Autecology
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Related to Autecology: synecology
autecology
[‚ȯd·i′käl·ə·jē] (ecology)
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.
Autecology
a branch of ecology devoted to the study of the peculiarities of the reactions of plant and animal species to environmental factors and the way of life of a species.
Autecology includes the ecology of individuals, which considers standard responses to environmental factors, and the ecology of populations, which studies intraspecific organization. Autecology contrasts with synecology, which studies the life of communities (different species of animals, plants, and microorganisms). The most important problem in autecology is the study of the dynamics of animal populations and the biomass of organisms of a particular species.
REFERENCES
Kashkarov, D. N. Osnovy ekologii zhivotnykh, 2nd ed. Leningrad, 1944.Naumov, N. P. Ekologiia zhivotnykh, 2nd ed. Moscow, 1963.
Macfadyen, A. Ekologiia zhivotnykh. Moscow, 1965. (Translated from English.)
N. P. NAUMOV
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.