Environmental ecology

Ecology studies the numbers and distribution of living organisms as well as the environmental factors that affect them. Ecology also studies the interactions and interdependencies between different organisms, as well as the interactions between organisms and their environment. Ecological knowledge is used to support decision-making related to land-use planning, nature conservation and environmental protection.

Environmental ecology is based on ecological knowledge. Ecological knowledge can be used to answer many kinds of questions. Where should we build a residential area or a waste incineration plant? Can a building be demolished even if bats live there? Are there too many large predators in forest ecosystems? Will a new road cut off the migration routes of flying squirrels?

Ordinary citizens also need ecological knowledge. It can be used to find solutions to everyday issues such as compost, soil and greenhouse management, recycling and everyday consumption choices.

Environmental ecology is the field of ecology that studies the impact of human activity on the environment, biodiversity, species and the distribution of living organisms.

Ecological research is linked to the objectives of environmental protection. Information produced in ecological research can be used to help identify environmental problems, plan land use and make conservation decisions. For example, when planning protection measures for an endangered species, it is important to know its habitat requirements and range of distribution.

Today, the planet's biodiversity continues to diminish as a result of human activity. Many natural resources are rapidly depleting, and an increasing number of species are under threat of becoming extinct. The need to preserve habitats and protect endangered species has therefore become urgent. Nature conservation includes the protection and management of species, natural resources and habitats. The aim of nature conservation is to maintain biodiversity and restore natural environments.

Industry, forestry and intensive agriculture cause environmental problems such as air, soil and water pollution. Since the 1960s, the problems caused by the use of environmental toxins such as pesticides have gradually become more evident. One of the first signs of the negative effects of pesticides was the collapse of peregrine falcon populations in Europe and North America. The cause of the collapse turned out to be DDT, a common insecticide used in agriculture. DDT is an environmental toxin that accumulates in food chains and is eventually accumulated in apex predators such as peregrine falcons.

The planet’s carrying capacity and the sufficiency of natural and energy resources also became topics of discussion in the 1960s. In Northern Europe, for example, nature activists in the 1970s and 1980s raised the need to protect old-growth forests and bodies of water. During this era, nature conservation expanded into environmental protection.

Nature reserves are one important way of maintaining biodiversity. They are protected areas that are maintained for the benefit of nature conservation and scientific research. National parks have less stringent protection regulations than nature reserves, as they allow camping and walking. National parks help to preserve the most valuable natural sites of an area in terms of their landscapes and species.

Environmental protection seeks solutions to anthropogenic environmental problems and aims to prevent and reduce disturbances and changes in the environment caused by humans. Almost all human activities involve a risk of environmental damage. Industry, transport, energy production, agriculture, forestry and housing all pose their own risks to the natural environment around them. The objectives of environmental protection are ecologically sustainable development and a good, liveable and comfortable environment. Ecologically sustainable development is concerned with balancing human economic activity with the sufficiency of the Earth's natural resources so that future generations have the opportunity to live on a prosperous planet.

In the 21st century, awareness of the need for environmental protection has increased and environmental legislation has developed both globally and nationally. Communities, private individuals and companies are now obliged to take environmental factors into consideration in their activities. Environmental awareness has also become an important image factor for businesses.

Environmental ecology studies the interaction between humans and the environment. Environmental ecology addresses the ecological basis for the sustainable use of natural resources and the disturbances caused by human activity in ecosystems. These disturbances include phenomena such as eutrophication, acidification, climate change, chemicalisation and loss of biodiversity.

Environmental ecology research comes in many forms. These include water and soil ecology, urban ecology, ecotoxicology, aeroecology, bioindicator monitoring, as well as environmental chemistry. The knowledge produced by this research can be applied to solve environmental problems and to protect species and habitats.

Environmental research aims to maintain biodiversity and prevent environmental damage.

Ecological knowledge is produced through scientific research. Scientific research often starts with observations, which are then used to formulate a hypothesis.

A hypothesis is a possible explanation for a certain phenomenon. The validity of a hypothesis is tested with observational or experimental research. Observations do not always provide a completely reliable explanation of the factors that influence the phenomenon under investigation.

Experimental research often investigates the role of a single variable in a certain phenomenon. When the experimental results are in line with the hypothesis, the hypothesis is deemed correct. 

The research subjects of ecology range from large-scale phenomena occurring at the ecosystem level to the study of a single species. Ecological research helps to solve environmental problems and to explore the sustainable use of natural resources, among other things.

Scientific research is divided into basic and applied research. Basic ecological research provides new basic scientific knowledge about species, nature and the environment. The primary aim of basic research is to increase our knowledge of a certain subject for its own sake.

Applied ecological research uses the knowledge gained from basic research to directly solve environmental problems. For example, the conservation of an endangered species is only successful if we know what kinds of environmental factors the species needs to survive. When the distribution and the requirements of a conserved species are known, these factors can be taken into account in decision-making that affects their habitats.

Ecological information can be applied to fishing, hunting, forest management and game management. Information on fish stocks influences the fishing quotas for each species. Hunting quotas must be set in accordance with the principles of ecological sustainability. Hunting must never jeopardise the development of game populations by reducing their ability to regenerate.

The aim of game management is to maintain game populations at the right ecological level. It works by regulating the population balance between different species and maintaining good living conditions for game animals. Game management also involves regulating game populations through hunting. To avoid over-hunting or under-hunting game populations, this requires up-to-date information on the size and trends of game populations.

The use of natural resources such as trees, game animals and foraged products (e.g. mushrooms and berries) must be sustainable. Sustainable development aims to preserve biodiversity and the functioning of ecosystems, so that when humans exploit natural resources the balance of the ecosystem is maintained.

Environmental ecology involves monitoring the state of the environment and its changes through observational monitoring studies,  including a wide range of organism surveys and censuses. The information they provide is used to make decisions about the environment. For example, the environmental toxin levels of fish living in different seas and lakes are regularly monitored.

One example of a monitoring study is the work done on Finnish Environment Institute's marine research vessel Aranda. The vessel carries out annual winter monitoring cruises to study the temperature, salinity, oxygen levels and nutrient levels of the water in the Baltic Sea. The winter nutrient data are used, for example, to help prepare algae forecasts for the following summer. Similarly, the results of game censuses are needed to assess the need for animal protection and hunting quotas.

Biodiversity monitoring is used to collect observational data on all levels of biodiversity: ecosystem diversity, species diversity and genetic diversity. Monitoring can sometimes focus on an endangered species or habitat. In general, monitoring studies should be carried out regularly over a long period of time, as changes in biodiversity typically happen slowly.

Observations made by volunteers and nature enthusiasts also provide information about changes in populations. For example, bird monitoring surveys are mainly carried out in cooperation with hobbyists. The results of these surveys are used to assess the endangerment status of different species. Similarly, butterfly surveys are carried out by volunteer butterfly enthusiasts. The information collected in these surveys can be used to monitor biodiversity loss in agricultural environments, as butterflies are very sensitive to environmental changes caused by intensive agriculture.

Monitoring also makes use of the active involvement of ordinary citizens. Data collected by volunteer observers can be applied to many uses. Examples include blue-green algae monitoring and invasive species surveys. Smartphone apps and websites are often used to help gather volunteer observations.

The state of the environment can be studied by monitoring abiotic (physical and chemical) and biotic (living) environmental factors and investigating the interactions between them. This provides information on many kinds of phenomena, such as the effects of harmful substances on organisms.

The current overconsumption of natural resources is placing more and more pressure on the environment. Humans pollute the environment in many ways, for example through sulphur, lead or phosphorus emissions. Some species are more sensitive to human-induced environmental changes than others. A species may become more common or even disappear as a sign that an environmental factor has changed. Such species are used to help monitor the state of the environment.

A bioindicator is an organism that is used to determine the state and quality of an environment influenced by human activities. A bioindicator species is sensitive to specific kinds of environmental changes, which can either decrease or increase its abundance or range of distribution. Changes in the chemical composition or function of certain organisms can also be used to draw conclusions about the state of the environment.

The basic biology of a bioindicator species must be well understood. Its tolerance range must be clear and narrow with respect to the environmental factor under investigation. The species must also respond quickly and as unambiguously as possible to the environmental change under investigation. Some species are particularly sensitive to a particular environmental factor and therefore have an exceptionally narrow tolerance range for that specific factor.

For example, the number and condition of lichens growing on pine trunks and the condition of conifer needles are used as indicators of air quality. Similarly, salmonids are sensitive to changes in the acidity and oxygen levels of water. Bladderwrack is an alga that can be used to measure eutrophication.

The moss balloon method can be used to measure atmospheric heavy metal concentrations.

Human pressures on the environment can also be reflected in an increase in the species' population. For example, certain algae become more abundant when the nutrient concentration of a water ecosystem increases. Eutrophication is also thought to be beneficial for the presence of herbivore species as it increases the amount of food available to them. Changes in the numbers of individuals of a given species can be reflected in the populations of other species through food chains. Many environmental toxins are enriched as they travel through the food chain. This means that they accumulate in the populations of higher-level consumers such as birds of prey and humans. Some organisms accumulate environmental toxins more readily than others, either from their habitat (e.g. mosses) or through their diet (e.g. predators). These species can be used to estimate the level of environmental toxins in an ecosystem.

Industrial air pollution, such as concentrations of heavy metals, can be studied using the moss ball method. Moss balls are hung on trees in the study area for a few months, after which the concentrations of heavy metals (e.g. lead, mercury and cadmium) in the moss samples can be examined.

The moss ball method can be used to study the environmental impact of heavy metal emissions from industrial plants. The balls contain samples from moss species that trap large amounts of atmospheric fine particles. These species do so because they take up almost all the nutrients they need directly from rainwater and dry deposition, rather than from the soil.

The status of biodiversity can be assessed through observation-based monitoring. It usually targets a certain species or population (species monitoring). It can also target the quantity and quality of habitats (e.g. certain forest types) or an environmental resource that is important for a group of organisms.

Studying biodiversity is difficult. There are many unknown and undiscovered species, and the exact number of species on Earth can only be estimated. In addition, the inaccessibility of certain areas, such as the ocean floor, make it difficult to study them.

Finding microscopically small and well-hidden species is a challenge. Studying species diversity is difficult because species identification is slow and requires extensive knowledge of different species. In general, only a subset of all the species living in a certain area can be studied. Changes in biodiversity can be studied using biodiversity indicators, i.e. monitoring changes in the population size of certain species (e.g. birds and game species) over time.

A biodiversity indicator refers to a species that reflects the biodiversity of its ecosystem. Population changes in one species can be an indicator of large-scale changes in the habitat as a whole. For example, the disappearance of the Siberian jay from the forests of southern Finland is a sign of forest fragmentation and the loss of natural boreal forests. The disappearance of the Siberian jay also allows conclusions to be drawn about the fate of other species living in typical "Siberian jay forests", such as the capercaillie and the flying squirrel. Such indicator species are highly dependent on a particular habitat or resource.

Large animals can be counted with the help of helicopters or thermal cameras. However, it is often not possible to count all individuals in a population. For example, it is difficult to count small, shy and fast-moving species. In such cases, various methods are used to estimate the population size. These include track counts, vegetation surveys and catch-mark-recapture.

Genetic diversity is a prerequisite for evolution. It allows species to adapt to changing environmental conditions. Therefore, the loss of genetic variation in wild species can be a threat to their survival. Intraspecific genetic diversity can be studied by comparing the DNA of organisms, providing new information about species and the relationships between them. Advances in DNA technology continue to open up new possibilities for studying genetic diversity.

Defining an ecosystem as a discrete entity is difficult because ecosystems gradually blend into other ecosystems and interact with each other. For example, a peatland ecosystem in the middle of a forest is connected to the surrounding forest ecosystem. There can also be large differences in the sizes of ecosystems.

In recent years, the mapping of underwater biodiversity has progressed greatly in inland waters, seas and oceans. In general, underwater biodiversity is a difficult subject of study. Studying the underwater landscape requires the use of both biological and geological methods. By combining data from geological (depth data, bottom soil types and bottom structure), oceanographic (salinity, temperature and currents) and biological spatial data sets, an overview of the habitats of underwater nature can be obtained.

Aquatic ecosystems are studied using tools such as sonar and underwater video. Data can also be collected by divers and using satellite and aerial photography. The results can be used to help plan the siting of bridges, access routes and submarine pipelines and cables through aquatic ecosystems. The information can also be used to reduce the environmental damage to marine wildlife caused by dredging and gravel extraction.

The atmosphere (aerosphere) is perhaps the least known and least studied part of the biosphere. Aeroecology (atmospheric ecology) is the field of research that studies the movement and dispersal of birds, bats, insects, pollen and microbes in the atmosphere.

Aeroecology is an interdisciplinary field that uses data from ecology, physics and meteorology to create computer models of the movements of organisms travelling in the atmosphere. It also examines the effects of atmospheric changes (temperature, rainfall, wind) on the migratory behaviour of these organisms (birds, bats, butterflies). It should be noted that climate change will bring about many changes in atmospheric conditions, which will therefore affect the migratory behaviour of organisms in the future.

Environmental science is a relatively new discipline that studies the state of the environment and the factors that affect it. It deals with environmental problems that require ecological knowledge about the functioning of different ecosystems in order to be solved.

Environmental science is an applied and interdisciplinary science. It includes elements of biology, chemistry, history and law. Environmental problems are examined from the perspective of both the natural and social sciences.

Information technology plays an important role in ecological research. For example, information technology is needed in order to transfer the results of habitat surveys directly from the field to a computer. Statistical mathematics is used to analyse the results of ecological research. In addition, various water and chemical samples are analysed in environmental laboratories.

Studying populations and communities of different species requires field research that is conducted in the natural environment. Field research requires a good knowledge of the species found in the ecosystem. The information it provides can be used to draw conclusions about changes in the environment.

Bottom sample screening in the Finnish archipelago.