This document provides an overview of ecology and the biosphere from an introductory ecology textbook. It discusses the following key points in 3 sentences or less:
Ecology is the scientific study of interactions between organisms and their environment. Ecologists study these interactions across different levels from individual organisms to the entire biosphere. The document outlines the different focus areas of ecology including organismal, population, community, ecosystem, landscape, and global ecology.
It then discusses how ecology links to evolutionary biology and informs environmental issues. Various abiotic and biotic factors that influence the distribution of species are examined, including dispersal, behavior, climate, temperature, water, and interactions with other species. Finally, it provides an overview