Topic summary
Ecologist
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Ecology.
Relation to evolution
Ecology and evolutionary biology are sister disciplines. Natural selection, life history, development, adaptation, populations, and inheritance thread equally into both. In this framework, the analytical tools of ecologists and evolutionists overlap as they study life through phylogenetics or Linnaean taxonomy. There is no sharp boundary separating ecology from evolution, and they differ more in their areas of applied focus. Both explain properties and processes across different spatial or temporal scales of organization. Ecologists study the abiotic and biotic factors that influence evolutionary processes, and evolution can be rapid, occurring on ecological timescales as short as one generation.