dead | archive-date=2012-03-15 }}</ref> The term ecology was coined by [[Ernst Haeckel]] in 1866 and defined by direct reference to ''the economy of nature''.<ref name="Odum05">{{cite book | last1=Odum | first1=E. P. | last2=Barrett | first2=G. W. | title=Fundamentals of ecology | publisher=Brooks Cole | isbn=978-0-534-42066-6 | date=2005 | pages=598 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vC9FAQAAIAAJ }}</ref>

Like other contemporary researchers of his time, Haeckel adopted his [[terminology]] from [[Carl Linnaeus]] where human ecological connections were more evident. In his 1749 publication, ''Specimen academicum de oeconomia naturae'', Linnaeus developed a science that included the ''economy and polis of nature''. Polis stems from its Greek roots for a political community (originally based on the city-states), sharing its roots with the word police in reference to the promotion of growth and maintenance of good social order in a community.<ref name="Young74" /><ref name="Pearce10">{{cite journal | last1=Pearce | first1=T. | title=A great complication of circumstances | journal=Journal of the History of Biology | date=2010 | volume=43 | issue=3 | pages=493–528 | doi=10.1007/s10739-009-9205-0 | pmid=20665080 | s2cid=34864334 | url=http://home.uchicago.edu/~/trpearce/Pearce2010.pdf | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120331011216/http://home.uchicago.edu/~/trpearce/Pearce2010.pdf | archive-date=2012-03-31 }}</ref><ref name="Kricher09">{{cite book | last1=Kricher | first1=J. | title=The balance of nature: Ecology's enduring myth | publisher=Princeton University Press | pages=252 | isbn=978-0-691-13898-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G66yLaHLv2QC&q=Specimen+academicum+de+oeconomia+naturae+to+english&pg=PP1| date=2009-04-27 }}</ref><ref name="Egerton07">{{cite journal | last1=Egerton | first1=F. N. | title=Understanding food chains and food webs, 1700–1970 |journal=Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America | volume=88 | pages=50–69 | doi=10.1890/0012-9623(2007)88[50:UFCAFW]2.0.CO;2  | year=2007 }}</ref> Linnaeus was also the first to write about the close affinity between humans and [[primate]]s.<ref name="Reid09">{{cite journal | last1=Reid | first1=G. M. | title=Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778): his life, philosophy and science and its relationship to modern biology and medicine | journal=Taxon | volume=58 | issue=1 | pages=18–31 | date=2009 | doi=10.1002/tax.581005 }}</ref> Linnaeus presented early ideas found in modern aspects to human ecology, including the [[balance of nature]] while highlighting the importance of ecological functions ([[ecosystem services]] or [[natural capital]] in modern terms): "In exchange for performing its function satisfactorily, nature provided a species with the necessaries of life"<ref name="Foster03">{{cite journal | last1=Foster | first1=J. | title=Between economics and ecology: Some historical and philosophical considerations for modelers of natural capital | journal=Environmental Monitoring and Assessment | volume=86 | issue=1–2 | pages=63–74 | date=2003 | doi=10.1023/A:1024002617932| pmid=12858999 | bibcode=2003EMnAs..86...63F | s2cid=30966297 }}</ref>{{rp|66}} The work of Linnaeus influenced [[Charles Darwin]] and other scientists of his time who used Linnaeus' terminology (i.e., the ''economy and polis of nature'') with direct implications on matters of human affairs, ecology, and [[ecological economics|economics]].<ref name="Haecek66">{{cite book | last1=Haeckel | first1=E. | date=1866 | title=Generelle Morphologie der Organismen | place=Berlin | publisher=G.Reimer | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_dthOAAAAMAAJ| quote=Generelle Morphologie der Organismen. }}</ref><ref name="Stauffer57">{{Cite journal |last = Stauffer |first = R. C. |title = Haeckel, Darwin and ecology. |journal = The Quarterly Review of Biology |volume = 32 |issue = 2 |pages=138–144 |date = 1957 |doi = 10.1086/401754 |s2cid = 84079279 }}</ref><ref name="Kormandy78">{{Cite journal |last1 = Kormandy |first1 = E. J. |title = Review: Ecology/Economy of Nature—Synonyms? |journal = Ecology|volume = 59 |issue = 6 |pages=1292–4 |date = 1978 |doi = 10.2307/1938247 |jstor=1938247|last2 = Wooster |first2 = Donald }}</ref>

Ecology is not just biological, but a human science as well.<ref name="Odum05" /> An early and influential social scientist in the history of human ecology was [[Herbert Spencer]]. Spencer was influenced by and reciprocated his influence onto the works of Charles Darwin. Herbert Spencer coined the phrase "[[survival of the fittest]]", he was an early founder of sociology where he developed the idea of society as an organism, and he created an early precedent for the socio-ecological approach that was the subsequent aim and link between sociology and human ecology.<ref name="Young74" /><ref name="Catton94">{{cite journal | last1=Catton | first1=W. R. | title=Foundations of human ecology | journal=Sociological Perspectives | date=1994 | volume=31 | issue=1 | pages=75–95 | doi=10.2307/1389410 | jstor=1389410| s2cid=145219388 }}</ref><ref name="claeys00">{{cite journal | last1=Claeys | first1=G. | title=The "survival of the fittest" and the origins of social Darwinism | journal=Journal of the History of Ideas | volume=61 | issue=2 | pages=223–240 | date=2000 | jstor=3654026 | doi=10.1353/jhi.2000.0014| s2cid=146267804 }}</ref>

{{quote box
| quote =Human ecology is the discipline that inquires into the patterns and process of interaction of humans with their environments. Human values, wealth, life-styles, resource use, and waste, etc. must affect and be affected by the physical and biotic environments along urban-rural gradients. The nature of these interactions is a legitimate ecological research topic and one of increasing importance.<ref name="McDonnell90">{{cite journal | last1=McDonnell | first1=M. J. | last2=Pickett | first2=S. T. A. | title=Ecosystem structure and function along urban-rural gradients: An unexploited opportunity for ecology | journal=Ecology | volume=71 | issue=4 | pages=1232–1237 | date=1990 | jstor=1938259 | doi=10.2307/1938259| bibcode=1990Ecol...71.1232M }}</ref>{{rp|1233}}
| width = 25%
| align = right}}

The history of human ecology has strong roots in geography and sociology departments of the late 19th century.<ref name="Young74" /><ref name="Gross04">{{cite journal | last1=Gross | first1=M. | author-link=Matthias Gross | date=2004 | title=Human geography and ecological sociology: The unfolding of human ecology, 1890 to 1930 - and beyond | journal=Social Science History | volume=28 | issue=4 | pages=575–605 | url=http://ssh.dukejournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/28/4/575 | doi=10.1215/01455532-28-4-575 | doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 | s2cid=233365777 | access-date=2011-06-21 | archive-date=2011-07-26 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726005931/http://ssh.dukejournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/28/4/575 | url-status=dead }}</ref> In this context a major historical development or landmark that stimulated research into the ecological relations between humans and their urban environments was founded in [[George Perkins Marsh]]'s book ''[[Man and Nature|Man and Nature; or, physical geography as modified by human action]]'', which was published in 1864. Marsh was interested in the active agency of human-nature interactions (an early precursor to [[urban ecology]] or [[niche construction|human niche construction]]) in frequent reference to the ''economy of nature''.<ref name="Jelinski05">{{cite journal | last1=Jelinski | first1=D. E. | title=There is not mother nature: There is no balance of nature: Culture, ecology and conservation | journal=Human Ecology | volume=33 | issue=2 | pages=271–288 | date=2005 | jstor=4603569 | doi=10.1007/s10745-005-2435-7| bibcode=2005HumEc..33..271J | s2cid=154454141 }}</ref><ref name="Stallin07">{{cite journal | last1=Stallin | first1=J. A. | title=The biogeography of geographers: A content visualization of journal publications | journal=Physical Geography | date=2007 | volume=28 | issue=3 | pages=261–275 | url=http://myweb.fsu.edu/jastallins/reprints/Physical%20Geography%202007.pdf | doi=10.2747/0272-3646.28.3.261 | bibcode=2007PhGeo..28..261S | s2cid=25040312 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100611090109/http://myweb.fsu.edu/jastallins/reprints/Physical%20Geography%202007.pdf | archive-date=2010-06-11 }}</ref><ref name="Liu07">{{cite journal | last1=Liu | first1=J. | last2=Dietz | first2=T. | last3=Carpenter | first3=S. R. | last4=Alberti | first4=M. | last5=Folke | first5=C. | last6=Moran | first6=E. | last7=Pell | first7=A. N. | last8=Deadman | first8=P. | last9=Kratz | first9=T. | last10=Lubchenco | first10=J. | last11=Ostrom | first11=E. | last12=Ouyang | first12=Z. | last13=Provencher | first13=W. | last14=Redman | first14=C. L. | last15=Schneider | first15=S. H. | last16=Taylor | first16=W. W. | title=Complexity of coupled human and natural systems | journal=Science | volume=317 | issue=5844 | pages=1513–1516 | url=http://faculty.unlv.edu/wjsmith/smithtest/LiuEtAlCoupledComplexity.pdf | doi=10.1126/science.1144004| pmid=17872436 | date=2007 | bibcode=2007Sci...317.1513L | s2cid=8109766 | doi-access=free }}</ref>

In 1894, an influential [[Chicago school (sociology)|sociologist at the University of Chicago]] named [[Albion W. Small]] collaborated with sociologist [[George E. Vincent]] and published a "'laboratory guide' to studying people in their 'every-day occupations.'"<ref name="Gross04" />{{rp|578}} This was a guidebook that trained students of sociology how they could study [[society]] in a way that a [[natural history|natural historian]] would study birds. Their publication "explicitly included the relation of the social world to the material environment."<ref name="Gross04" />{{rp|578}}

The first English-language use of the term "ecology" is credited to American chemist and founder of the field of home economics, [[Ellen Swallow Richards]]. Richards first introduced the term as "[[oekology]]" in 1892, and subsequently developed the term "human ecology".<ref name="Merchant2"/>

The term "human ecology" first appeared in Ellen Swallow Richards' 1907 ''Sanitation in Daily Life'', where it was defined as "the study of the surroundings of human beings in the effects they produce on the lives of men".<ref>{{cite book|last=Richards|first=Ellen H.|title=Sanitation in Daily Life|orig-year=1907 |year=2012|publisher=Forgotten Books|asin=B008KX8KGA|pages=v|url=https://www.amazon.com/Sanitation-Daily-Life-Classic-Reprint/dp/B008KX8KGA#reader_B008KX8KGA}}</ref> Richard's use of the term recognized humans as part of rather than separate from nature.<ref name="Merchant2">{{cite book|last=Merchant|first=C.|title=American Environmental History: An Introduction|date=2007|publisher=Columbia University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0231140355|pages=181}}</ref> The term made its first formal appearance in the field of sociology in the 1921 book "Introduction to the Science of Sociology",<ref name="Park21">{{cite book | editor1-last=Park | editor1-first=R. E. | editor2-last=Burgess | editor2-first=E. W. S. | title=Introduction to the science of society | publisher=University of Chicago Press | place=Chicago | pages=161–216 | date=1921}}</ref><ref name="Schnore58">{{cite journal | last1=Schnore | first1=L. F. | title=Social morphology and human ecology | journal=American Journal of Sociology | volume=63 | issue=6 | pages=620–634 | date=1958 | jstor=2772992 | doi=10.1086/222357| s2cid=144355767 }}</ref> published by [[Robert E. Park]] and [[Ernest W. Burgess]] (also from the sociology department at the University of Chicago). Their student, [[Roderick D. McKenzie]] helped solidify human ecology as a sub-discipline within the [[Chicago school (sociology)|Chicago school]].<ref name="MacDonald">{{cite journal | last1=MacDonald | first1=Dennis W. | date=2011 | title=Beyond the Group: The Implications of Roderick D. McKenzie's Human Ecology for Reconceptualizing Society and the Social | journal=Nature and Culture | volume=6 | issue=3 | pages=263–284 | doi=10.3167/nc.2011.060304}}</ref> These authors emphasized the difference between human ecology and ecology in general by highlighting [[cultural evolution]] in human societies.<ref name="Young74">{{cite book | last1=Young | first1=G.L. | chapter=Human Ecology as an Interdisciplinary Concept: A Critical Inquiry | title=Advances in Ecological Research Volume 8 | date=1974 | volume=8 | pages=1–105 | doi=10.1016/S0065-2504(08)60277-9| isbn=9780120139088 }}</ref>

Human ecology has a fragmented academic history with developments spread throughout a range of disciplines, including: home economics, geography, anthropology, sociology, zoology, and psychology. Some authors have argued that geography is human ecology. Much historical debate has hinged on the placement of humanity as part or as separate from nature.<ref name="Gross04" /><ref name="Barrows23">{{cite journal | last1=Barrows | first1=H. H. | title=Geography as human ecology | journal=Annals of the Association of American Geographers | volume=13 | issue=1 | pages=1–14 | date=1923 | jstor=2560816 | doi=10.1080/00045602309356882}}</ref><ref name="Bruhn74">{{cite journal | last1=Bruhn | first1=J. G. | title=Human ecology: A unifying science? | journal=Human Ecology | volume=2 | issue=2 | pages=105–125 | date=1972 | jstor=4602290 | doi=10.1007/bf01558116| s2cid=145504053 }}</ref> In light of the branching debate of what constitutes human ecology, recent interdisciplinary researchers have sought a unifying scientific field they have titled [[Coupled human-environment system|coupled human and natural systems]] that "builds on but moves beyond previous work (e.g., human ecology, ecological anthropology, environmental geography)."<ref name="Liu09">{{Cite journal |author = Liu, J.|title = Coupled Human and Natural Systems |journal = Ambio: A Journal of the Human Environment |volume = 36 |issue = 8 |pages=639–649 |year = 2007 |doi = 10.1579/0044-7447(2007)36[639:CHANS]2.0.CO;2 |display-authors = 1 |issn = 0044-7447 |last2 = Dietz |first2 = Thomas |last3 = Carpenter |first3 = Stephen R. |last4 = Folke |first4 = Carl |last5 = Alberti |first5 = Marina |last6 = Redman |first6 = Charles L. |last7 = Schneider |first7 = Stephen H. |last8 = Ostrom |first8 = Elinor |last9 = Pell |first9 = Alice N. |jstor=25547831 |pmid = 18240679 |s2cid = 18167083 }}</ref>{{rp|639}} Other fields or branches related to the historical development of human ecology as a discipline include [[cultural ecology]], [[urban ecology]], [[environmental sociology]], and anthropological ecology.<ref name="Orlove80">{{cite journal | last1=Orlove | first1=B. S. | title=Ecological anthropology | journal=Annual Review of Anthropology | volume=9 | pages=235–273 | date=1980 | jstor=2155736 | doi = 10.1146/annurev.an.09.100180.001315 }}</ref><ref name="Nettle09">{{cite journal | last1=Nettle | first1=D. | title=Ecological influences on human behavioural diversity: a review of recent findings | journal=Trends in Ecology & Evolution | volume=24 | issue=11 | pages=618–624 | date=2009 | url=http://www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/daniel.nettle/tree.pdf | doi=10.1016/j.tree.2009.05.013 | pmid=19683831| bibcode=2009TEcoE..24..618N }}</ref><ref name="Zimmerer94">{{cite journal | last1=Zimmer | first1=K. S. | title=Human geography and the 'new ecology': The prospect and promise of integration | journal=Annals of the Association of American Geographers | volume=84 | issue=1 | pages=108–125 | date=1994 | jstor=2563826 | doi=10.1111/j.1467-8306.1994.tb01731.x| url=http://rcin.org.pl/Content/46916 }}</ref> Even though the term ‘human ecology' was popularized in the 1920s and 1930s, studies in this field had been conducted since the early nineteenth century in England and France.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of the City|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediacity00cave|url-access=limited|last=Caves|first=R. W.|publisher=Routledge|year=2004|isbn=9780415252256|pages=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediacity00cave/page/n404 364]}}</ref>

In 1969, [[College of the Atlantic]]<ref>coa.edu</ref> in Bar Harbor, Maine, was founded as a school of human ecology. Since its first enrolled class of 32 students, the college has grown into a small liberal arts institution with about 350 students and 35 full-time faculty. Every graduate receives a degree in human ecology, an interdisciplinary major which each student designs to fit their own interests and needs.

Biological ecologists have traditionally been reluctant to study human ecology, gravitating instead to the [[biophilia hypothesis|allure of wild nature]]. Human ecology has a history of focusing attention on humans' impact on the biotic world.<ref name="Young74" /><ref name="McDonnell97">{{cite journal | last1=McDonnell | first1=M. J. | date=1997 | title=A paradigm shift | journal=Urban Ecology | volume=1 | issue=2 | pages=85–86 | doi=10.1023/A:1018598708346 | bibcode=1997UrbEc...1...85M | s2cid=31157829 }}</ref> [[Paul Sears]] was an early proponent of applying human ecology, addressing topics aimed at the population explosion of humanity, global resource limits, pollution, and published a comprehensive account on human ecology as a discipline in 1954. He saw the vast "explosion" of problems humans were creating for the environment and reminded us that "what is important is the work to be done rather than the label."<ref name="Sears54">{{cite journal | last1=Sears | first1=P. B. | title=Human ecology: A problem in synthesis |doi=10.1126/science.120.3128.959 | pmid=13216198 | volume=120 | issue=3128 | pages=959–963 | date=1954 | journal=Science | jstor=1681410| bibcode=1954Sci...120..959S }}</ref> "When we as a profession learn to diagnose the total landscape, not only as the basis of our culture, but as an expression of it, and to share our special knowledge as widely as we can, we need not fear that our work will be  ignored or that our efforts will be unappreciated."<ref name="Sears54" />{{rp|963}}  Recently, the Ecological Society of America has added a Section on Human Ecology, indicating the increasing openness of biological ecologists to engage with human dominated systems and the acknowledgement that most contemporary ecosystems have been influenced by human action.[https://societyforhumanecology.org/heesa/]