What Is Population Ecology?

Population ecology is the study of the nature, scope, methods, and laws of the interaction and mutual restraint between the entire population and the environment, especially the relationship between the process of environmental evolution and the process of population change, and the evolution and development of this relationship. The science of trends. The so-called entire population and the entire environment are here to treat the population and the environment as a system, rather than to study the relationship between an individual or a group and a specific environment. It is a cross-disciplinary and marginal science produced by the organic combination of demography and ecology. It is not a simple addition of demography and ecology. ^[1]

Population ecology is a new discipline born in the 1960s. The "Human Ecology" was first proposed by American sociologist Polk and others in 1921. After the 1960s, many monographs on the relationship between human survival and development and the ecosystem were published successively. After the 1970s, a large number of monographs systematically explained the interconnection between ecology and social sciences, indicating that this marginal subject is gradually mature.

Since the 1950s, due to the rapid development of productivity and science and technology, the world economy has entered a period of sustained and rapid growth. At the same time, the world's population has grown dramatically; demand for means of production and means of living has increased dramatically. For this reason, the global ecological environment is under increasing pressure. As a result, the structure of the ecosystem is dysfunctional, the functions are weakened, and self-regulation capabilities are greatly reduced. As a result, the ecological balance is damaged. Pollution spreads throughout the biosphere. Seven major environmental problems and five major social problems in the world have appeared one after another. Find out why. In addition to being related to the political system, economic system, and social structure, they are directly related to the inconsistency between population and ecological environment. This shows that human society is already facing a serious confrontation between society and nature, population and environment. However, this serious confrontation is not caused by natural causes, but by human irrational activities and ecological behaviors that violate natural laws. If human society still ignores nature's revenge as before. It will destroy itself and face greater disaster. Fortunately, this situation has attracted close attention from relevant international organizations, governments and the scientific and technological community, and has begun to study and overcome related issues. Related to this, in the form of a discipline, the population ecology that participated in this process was born. In addition, since the 1950s, the development of science has shifted from analysis to integration. Natural sciences, technical sciences, and social sciences penetrate each other and intersect with each other, resulting in many marginal, comprehensive and horizontal disciplines. Among them, biology has begun ecological research since the late I9th century and has gone through various processes of studying nature, a species, biological communities, and ecosystems. In the 1960s, it entered the stage of focusing on human ecology. At the same time, sociodemiology has also incorporated human ecological issues into its own research fields. After 20 to 30 years of cross-integration and development, this independent new discipline-population ecology. ^[2]

Human ecology mainly includes three aspects:

The background of population ecology shows that it is a common product of the urgent needs of human practice and scientific development. Human practice requires population ecology to provide theoretical guidance on the following issues: how society and nature, population, and the ecological environment are interconnected, interact, and restrict each other; what is the logic of the surrounding environment evolution; and what is the ecological behavior of population? How it changes; how can population and ecological environment coordinate development, and so on. These are the basic tasks in population ecology theory research. For this reason, population ecology must first determine the corresponding general methodological principles and theoretical principles in order to make the corresponding research a scientific theory. Only under the guidance of scientific theory can we provide policy basis and implementation approaches for coordinated development of population, ecological environment, resources, economy, and society, and provide an eye for further development of relevant policies and legal system construction. The latter is a task in applied research on population ecology. The role of population ecology is that the conclusions it draws can serve as a bridge between the conclusions reached by the natural sciences and the social sciences, thereby revealing the interrelationships, interactions, and interactions between society and nature, population, and the ecological environment. The objective laws of mutual restriction guide the practice of mankind and achieve the coordination between society and nature, population and ecological environment. Population is the object and subject of social production and social life, as well as the object and subject of the interaction between society and nature, population and ecological environment. At present, society and nature, population, and ecological environment are in serious opposition, and conflicts are intensifying. It is entirely caused by human greed and irrational activities. The purpose of population ecology is to focus on these contradictory and opposing factors and interests, to review, analyze, discriminate, and adjust human activities and ecological behaviors based on this to create a productive force and population development. More suitable ecological environment structure.

Dialectical materialism and historical materialism. It is the scientific worldview and methodology, and the most general law of nature, human society, and the movement of thought. When studying any subject, it should be guided by it and developed in practice. From the perspective of the disciplinary characteristics of population ecology. It is both an observational discipline and an experimental discipline. Demographic ecology research should adopt corresponding methods. In the research process, whether using survey and observation methods or experimental methods, we must combine qualitative and quantitative research, static research and dynamic research, partial research and overall research, phased research and the whole process of research. Only by getting up can the research results have rich theoretical internal functions and application value in solving practical problems. And it reflects that the research results should have the integrity, comprehensiveness, coordination, strategic and scientific nature of this discipline. To this end, scientific researchers engaged in population ecology research should first treat the population ecosystem as an organic and unified system, and be familiar with, master, and respect some principles and theoretical results elaborated in related disciplines such as ecology and demography. Extensive absorption of theories and methods of related disciplines, on the basis of which the theoretical principles and theoretical system of this discipline are established, and the research methods of this discipline are improved in order to promote the development of this discipline. Due to the emergence and perfection of modern research methods, it is possible to use electronic computers to perform simulation experiments and evaluation of various simulation models, as well as corresponding regression, correlation, prediction and other research analysis and large-scale fast data processing. This greatly improves the efficiency of research work, speeds up the process of research work, and provides a strong and powerful research tool for individual researchers 'local research and large collective researchers' overall research. The population ecosystem can be divided into different categories and different levels according to different classification methods. Such as the rural population ecosystem. Urban population ecosystem, urban population ecosystem, and community population ecosystem, regional population ecosystem, global population ecosystem, and so on. Obviously, the general theoretical principles and methodological principles for studying different types of population ecosystems at different levels are consistent, but specific research methods can and should be adapted to them. And constantly innovate and improve in the research process.

In terms of the progress that population ecology has made so far and its role in improving the relationship between society and nature, population and the environment, the accumulation of scientific knowledge and the level of scientific theory in this discipline are in their infancy. Some people in China have begun to do research in this area, accumulating some materials and developing some research results, but they are all small-scale explorations by individual scholars. To develop as a discipline is still in its infancy. In some foreign countries, the pace of development of this discipline is faster than us. Research is being carried out from micro and macro research, that is to say. Research is carried out both at the level of small community organizations and at the regional, national and worldwide levels. Micro-studies are dominated by individual scholars, and macro-studies are mostly related organizations that are united, and relevant personnel work together to conduct research. The characteristics of these studies are mostly based on the theme of "future human development and ecological environment" or similar topics, using computer models to simulate and predict the population, food, industrial output, resources and pollution in a certain period in the future The trend of the problem and its relationship to development. Provide information and basis for relevant departments, local governments, up to the central government to adjust relevant policies or formulate new policies, modify relevant laws and regulations, or formulate new laws and regulations. Some of these research reports and publications were published. It has had an extraordinary impact on dignitaries, academic circles and even the public all over the world. Such as the "Roman Club" first report "The Limits of Growth"; "Global 2000 Study / (proposed by Carter. Completed by American scholars)" submitted to US President Carter and so on. From a disciplinary point of view, these are all large and macroscopic. Targeted population ecology research. Although their research guiding ideology, research motivation, research method, research purpose, and their conclusions are quite controversial, these research efforts should greatly affirm the development of population ecology. At present, the population ecology of some developed countries has passed the initial stage and entered the development period. Its main sign is. According to their knowledge and opinions, the structure of this discipline has been basically determined. The research scope of this discipline has also been basically defined. Various research methods and research methods have been used. These are worth our reference. But it should absorb its essence. Eliminate its dross and resist some of these social Darwinist views and propositions. To facilitate the healthy development of this discipline in China. Just as the world s political and economic development is extremely uneven, the development of science and technology between countries around the world. The gap is also huge. So is demographic ecology. At present, the contradictions between society and nature, population and environment in most developing countries are quite prominent, but research on population ecology has not yet been carried out. However, the governments and the public in most countries in the world have increasingly realized the importance of science and technology for the survival and development of their own countries and nations, and population ecology will also receive some attention. In addition, the level of modern scientific knowledge has passed the stage of ascertaining scientific facts. With the end of the East-West Cold War, development issues have come to the forefront of the agendas of governments. Faced with the rapid growth of the global population and the sharp deterioration of the ecological environment, human society is facing the reality of many crises. Countries are seeking ways and means to resolve the crisis. The study of population ecology is helpful to solve these problems. The development of this discipline worldwide will accelerate. ^[2]